Announcements

6 December 2013: The ESO Council, at its meeting this week in Garching, has approved the appointment of Roberto Tamai as Programme Manager for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), effective 1 February 2014. Roberto replaces Alistair McPherson who has very successfully steered the E-ELT project through its early stages. Alistair is returning to the United Kingdom as Deputy Director General/Head of Project for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), based at Jodrell Bank near Manchester. Roberto comes from Naples and was educated in Italy and at Berkeley, Calfornia. He started his career working on the ESA Hypersonic Plasma Wind Tunnel Project and subsequently has had a distinguished career at ESO, both in Chile and in Garching. In 1999 he moved to Paranal as a mechanical engineer and became the Head of the Engineering of Paranal Observatory, and then Deputy Director of the La Silla Paranal Observatory. In 2008 he moved back to Garching ...

24 October 2013: On Tuesday, 29 October 2013, Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque from the European Space Agency (ESA) will be an honoured guest during the meeting Science and Art — 50 Years of ESO in Chile. This event will serve as a kick-off for several cultural events with which the ESO and the Chilean embassies of ESO’s Member States will celebrate ESO’s 50th Anniversary in Chile and its key contributions to world astronomy (see ESO Top 10 Astronomical Discoveries). The event with Pedro Duque, who has travelled into space twice, will be held at the Centro Cultural de España, at 19:30, and is being organised by the Spanish Embassy. Pedro Duque will also have a public discussion with Enrique Rivera, President of Chilean Video Corporation and Director of the Biannual Celebration of Media Arts. “During these 50 years the Government of Chile and ESO have managed to build a scientific and cultural bridge ...

9 October 2013: ESO astronomer Joe Liske (a.k.a. Dr J, star of the Hubblecast and ESOcast video podcasts) will be visiting the Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP) in Portugal on 15 October, to give a talk on the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The talk will also be webcast live, so those unable to attend can still catch up on the latest news from the project. There will be facilities for live web chat on the website which will allow audience members at home to participate in the Q&A. During the talk, Dr J will provide a preview of the largest optical telescope ever, and will discuss the science and technology of this megaproject. What is dark energy? Are we alone in the Universe? What did the first galaxies look like? These are some of the most fundamental questions of our time, and it is hoped that the E-ELT will ...

18 September 2013: The press release this week, a new image of the Prawn Nebula, is a small milestone in itself — it is ESO’s 1000th press release. This impressive number is a reflection of ESO’s status as the most productive ground-based astronomy organisation in the world in terms of number of scientific papers produced [1]. On a coincidental note, this week also marks the release of ESO’s 10 000th scientific paper. The ESO outreach department, which is behind ESO’s public communication, was created in 1986, during the exciting period of the 1985–86 Halley apparition, making it one of the oldest astronomical outreach departments in the world. It started life with a somewhat different remit under the name of the ESO Information and Photographic Service (IPS, reflecting the origins of key staff in the former ESO Sky Atlas Laboratory). With growing experience came the realisation that information for the public was a commodity ...

12 September 2013: The winner of the 2013 European Astronomy Journalism Prize is author and astronomy journalist Stuart Clark for his piece When the dust unsettles. The article was featured in the weekly British science magazine New Scientist and looks at cosmic dust, the starting point for building whole planets and much else besides. The award was announced at the British Science Festival 2013 media reception, sponsored by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), on 11 September 2013. The competition aims to promote coverage of astronomy and space science to further engage the public in science. This is particularly important as astronomy and space science are regularly referred to as core reasons that people are inspired to take up careers in science. The prize for the competition is a trip to Chile to see ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced optical instrument. The five judges on the panel were representatives ...

31 July 2013: The full magnitude of the ALMA Observatory is revealed in these spectacular new images of the antenna array, surrounded by snow on the Chajnantor Plateau in northern Chile. The images were recently captured using a camera mounted on a hexacopter. The flight, which is being registered as a Guinness World Record for multi-rotor aircraft at high altitude, was achieved thanks to the remote-controlled aircraft’s lightweight carbon fibre platform. The hexacopter, which has six sets of rotors, also features autonomous functions that assist with navigation and allow the aircraft to return to its point of departure in the event of signal loss. "Before we arrived at the ALMA site there was no record of such a device flying so high. The low atmospheric pressure means that the lift from the propellers is greatly reduced," states photographer Ariel Marinkovic, who led the photography session. The only solution was to reduce the hexacopter’s ...

27 June 2013: On 27 June 2013, one of ESA’s astronauts, Pedro Duque, visited ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. He was received on his arrival by ESO’s Director General, Tim de Zeeuw. Duque is a member of ESA’s European Astronaut Corps, and currently is head of the Flight Operations Office located at the Columbus Control Centre near Munich. During the visit, Mr Duque was briefed about ESO’s programme and had the chance to tour the facilities at ESO Headquarters and see some of the instrumentation being developed in house, including hardware for the future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). After lunch with ESO representatives, Duque addressed a large audience of ESO staff and students about his experiences as an astronaut and his current work. As an ESA astronaut, Duque took part in two space missions. First as Mission Specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-95 mission, in 1998, and later in ...

3 June 2013: The European Astronomy Journalism Prize 2013 is launched today and this year has been expanded to now include entries from Europe and South America. The competition is run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the United Kingdom and ESO, in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society. "Astronomy is a global research discipline, and excites and inspires millions of people every day around the world, so we believe it's appropriate to expand the prize to recognise a broader range of inspirational coverage of astronomy," ESO's Head of Education and Public Outreach, Lars Lindberg Christensen, said today. STFC Head of Communications Terry O'Connor said the inaugural competition in 2012 was open only to entries published or broadcast in English in the United Kingdom, but has now been extended to entries in English from any ESO Member State. "We're delighted to work with ...

31 May 2013: On 30 May 2013 ESO signed a contract with the Danish company Ramboll for consultancy services to support ESO during the procurement and construction of the dome and main structure of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The actual dome and main structure contract itself will be the largest ever placed by ESO, and will cover not only the giant telescope enclosure, which is almost 100 metres in diameter (the size of the Colosseum in Rome), but also the massive precision components that form the telescope’s mounting and tube. This big contract to build the dome and main structure is expected to be awarded towards the end of 2014. To supplement ESO’s own in-house efforts and provide expert advice for this contract over a wide range of disciplines, Ramboll will follow the dome and main structure contract alongside ESO. “This is an extremely ambitious project with colossal challenges, both technically ...

7 May 2013: Representatives of the Portuguese government have confirmed today that their country will join the list of participants in the ESO European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) programme. Thirteen ESO Member States have now confirmed their full participation in what will be the leading project in ground-based astronomy in future decades. Portugal joined ESO in June 2000 and its membership was ratified by the Portuguese Parliament in May 2001. Portugal’s additional contribution to the E-ELT is valued at a total of about 5.1 million euros over the ten years of construction. “I am thrilled to see yet another step towards making the E-ELT project reality,” says Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, “With this important decision by Minister Crato, Portugal joins the list of Member States that will lead the advancement of ground-based astronomy in future decades. This decision will significantly benefit Portuguese astronomers, instrument builders and industry.” The E-ELT is considered ...

30 April 2013: On 16 May 2013, ESO will host an industry event for a Danish business delegation at its headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. This meeting will provide representatives of Danish companies and institutions with information about ESO and the potential opportunities that are available to take part in ESO’s industrial activities. Modern astronomical telescopes and instruments are composed of many elements, which have to be designed by engineers and scientists, and are produced by scientific and technological companies and institutes. ESO operates some of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world, and will start constructing the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in the near future — tasks that are only possible with the support of a strong network of external partners in industry. This could offer new opportunities for Danish enterprises and institutes to cooperate, bid for contracts and develop the innovative technology needed. On 12 April 2013 representatives ...

12 April 2013: Representatives of Denmark have confirmed that their country will participate in the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) programme. Twelve ESO Member States have now joined the E-ELT programme. Denmark joined the organisation in 1967, as the first new Member State three years after ESO’s foundation. The newly announced investment amounts to 8.5 million euros over the ten-year construction period. “This decision marks another important push forward for the E-ELT project,” comments Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, “Denmark is a long-standing member of ESO and with this decision it has taken an important step to keep Danish science and industry at the forefront of astronomy for future decades.” Denmark’s participation will be financed by the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education, as well as by the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University and the Technical University of Denmark. The three universities have agreed to finance the E-ELT additional contributions. ...

4 March 2013: Representatives of United Kingdom (UK) confirmed on 3 March 2013 that their country will participate in the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) programme. Eleven ESO Member States have now joined the E-ELT programme. The UK is a 16 per cent partner in ESO and the newly announced investment amounts to 88 million pounds (approximately 100 million euros) over the ten-year construction period. “This is a big step forward for the E-ELT project,” comments Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, “The United Kingdom has already contributed significantly to the design and UK astronomers and industry are well placed to make major contributions as the project enters its construction phase." The UK has led the development of the science case, as well as developing instrument designs, optical technologies and telescope systems, and developing manufacturing processes. The UK instrument programme will be delivered in close collaborations between Durham University, the University of Oxford, ...

4 March 2013: From 25 February until 1 March 2013, a major workshop on the future of instrumentation for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), entitled Shaping E-ELT Science and Instrumentation was organised by ESO in Garching, Germany. The E-ELT is a revolutionary ground-based telescope — it will have a 39-metre main mirror, and will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world upon its completion in the next decade. There was great interest in the meeting — so much so that the original plan to hold the sessions at ESO itself had to be abandoned and a larger local venue used — and more than 180 astronomers from around Europe attended. This conference aimed to gather insight and input from the science community on the future course of action for the E-ELT, and to consider which instruments should be chosen to follow the telescope’s two first-light instruments. In particular, the possible future ...

1 March 2013: ESO has just taken delivery of the last of a series of sophisticated optical and mechanical systems called star separators for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). These systems from the Dutch research institute TNO will allow the VLTI’s future instruments to observe much fainter objects than is possible at present. A bright star is needed as a reference so the VLTI can correct for the constantly changing atmospheric conditions and remain precisely adjusted to extremely high precision. Currently this bright star must also be the target of the observations, limiting the type of object that astronomers can study with the VLTI. But the new star separator technology allows two objects to be observed together: a bright star to track the atmosphere and a faint target to be studied. The corrections from the bright object are applied to the fainter one. Thanks to this development the reach of VLTI, using ...

27 February 2013: ESO has produced and released a brochure containing information on the operation of the state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities provided by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal, Chile. The publication, entitled Operating the Very Large Telescope, describes the end-to-end science operations process: how observing time on the VLT is allocated, the efficiency and flexibility of the process for obtaining some of this time; what it is like to observe at a world-class site like Paranal, and how the data are collected, stored and shared. The VLT’s observing schedule, as well as the collection and archiving of the gathered data, is managed by teams at the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany, and at the different ESO sites in Chile. The strong link between Garching and Chile, ESO’s host country, has enabled the VLT to develop from an idea into a very efficient science machine. As well as the VLT operations, astronomers ...

22 January 2013: On 22 January 2013 an ESO Industry Day was held at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting offered representatives of Polish companies and institutions information about ESO, and the potential opportunities — should Poland at some point join the organisation — to take part in its industrial activities. “We are delighted to have this opportunity to inform industry in Poland about ESO's current facilities and its challenging future plans,” said Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, at the opening of the meeting. "Many exciting opportunities for ESO's Member States will appear in the near future, both for scientists and for industry, now that the E-ELT programme has been fully approved by the ESO Council." Modern astronomical telescopes and detectors are composed of many elements, which have to be designed by engineers and scientists, and produced by scientific and technological companies and institutes. Observatories need advanced infrastructure ...

14 December 2012: On 6 June 2012 Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun and the planet appeared as a silhouette against the solar disc. Such a transit of Venus will not happen again until 5 December 2117. The recent transit could not be seen from ESO’s Chile observatories as the Sun was below the horizon. But, undaunted, a team of Italian astronomers led by Paolo Molaro of the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica at the University of Trieste used the opportunity to perform an unusual and challenging experiment, looking at the sunlight reflected off the Moon to see how it changed during the transit. This measurement, done with ESO's High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph installed on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile, could help scientists to find planets in orbit around other stars. The team has published their results in the journal Monthly Notices of ...

7 December 2012: On 6 December 2012 the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, Dr Heinz Fischer and his wife Margit Fischer, visited ESO’s premises in Santiago, Chile. The President was accompanied by Dorothea Auer, Austrian Ambassador to Chile and Friedrich Faulhammer, Secretary General of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. They were joined by several other Austrian government officials as well as a scientific and cultural delegation. The President and his entourage were met by ESO’s Representative in Chile, Massimo Tarenghi, and ESO staff including an Austrian astronomer at ESO, Christoph Saulder, who introduced them to the organisation and its activities. During his visit the President was given a short presentation about the 50-year history of ESO as well as the plans for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Austria joined ESO in June 2008 (eso0820) and since then Austrian astronomers have made extensive use of ESO facilities, including ALMA. ...

4 December 2012: At the 126th meeting of ESO’s governing body, the Council, this week at the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany, the start of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) programme received full approval, following the confirmation of three previously ad referendum votes (meaning that these votes were subject to confirmation by the authorities of those Member States), and one additional vote in favour, by the ESO Member State representatives. To approve the start of the E-ELT programme, two-thirds of the Member States (at least ten) had to vote in favour of the resolution for the approval of the E-ELT and its first suite of powerful instruments. At the last meeting of the ESO Council, in June 2012, ten Member States (Austria, the Czechia, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Italy, and the United Kingdom) voted in favour. However, the latter four Member States voted ad referendum. Of these ad referendum ...