1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:08,000 ESO’s La Silla Observatory, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:15,000 and became the largest astronomical observatory of its time, leading Europe to the frontline of astronomical research, 3 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,000 is still one of the most scientifically productive in ground-based astronomy. 4 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,000 This is the ESOcast! 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,000 Cutting-edge science and life behind the scenes of ESO, the European Southern Observatory. 6 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:38,000 Exploring the Universe’s ultimate frontier with our host Dr J, a.k.a. Dr Joe Liske. 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Hello and welcome to the ESOcast. 8 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000 In this episode, we’re going to celebrate an anniversary. 9 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,000 And quite an amazing one too. 10 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:53,000 One of the most successful ground-based astronomical observatories in the world, La Silla, is turning 40. 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:02,000 With about 300 refereed publications arising from the observatory per year, La Silla remains at the forefront of astronomy. 12 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:09,000 La Silla has led to an enormous number of scientific discoveries, including several ‘firsts’. 13 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:15,000 The HARPS spectrograph is the world’s foremost extrasolar planet hunter. 14 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000 It detected the system around Gliese 581 15 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:25,000 which contains what may be the first known rocky planet in a habitable zone, outside the Solar System. 16 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,000 Several telescopes at La Silla played a crucial role in linking gamma-ray bursts – 17 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000 the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang – with the explosions of massive stars. 18 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:44,000 Since 1987, the ESO La Silla Observatory has also played an important role in the study and follow-up 19 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000 of the nearest supernova, SN 1987A. 20 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:53,000 The La Silla Observatory is located at the edge of the Atacama Desert in Chile, 21 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,000 one of the driest and most isolated areas in the world. 22 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,000 This location is virtually free from sources of polluting light. 23 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000 And, like the Paranal Observatory, which houses the Very Large Telescope, 24 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,000 it has one of the darkest night skies on the planet. 25 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,000 At its heyday, La Silla was home to no fewer than 15 telescopes, 26 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:17,000 among them the first – and for a very long time, the only – telescope 27 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:22,000 working in submillimetric waves (the 15 metre SEST) in the southern hemisphere, 28 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000 which paved the way for APEX and ALMA, 29 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:29,000 and the Schmidt telescope, which completed the first photographic mapping of the southern sky. 30 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 The telescopes at La Silla have also supported countless space missions, 31 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:40,000 for example by obtaining the last images of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 before it crashed into Jupiter. 32 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,000 While some of the smaller telescopes have been closed over the years, 33 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:52,000 front-line observations continue with the larger telescopes, aided by new and improved astronomical instruments. 34 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:57,000 La Silla currently hosts two of the most productive 4-metre class telescopes in the world: 35 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:05,000 the 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope, the NTT, and the 3.6-metre ESO telescope. 36 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:15,000 The NTT really broke new ground for telescope engineering and design, hence the name. 37 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,000 It was the first telescope in the world to have active optics installed. 38 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,000 This is where you have a set of pistons attached to the back of the main mirror. 39 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 Now these pistons are computer controlled and they constantly maintain the shape of the main mirror 40 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,000 so that it can always produce the sharpest images possible. 41 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,000 Now this technology was first developed at ESO 42 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:39,000 and nowadays it is used at the VLT and most of the current large telescopes in the world. 43 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,000 In addition to active optics, the NTT’s dome was also a revolutionary design. 44 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:52,000 The La Silla site was chosen after years of challenging prospecting, partly on horseback, 45 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:59,000 in the Chilean Andes in the mid-60s by the first ESO Director General, Otto Heckmann, and several senior astronomers. 46 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:05,000 In the following years, the site was developed and the first mid-sized telescopes were erected. 47 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:13,000 Today the La Silla infrastructure is also used by many of the ESO member states for targeted projects 48 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:21,000 such as the Swiss 1.2-metre Euler telescope, the Rapid Eye Mount and TAROT gamma-ray burst chasers, 49 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:29,000 as well as more common user facilities such as the 2.2-metre Max-Planck and the 1.5-metre Danish telescopes. 50 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:34,000 The amazing 67-million-pixel Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre telescope 51 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:41,000 has taken many impressive images of celestial objects, some of which have now become icons of their own. 52 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,000 La Silla was ESO’s first observatory in Chile 53 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,000 and was the start of a very long and fruitful collaboration with that country and its scientific community. 54 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,000 This is Dr J signing off for the ESOcast. 55 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Join me again next time for another cosmic adventure. 56 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,000 ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. www.eso.org 57 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,000 ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy 58 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,000 designing, constructing and operating the world's most advanced ground-based telescopes. 59 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,000 Transcription by ESO ; translation by —