Best Observatory

Founded in Greenwich in 1675, the Royal Observatory connected astronomical observation with the practical demands of navigation. Its ground-based optical observations helped improve knowledge of stellar positions and supported the development of accurate timekeeping. The Greenwich meridian and Green...

Launched in 2009, the European Space Agency's Planck observatory studied the universe in microwave light. Its central target was the cosmic microwave background, the faint radiation left from the early universe. Mapping small differences in this radiation across the sky allowed scientists to test mo...

Established in the 1420s at Samarkand, in present-day Uzbekistan, Ulugh Beg's observatory was a major center of astronomy under the Timurid ruler. Its observers measured the heavens before the invention of the telescope, using large instruments with sighting devices and carefully marked scales. A mo...

Set in a natural depression in China's Guizhou province, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, observes the universe through radio signals rather than visible light. Its 500-meter reflector makes it the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. The broad collecting surface...

The Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) operated from 1983 to 1989. This joint US, UK, and Dutch space mission conducted the first comprehensive all-sky survey using infrared light. Its data significantly advanced understanding of star formation, galaxy evolution, and the distribution of dust in our...

The Square Kilometre Array is an international ground-based radio astronomy project with two main telescopes under construction in Western Australia and South Africa. SKA-Low uses large numbers of small antennas, while SKA-Mid uses dish antennas. Each array combines signals through interferometry, a...

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an enormous ground-based optical and infrared observatory located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Its suite of telescopes allows astronomers to study celestial objects with unprecedented detail. It's a key instrument for the European Southern Observatory, utilized by res...

Launched in 1997, Cassini-Huygens combined an orbiting spacecraft with a probe designed to descend through Titan's atmosphere. The joint NASA, ESA and Italian Space Agency mission studied Saturn and its system, including the planet's rings and moons. Cassini supplied sustained observations from orbi...

A steerable dish measuring 100 by 110 meters makes the Green Bank Telescope a major instrument for radio astronomy. Located in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, it uses an offset Gregorian design that keeps supporting structures out of the main collecting area. Completed in 2000, it observes radio e...

Built between 1576 and 1580 on Hven, then under Danish control and now part of Sweden, Uraniborg was Tycho Brahe's Renaissance observatory and research complex. It predates the astronomical telescope. Instead, Brahe used large precision instruments to measure celestial positions with the naked eye,...

Founded in 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard College Observatory is one of the United States' older astronomical research institutions. Its history includes major work on stellar spectra, the patterns in starlight used to classify stars. Under Edward Charles Pickering's directorship from 187...

The Gaia observatory is a space-based mission operated by the European Space Agency. It meticulously surveys our galaxy, the Milky Way, producing an unprecedented three-dimensional map through astrometry. This data allows astronomers to determine the positions and motions of over one billion stars w...

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FASTA) is a ground-based radio observatory located in Guizhou Province, China. It’s notable as the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope, facilitating research into astronomical phenomena such as pulsars and other celestial objects emitt...

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a powerful radio telescope located in Chile's Atacama Desert. It utilizes an international collaboration to observe celestial objects at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. ALMA’s high sensitivity allows astronomers to study the format...

The Mauna Kea Massif is a massive dormant shield volcano located on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is highly distinguished by its physical scale, measuring approximately 4,205 meters above sea level but extending over 10,000 meters from its oceanic base to its summit, making it one of the tallest moun...

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in the United Kingdom tasked with building and operating radio telescope networks. The project features sites in South Africa, utilizing dish antennas for mid-frequency observations, and in Australia, ut...

The Kepler Space Telescope was a NASA observatory launched in 2009. It monitored over 150,000 stars for dips in brightness caused by planets passing in front of them – a technique called the transit method. This allowed scientists to identify and characterize numerous exoplanets, particularly those...

The LIGO Livingston Observatory is a ground-based gravitational wave detector located in Livingston, Louisiana. It’s notable for being one of the first observatories to directly detect ripples in spacetime predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. This facility primarily serves researche...

The LIGO Hanford Observatory is a critical component of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Located in Washington State, it’s a ground-based observatory designed to detect minute changes in spacetime caused by gravitational waves. This data helps scientists investigate ca...

The Geneva Observatory (Observatoire de Genève) is a Swiss astronomical research facility located in Sauverny, Switzerland. It is most famous as the institution where astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b, in 1995, earning the...

The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of twin 6.5-meter optical reflecting telescopes located at the Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The two instruments, named after astronomers Walter Baade and Landon Clay, achieved their first light in 2000 and 2002, respectively. They are op...

The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA observatory spacecraft investigating the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. Launched in 2018, it utilizes an innovative design to repeatedly approach closer to the Sun than ever before. This allows scientists to study solar activity and its effects on the heliospher...

Gemini South is an 8.1-meter optical/infrared astronomical observatory located on Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes. It is operated by a multi-national partnership and serves as the southern hemisphere counterpart to the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The facility is utilized by researchers to st...

Super-Kamiokande is an underground neutrino observatory situated in Japan. It’s recognized globally for its scale and ability to detect extremely faint neutrinos produced by distant cosmic events and radioactive decay. This facility uses a vast water tank containing thousands of photomultiplier tube...

The Paranal Observatory is a key component of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Located in Chile's Atacama Desert, it houses multiple cutting-edge instruments capable of observing both optical and infrared light. This allows astronomers to study distant stars, galaxies,...

KamLAND, short for the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector, is a large experimental facility located deep underground in the Kamioka Mine in Hida, Japan. It is designed to detect low-energy antineutrinos emitted by nuclear reactors operating across Japan. Beginning in 2002, the data co...

Gemini North is an 8.1-meter optical and infrared astronomical telescope situated near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It operates as the northern hemisphere counterpart to the Gemini South telescope, which is located in Chile, allowing the twin facilities to collectively observe the entire celes...

The Maragheh Observatory was a medieval astronomical facility established in 1259 in the city of Maragheh, located in present-day Iran. It was founded by the Mongol ruler Hulagu Khan and directed by the astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, attracting scholars from across the Islamic world. The observato...

The South Pole Telescope is a 10-meter diameter microwave and millimeter-wave observatory located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. It began observations in 2007 and is designed to conduct surveys of the cosmic microwave background. Astronomers utilize its data to detect massiv...