Announcements

30 September 2024: Today, at a ceremony near Munich, staff from ESO and German company TOPTICA celebrated the completion of the last laser source of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Lasers for the GRAVITY+ upgrade to ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) have also been completed. The ELT will be equipped with six powerful lasers [1] that will excite sodium atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere, creating artificial stars. These ‘stars’ are used to measure the blurring caused by the atmosphere so that the ELT’s adaptive mirrors can correct for it. By employing sophisticated "adaptive-optics" systems, the telescope and its instruments can obtain sharper images than any other ground-based telescope. TOPTICA, in partnership with the Canadian company MPB Communications Inc. (MPBC), has just completed production of a series of 9 laser sources, which generate the laser light. Six of these will be used on the ELT and three on GRAVITY+, an extensive upgrade being ...

6 October 2021: The largest adaptive mirror ever built, the M4 mirror for ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), has reached an important milestone in its development: all six petal-shaped segments that make up the mirror are now completed. M4, the fourth mirror in the light path of the telescope, can change shape quickly and very precisely, and is a key part of the ELT’s adaptive optics system. Light from cosmic objects is distorted by our planet’s atmosphere, producing blurred images. To correct for these distortions, the ELT will use advanced adaptive-optics hardware and software, some of which has been specially developed for the telescope. This includes powerful lasers that create artificial reference stars when there aren’t stars bright enough close to the object of interest to allow measurements of atmospheric distortions, and fast and accurate sensing cameras that measure these distortions. The measurements are then passed to extremely fast real-time computers that ...

31 August 2021: A powerful experimental laser, based on ESO technology, passed a key test last month at the Allgäuer VolksSternwarte Ottobeuren observatory in Germany. The adaptive-optics laser, developed in collaboration with industry, has important additional capabilities compared to existing systems. It will be part of the CaNaPy Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system set to be installed at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Optical Ground Station in Tenerife, Spain, in the frame of the ESO–ESA Research & Development collaboration. The higher laser power, nearly three times higher than in current systems, opens the door for developments in laser satellite communication, as well as significant improvements in the sharpness of astronomical images taken with ground-based telescopes. Astronomical adaptive optics refers to systems on ground-based telescopes that correct for the blurring effect brought about by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere — the same effect that causes stars seen from Earth to “twinkle”. To remove ...

18 September 2018: The pioneering work of ESO’s Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) team has been recognised by the Optical Society (OSA). The AOF team have been awarded the 2018 Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award. They received the OSA prize during the Frontiers in Optics (FiO) + Laser Science (LS) Awards Ceremony held on 17 September, in Washington DC, USA. The team was awarded the prize for equipping Yepun, the 8.2-metre Unit Telescope 4 of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, with Adaptive Optics. The AOF was a major project to improve the vision of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) and the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I) instruments by providing them with the ability to compensate for the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere [1]. The precise and complex engineering behind the AOF has now been recognised with the Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award, which was received by Elise Vernet, ...

18 December 2017: ESO has signed a new agreement with TOPTICA, the German photonics company, for the production of lasers to be used in ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) adaptive optics system. TOPTICA [1], in partnership with the Canadian company MPB Communications Inc. (MPBC) [2], will build at least four laser sources for the ELT [3], helping the telescope to achieve unprecedented spatial resolution for an optical/infrared ground-based telescope. The ELT is scheduled to see first light in 2024. The laser system for the adaptive optics system on the ELT will be based on the Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The Adaptive Optics Facility, which uses the 4LGSF, has already shown spectacular improvement in image sharpness on the VLT (eso1724). The TOPTICA/MPBC Guide Star Alliance was the main contractor for the laser system on the VLT (eso1613). Adaptive optics compensate for the blurring effect of the ...

12 September 2016: Seven ESO staff are amongst the group of individuals awarded third place in the prestigious Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis. The group receiving the award includes staff from the companies Toptica and MPB Communications, in addition to those from ESO. These researchers and developers worked together on the Laser Source of the Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF), now operating on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). An important part of the laser technology involved was initially developed at ESO and then brought to industrial engineering levels by Toptica and MPB. The advancement and acknowledgement of outstanding development and scientific work on the application or generation of laser light is one of the objectives of the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung. Since 2000 this prize, which the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung awards every two years, has recognised scientists and technicians who make exceptional advances in the field of laser technology. The ESO staff, both former and ...

21 March 2016: On 26 April 2016 an event will be held at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to mark the first light of a new laser unit on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Members of the press are invited to attend the event (at their own cost), and those who wish to do so are asked complete this RSVP form. The event will include an optional visit to Cerro Armazones, the future home of the European Extremely Large Telescope. Known as the Four Laser Guide Stars Facility (4LGSF), the new system will use four lasers to create artificial guide stars anywhere in the sky, permitting the adaptive optics systems to compensate for the blurring caused by the Earth’s atmosphere. ESO and industry partners have together built the brightest laser guide stars used on any telescope. They will extend the VLT’s ability to produce some of the sharpest images of celestial objects available from ...

27 November 2015: All four laser guide star units that form the Four Laser Guide Star Facility — a core part of the Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) for ESO’s Very Large Telescope — have now been accepted and are being shipped to Chile. This is a major step towards establishing VLT Unit Telescope 4 as a fully adaptive telescope with much enhanced image quality. An adaptive optics system uses sensors to analyse the atmospheric turbulence and a deformable mirror integrated in the telescope to correct for the image distortions caused by the atmosphere. But a bright point-like star very close in the sky to the object being studied is essential, so that the turbulence can be accurately characterised. Finding a natural star in the right place for this role is unlikely. So, to make the correction of the atmospheric turbulence possible everywhere in the sky, for all possible science targets, an artificial star ...

9 June 2015: ESO has signed an agreement to license its cooling system technology to the Spanish company FRACTAL SLNE. This follows earlier technology transfer agreements regarding the licensing of cutting-edge laser technology that were made by ESO in 2010 [1]. Such licences offer significant opportunities both for industry and for ESO. Continuous flow cooling systems were first developed at ESO for the cooling of instruments and detectors for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The technology has been used intensively during the last decade. Continuous flow systems are more compact than traditional systems that use a bath of very cold liquid, but share the advantage of being vibration free [2]. The continuous flow system allows the temperature within an instrument to be changed from room temperature to –193 degrees Celsius and is not affected by the loss of electrical power. As a result, the instrument can be kept very close to its operating ...

24 March 2014: A new 22-watt laser has now been accepted from the system supplier TOPTICA and its partner MPB following nearly five years of sustained collaboration and effort (see ann1045, ann1048, ann11039, ann12012 and ESOcast 34). This laser system will form part of the Adaptive Optics Facility at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) [1]. This laser, and four further similar units (including one spare) that will be delivered later, constitute key elements of the new facility and this acceptance marks a major step forward for the project. Five years ago the options for obtaining high power, reliable lasers in a compact format suitable for the requirements of the Adaptive Optics Facility were very limited. But now new technology and dedicated research and development have changed the landscape. After three months of acceptance testing at ESO, the project team was very happy with the performance of the new hardware, which holds great promise ...

22 June 2011: Last night, ESO’s Wendelstein laser guide star unit had its first light at the Allgäu Public Observatory in Ottobeuren, Germany. Laser guide stars are artificial stars created high up in the Earth’s atmosphere using a laser beam with a power of several watts. The laser, in this case a powerful 20 watt yellow beam (operating at 589 nm), makes the sodium atoms in a layer 90 kilometres up in the atmosphere glow and so creates an artificial star in the sky that can be observed by a telescope. The adaptive optics equipment can then use measurements of the artificial star to correct for the blurring effect of the atmosphere in the observations.ESO has developed a concept for compact laser guide star units, whereby small powerful lasers are combined with a telescope that launches the beam, creating a single modular unit that can be mounted directly on a large telescope. This ...

12 August 2010: The European Southern Observatory has signed an agreement to license its cutting-edge laser technology to two commercial partners, Toptica Photonics and MPB Communications. This marks the first time that ESO has transferred patented technology and know-how to the private sector, offering significant opportunities both for business and for ESO. The two agreements will serve as test-cases for a new strategy for ESO’s Technology Transfer activities. ESO Raman fibre amplifier technology [1] was developed in-house for use in sodium laser guide stars. These form part of the adaptive optics systems that make ESO’s Very Large Telescope one of the world’s premier astronomical observatories. Since the technology also has wide potential beyond its use in adaptive optics, ESO has chosen to disseminate the technology by offering non-exclusive licensing deals to potentially interested commercial users. Technology transfer encourages the widespread use of ESO’s know-how, meaning that business benefits from a regulated access to ...

28 July 2010: ESO has signed a large contract to deliver sodium lasers for the new Adaptive Optics Facility for the Very Large Telescope at Paranal. Laser guide stars are used as part of adaptive optics equipment to help telescopes correct for atmospheric effects. This new facility will let astronomers make sharper observations, over more of the sky and in a broader range of conditions than is possible at present. Following a competitive design study, ESO has awarded the contract to build the lasers to Toptica Photonics AG, a German laser manufacturer. The lasers will be based on a novel Raman fibre amplification technology developed by the Laser Systems Department at ESO. This allows the lasers to be lighter, cheaper, more compact and more reliable than would be possible with competing technologies. Laser guide stars work by projecting a powerful laser beam to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The beam excites the ...