"Journey of Sound to the Brain" – an animated explanatory video about the human hearing or auditory system. It illustrates how sounds travel to the inner ear, and then to the brain, where they are interpreted and understood. The cochlea in the inner ear is a spiral-shaped organ that contains hair cells, which sense sound vibrations. Hair cells convert sound vibrations into chemical signals that the auditory nerve can understand.
In mid-August 2010 ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky snapped this amazing photo at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. A group of astronomers were observing the centre of the Milky Way using the laser guide star facility at Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). (POTD)