Announcements

3 May 2018: ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has reached an important milestone with the publication of the 1000th peer-reviewed paper using ALMA data. The paper was Spatial variations in Titan's atmospheric temperature: ALMA and Cassini comparisons from 2012 to 2015 by Alexander E. Thelen et al. — which presents a detailed investigation of the atmospheric temperature of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The data behind the work of Thelen et al. was originally taken to help calibrate the telescope and have been available since 2013. ALMA data is archived online, meaning many discoveries by different researchers can be made from a single observational programme, or from data taken for an entirely different purpose, as is the case here. The full range of papers presenting observations and discoveries using ALMA data is also available online from the ESO telbib database [1]. The ALMA bibliography is jointly maintained by the librarians at ESO and ...

19 April 2018: ESO has signed a contract with VDL ETG Projects B.V. (the Netherlands) for the manufacture, assembly, testing and delivery of the Segment Support Mechanics for the primary mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The segment supports together act as the backbone of the primary mirror, holding each of the 798 mirror segments in place. Sensors and actuators monitor and control each segment’s shape and position to very high accuracy. The contract was signed by Harrie Schonewille, Managing Director of VDL ETG Projects, Willem van der Leegte, President VDL and Xavier Barcons, Director General of ESO, at a ceremony at ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany on 19 April 2018. When completed, the ELT’s primary mirror (M1) will be 39 metres in diameter and will consist of 798 hexagonal mirror segments. The hexagonal shape means that a common support structure can be used for all segments. Each segment will be connected ...

18 April 2018: On 28 April 2018, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre will open its doors to the public. The inauguration of the centre will be celebrated with a series of events dedicated to its community of partners, supporters, neighbours and friends. In its first quarter, the centre has prepared a starry line-up of activities for its visitors. On 26 April we will host a press conference at the ESO Supernova, where media representatives will have the opportunity to learn more about the new planetarium and visitor centre, interview representatives from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and participate in an exhibition tour and planetarium show. On the evening of the same day, an event will bring together the founders of the ESO Supernova, the extended team of architects, exhibition designers and project managers, as well as representatives from ...

10 April 2018: On 27 April 2018, ESO is inviting all digital enthusiasts to meet the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, a new cutting-edge astronomy centre for the public that will open its doors the next day. The Meet #ESOSupernova event is aimed at keen social media users, passionate bloggers and other digital content creators from both the local community (Munich, Bavaria and Germany) and the European and international community. The event is organised in Garching, near Munich in Germany, at the Headquarters of the European Southern Observatory, where the ESO Supernova is also located. The planned language of the event is German, but depending on the participants attending, English may also be used. From 09:00 until 13:00, event participants will have the chance to enjoy an immersive experience at the ESO Supernova. A special exhibition tour will give participants the opportunity to test our exhibits. They will also become familiarised with ...

5 April 2018: Over the past months, the ESO Supernova team has been preparing the programme for the new Planetarium & Visitor Centre, due to open to the public on 28 April 2018. We are delighted to announce that a printed version of the programme is now available, in addition to the online version which can be used to book activities directly. The programme contains information about the range of planetarium shows, guided tours and educational workshops offered by the ESO Supernova. It also features special public events such as science talks, concerts and much more. For more information, see the press release about the online version of the programme. The printed programme will be distributed to various tourism outlets, hotels and other partners, to ensure that our incredible Planetarium & Visitor Centre reaches as broad an audience as possible. It will also be available in the ESO Supernova itself and can be ...

3 April 2018: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in print. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials and projects in science education, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books and other resources, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and everyone else involved in European science education. Some of the highlights of this issue include: an interview with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer; an article about the iron-eating bacteria on the wreck of the Titanic; and 10 things you might not know about fracking. Teaching activities include: colourful redox reactions using lollipops; and a set of challenges involving bouncing and falling objects to investigate simple physics principles. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European intergovernmental scientific research ...

29 March 2018: The latest edition of ESO's quarterly journal, The Messenger, is now available online. Find out the latest news from ESO on topics ranging from new instruments to the latest science discoveries. Highlights of this edition include: 40+ Years of Instrumentation for ESO End-to-End Operations in the ELT Era The VLTI Roadmap The ELT in 2017: The Year of the Primary Mirror Exploring the Sun with ALMA The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Band Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES) Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy. This product is also available in the ESOshop.

29 March 2018: ESO will host a press conference on 26 April 2018 at 13:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre on the occasion of its inauguration. The media will be introduced to the facility and there will be opportunities for interviews. There will also be a tour of the exhibition as well as a planetarium show. The press conference will be in German, but there will be opportunities for interviews in English and material will be provided in both languages where possible. This invitation is addressed exclusively to media representatives. To participate in the conference, bona fide members of the media must register by completing an online form. Space is limited so we recommend early registration. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cutting-edge astronomy centre for the public and an educational facility. The centre hosts the largest tilted planetarium ...

26 March 2018: Applications for the ESO-supported Summer AstroCamp 2018 will open on 1 April. AstroCamp is an academic programme in the field of astronomy and physics that aims to stimulate curiosity and critical thinking, organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP). The camp takes place from 5–19 August 2018 in a secluded and tranquil setting, away from the stresses of urban centres. The programme is intended for secondary school students from European Union countries, in one of their final three years of education before university. Students of all backgrounds will come together and take two courses consisting of daily lessons, assignments, and a final exam. Some further highlights include: Observing the dark night skies with the naked eye and telescopes (including the Perseid meteor shower); Skyping with astronomers and physicists from different countries; A computational project, working with data from the world’s best telescopes; Social activities such ...

23 March 2018: The French optics company Safran Reosc has completed the first of six shells that will comprise the M4 deformable mirror system, which forms a fundamental part of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). When complete, the adaptive M4 mirror will be 2.4 metres in diameter but only 1.95 millimetres thick. This very thin mirror is one of the five main mirrors of the ELT’s optical system, with the main segmented mirror being 39 metres in diameter. Safran Reosc are manufacturing all six of the deformable shell mirrors that comprise the M4 mirror. Together, these 60-degree petal sections form the circular segmented M4 mirror. They will be mounted and supported in the adaptive mirror unit. Meanwhile, the Italian consortium AdOptica is manufacturing the complex adaptive support system needed for the M4. Deformable mirrors, such as the M4 mirror of the ELT, are key components of adaptive optics systems, which help reduce the ...

23 March 2018: The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre offers unique venue alternatives for event organisers in Munich. Our events brochure provides information about the spaces for hire and the available services. The centre can cater for events ranging from conferences, meetings, and workshops to cocktail parties and other evening events. The centre has two highlights in terms of venue alternatives. The 360-degree planetarium offers an immersive and spectacular environment. The Void is a spherical room displaying the Milky Way Galaxy on its walls, and its star roof can light up with the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. Other spaces include the 2200 m2 exhibition area, two seminar rooms and the open-air rooftop terrace from which the Alps are visible on a clear day. Any event for which the ESO Supernova is chosen as the host venue will benefit from parking, cloakroom access, and wifi throughout the building. We can also recommend ...

21 March 2018: Over the past months, the ESO Supernova team has been keenly working on the preparation of the programme for the exciting new planetarium and visitor centre, due to open to the public on 28 April 2018. We are delighted to announce that the programme is now available online. The programme contains lots of information about the range of planetarium shows, guided tours and educational workshops offered by the ESO Supernova. It also features special public events such as science talks, concerts and much more. The programme allows you to click on each show, tour or event to find out more information and to book your place. In 2018 all activities are free, but bookings are necessary. After booking, tickets can be printed using the ESO Supernova on-site ticket kiosks. The planetarium shows on offer — which are all free of charge — can guide you through the highlights of the ...

21 March 2018: ESO has signed a contract with the Spanish company IDOM Consulting, Engineering, Architecture SAU for the production of a major new component of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. The Prefocal Station will direct the light collected by the telescope’s huge optical system into science instruments and other test equipment. It also contains parts of the active optics system of the telescope [1]. The contract was signed by Luis Rodríguez, President of IDOM, and the ESO Director General, Xavier Barcons, at a ceremony at ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany, on 21 March 2018. As well as representatives of the company and ESO staff, the Consul General of Spain in Munich, Francisco Pascual de la Parte, was also welcomed to the ceremony. The Prefocal Station is a massive structure, standing over 12 metres high, which sits on one of the two platforms on either side of the Extremely Large Telescope’s giant tube structure. ...

21 March 2018: School students from around the world are invited to take part in the 2018 Catch a Star contest. This is a European astronomical writing contest, with prizes that will leave students starry-eyed! To participate, students should submit a written report on an astronomical topic of their own choice — for example, an astronomical object, phenomenon, observation, scientific problem or theory. Reports must be written in English and be no more than 5000 words in length. Contestants may work in groups of up to three students, plus a group leader who is not a student. Each submission must be emailed as a PDF file to astro.edu@gmail.com. The deadline for all entries is 17:00 CET on 14 December 2018. There will be five lucky winners chosen, and each winner will have the chance to carry out their own remote observations at the National Astronomical Observatory “Rozhen”, Bulgaria, or to hold a video ...

12 March 2018: At its meeting on 7 March 2018, ESO Council decided to clarify the status of Brazil’s current relationship with the Organisation, for the benefit of both Brazil and ESO and their respective astronomical communities. Brazil’s accession to ESO was unanimously approved by ESO Council on 21 December 2010. To support Brazil in the period before ratification was completed, the Accession Agreement contained a series of interim arrangements. These offered, among others, the possibility for Brazilian industries to participate in ESO calls for tender (for contracts awarded after ratification), and for astronomers in Brazilian institutes to apply for observing time for ESO’s telescopes on the same basis as those from ESO Member States. The Accession Agreement was approved by the National Congress of Brazil on 14 May 2015, however, the conclusion of the accession process is still pending. Noting that the completion of the Accession Agreement is unlikely to happen in ...

12 March 2018: ESO has signed a contract with the engineering and construction company Abengoa Chile to build the ELT Technical Facility at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. This new facility will host the assembly and maintenance facilities for the mirrors of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), as well as all the coating, washing and stripping facilities needed to coat and maintain the reflectivity of the mirrors. The primary mirror of the ELT will consist of 798 separate reflective segments [1]. At the ELT Technical Facility, the polished segment assemblies will be coated and integrated with the edge sensors on the sides of each segment, to detect the position of each segment relative to its neighbours [2]. Once the telescope is complete and in operation, each segment of the primary mirror will need recoating every 1.5 years to ensure its cleanliness and reflectivity. As there are 798 segments, the most efficient way ...

8 March 2018: The latest survey of peer-reviewed scientific papers published during 2017 has shown that ESO remains the world’s most productive ground-based observatory. Astronomers used observational data from ESO facilities to produce an all-time high of 1085 refereed papers last year. This is the first time in ESO’s history that the number of refereed articles published by the ESO users community has exceeded 1000 papers in a single year. The largest contribution to the total is the 629 papers credited to ESO in 2017 that used data acquired with either the Very Large Telescope (VLT) or the VLT Interferometer facilities on Cerro Paranal. The three most productive VLT instruments in terms of papers are UVES, FORS2 and X-shooter, which featured in 133, 106 and 103 papers, respectively. The X-shooter and MUSE instruments saw large increases from the previous year, along with VIMOS, VISIR and the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). Data from the ...

9 February 2018: Sprawling across the Atacama Desert, 66 antennas work in unison with extraordinary precision to make the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Together, these antennas capture images similar to what could be achieved using a single telescope measuring up to 16 kilometres in diameter. This ESOcast brings you sweeping views of the ALMA telescope, the largest millimetre/sub-millimetre telescope in the world, as it searches for our cosmic origins. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts on iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo. Many other ESOcast episodes are also available. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles to the ESOcast in multiple languages. ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

9 February 2018: Since the very first people looked up at a star-filled sky we have been awestruck by the vastness of the cosmos. Even today we remain humbled by the immensity of space, as we have become more aware of the tremendous distances involved — even to our closest neighbouring stars. Created by Garik Israelian, a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), the Starmus Festival is a combination of science, art and music that has featured presentations from astronauts, cosmonauts, Nobel Prize winners and other prominent figures from science, culture, the arts and music. ESO is a partner organisation of Starmus. Starmus was inaugurated by Neil Armstrong in 2011 and previous Starmus festivals were held in 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2017. So far Starmus has hosted 21 Nobel laureates, many astronauts, and musicians including Hans Zimmer, Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Sarah Brightman and Brian Eno. Now celebrating ...

9 February 2018: The 23rd issue of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal is out now! In this issue you will find papers on the methodology of applying experimental psychology to astronomy studies, using food to conduct astronomy outreach and language issues faced when conducting an international campaign. The latest issue will also look in the plans for the International Astronomical Union’s 100th anniversary in 2019. All of this, and more, is featured in this free, peer-reviewed journal for astronomy communicators — available now for download.