Announcements

29 June 2023: The ESO-Government of Chile Joint Committee has opened its funding opportunities for the year 2023. Since 1995 the Committee has been considering and financing proposals that contribute to the development of astronomy in Chile, and funds of more than 450 million Chilean pesos (over 500 000 Euros) will be allocated this year. The criteria for awarding funds will consider the merit of the projects, the strategic priorities determined by the Committee, the correspondence between the amount requested and the scope of the projects, as well as the background of the applicants. This fund will support programmes related to the following areas: Postdoctoral programmes and scientific visits of one to three months for postdocs, researchers, or senior faculty from academic institutions in Chile. Academic positions for periods of up to two years in Chilean institutions. Development and presentation of educational programmes for the teaching and dissemination of astronomy in Chile. Programmes ...

25 May 2023: The first episode of a new monthly show, hosted by ESO astronomer Suzanna Randall, is being released today on the ESO YouTube channel. Chasing Starlight will present exciting astronomy stories in accessible language to online audiences interested in science and engineering. The opening episode is dedicated to one of the world’s most advanced telescopes, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which turns 25 this week. To celebrate the anniversary, Randall is presenting her top 5 VLT science breakthroughs, which include observing first light from a gravitational-wave source and taking the first image of an exoplanet. Chasing Starlight’s home is the revamped ESO YouTube channel, which now features curated playlists dedicated to different ESO, astronomy and engineering topics. One of the playlists is devoted to ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), a facility currently under construction in the Atacama Desert, just a few kilometres away from the VLT. Another playlist, Wonders of the ...

25 May 2023: ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), one of the world’s most advanced optical telescopes, celebrates its 25th anniversary today. Over the last two and a half decades, from its home in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the VLT has made a profound impact on our understanding of the Universe, with several remarkable firsts. ESO’s VLT is the flagship facility for European ground-based optical astronomy. It consists of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors 8.2 metres in diameter and four movable 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes that form part of the VLT Interferometer. On 25 May 1998, the Unit Telescope UT1 (Antu) obtained its first images, starting a new era for astronomy. Since then, astronomers have produced over 10 000 scientific papers using data collected by VLT telescopes, an average of more than one peer-reviewed paper per day. Some of the key research done with the help of the VLT includes studying the supermassive black hole ...

15 May 2023: After nearly half a century in publication, ESO’s journal of science and technology, The Messenger, is making a jump into the digital world by becoming an online-only publication. The move coincides with the publication of the new issue of the journal, its 190th. First launched in May 1974, The Messenger serves as a key link between ESO and its broad astronomical community, providing updates about scientific, technical and other developments from the organisation. Beyond the confines of the ESO community, the journal shares exciting astronomy news and updates on related technologies to a broader public, including policy-makers, journalists, teachers, and amateur astronomers, as well as to interested scientists from other fields. As the scope and content of The Messenger has evolved over the years, so too has the way it reaches its readers. Digital issues were first introduced in the early 2000s and since then the complete archive has been ...

10 May 2023: Observations conducted at ESO’s observatories led to more than 1000 scientific papers in 2022. Despite the fact that ESO’s observing sites were closed or operated with reduced capacity for several months during the pandemic, the number of refereed papers remained remarkably stable. A recent report by the ESO Library and Information Centre shows that this is the sixth year in a row that the number of papers has exceeded 1000. The most significant contributions to these publications come from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) at Paranal Observatory, which led to more than 580 refereed papers. Highlights include the discovery of a new kind of stellar explosion called micronova and spying on a supermassive black hole hiding in a ring of dust. For the last three years, the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) has been the most productive VLT instrument, a trend which has continued in ...

8 May 2023: Join us on 12 May, from 16:00 CEST, for a live streaming on Facebook and YouTube on two of the instruments of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT): the Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) and Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations (MICADO). During the event, we will premiere two mini-documentaries on the instruments, followed by a Q&A session with the experts behind them. Participants can ask questions on Twitter using #askESO, as well as live on Facebook and YouTube. Click Going/Interested on Facebook and Notify me on YouTube, respectively, to be prompted when the live show starts. ESO’s ELT is a revolutionary ground-based telescope that will have a 39-metre main mirror, making it the largest visible and infrared light telescope in the world. The ELT will tackle some of the biggest scientific challenges of our time. To achieve that, the ELT will be equipped with a lineup of cutting-edge instruments. ...

3 May 2023: A new report by an international consortium of leading astronomers, including ESO staff, sets out recommendations to transform our understanding of the Universe in the next decade. The ASTRONET Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap 2022-2035 is the latest comprehensive roadmap produced by the ASTRONET network of European funding agencies, communities and research organisations. The roadmap establishes key priorities, such as understanding the origin of the Universe and the evolution of planets in our Solar System, as well as making recommendations on the facilities and resources needed to meet these priorities. A continued supply of highly trained and motivated researchers will also be fundamental to progress and societal engagement. Among the major proposed European investments, which include the Einstein Telescope (a gravitational-wave observatory) and the European Solar Telescope, the new report mentions that “completion of the construction and commissioning of the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and its first generation instruments ...

13 March 2023: 13 March 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the world’s largest radio telescope—the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. Over the past decade, ALMA has revolutionised our understanding of the Universe by revealing new insights into the formation of planets, stars, and galaxies; deciphering the chemistry of the Cosmos; and has been a crucial component in obtaining the first images of black holes. To mark this milestone, ALMA celebrates today with Chilean authorities, ambassadors, representatives of the scientific community and local communities at the observatory site near San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. The ceremony and an accompanying art performance will be live streamed through ALMA Social Networks and website. "ALMA has transformed our understanding of the Universe and opened new research frontiers," said Dr Sean Dougherty, Director of ALMA. "We are very proud of the accomplishments of the past decade and excited about the ...

12 March 2023: On March 12, Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, visited the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) on the Chilean Andes. ALMA is the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence, and is operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) together with international partners. During the visit, Vestager was accompanied Xavier Barcons, ESO Director General, and Luis Chavarría, ESO Representative in Chile. She visited ALMA to learn more about its operations and scientific results. In particular, Vestager was interested in the international nature of the ALMA operations and how the ESO Member States contribute to ALMA’s success and scientific goals. The ALMA telescope array consists of 66 high-precision antennas located 5000 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau. The antennas work together as a single, massive telescope as large as the separation between the antennas, delivering very detailed images of ...

6 March 2023: MORFEO, an upcoming instrument for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), has recently passed its preliminary design review. MORFEO’s adaptive optics system will use special sensors to measure the blurring effects of the Earth’s atmosphere, correcting them with deformable mirrors. This will allow astronomers to get an unprecedented view into the universe, offering detailed observations of distant galaxies and stars at the centre of the Milky Way. Ground-based telescopes like ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope can only work to their full potential with adaptive-optics systems that correct for the turbulence of the Earth’s atmosphere, which makes stars twinkle and blurs our view of the cosmos. In addition to sophisticated systems, including a large deformable mirror, that correct for atmospheric distortions as light travels through the ELT, the telescope will also have MORFEO (the Multiconjugate adaptive Optics Relay For ELT Observations; previously known as MAORY). This instrument, which has now passed its preliminary ...

27 February 2023: An international collaboration involving ESO has submitted a paper to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) proposing a new Expert Group to protect dark and quiet skies. The paper was discussed at the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (STSC) of COPUOS under a dedicated agenda item on Dark and Quiet skies. The paper, which has been endorsed by Chile, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Dominican Republic, Peru, South Africa, in addition to ESO, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), calls for a new Expert Group reporting to STSC that monitors the impact of satellites on astronomy, seeks inputs from global stakeholders and makes recommendations for mitigations. The proliferation of satellites launched into orbit around the Earth has improved our ability to communicate globally instantaneously; however, there are concerns about the impact these technologies have on astronomical observations and the preservation of dark ...

19 December 2022: Forty-eight days after suspending observations due to a cyberattack, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is observing the sky again. The computing staff has worked diligently to rebuild the affected observatory’s computer system servers and services. This is a crucial milestone in the recovery process. On 29 October, ALMA suffered a cyberattack. The computing staff took immediate countermeasures to avoid loss and damage to scientific data and IT infrastructure. The attack affected various critical operational servers and computers. “The challenge was to securely restore all the communication and computer systems as quickly as possible. We established an aggressive plan that required coordination with the ALMA partnership worldwide,” explains Jorge Ibsen, Head of the ALMA Computing Department. “Thanks to the active engagement of everyone in the collaboration, especially the Computing, Engineering, and Science Operations staff, and the cybersecurity experts from ESO, NAOJ, and NRAO, we managed to be observing as planned.” ...

10 December 2022: The President of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, visited ESO’s Paranal Observatory today. During his visit the President and his delegation were shown several of ESO’s best telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT). They also visited the construction site of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) atop Cerro Armazones; set to start operating by the end of this decade, with its 39 m mirror it will be the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world. During their two-day visit, the president and his delegation stayed the night at ESO’s award-winning accommodation la Residencia.

25 November 2022: On 2 December, at 19.00 CET, join a special, live virtual guided tour of our sites. Get to see what goes on behind the scenes at our observatories in Chile, located in one of the most remote places on Earth. Discover what it takes to operate a telescope in the middle of the Atacama Desert and what astronomers are looking to find out there. Join us in the integration hall of the ESO Headquarters in Germany and much more. The event will be broadcasted in English, on ESO’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. It will last one hour and it includes a Q&A session at the end. During the tour our team will also answer your astronomy questions via social media. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre in Garching near Munich, Germany will host a free public event on the same day, streaming the virtual tour, with ESO astronomers ...

23 November 2022: ESO’s newest scientific instrument, the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) has successfully completed its first test observations. One of them exposed the heart of the galaxy NGC 1097 in mesmerising detail. Installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal in northern Chile, this infrared instrument will be able to see further and in finer detail, leading the way in Solar System, exoplanet and galaxy observations. The versatility of ERIS [1] will lend itself to many fields of astronomical research as it aims to take the sharpest images obtained to date using a single 8.2-metre telescope. It will do so using adaptive optics, a technique that corrects for the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere in real time. ERIS will be active for at least ten years and is expected to make significant contributions to a myriad of topics in astronomy, ranging from distant galaxies and black holes through ...

2 November 2022: Update (18 Nov 2022) This event is under investigation by local authorities. The Computing team quickly isolated the Antennas and Correlator systems and the Science Archive data systems. However, communication and other operational clusters were affected, forcing ALMA to stop all observations. Since then, email communication has been restored safely, along with new collaboration tools that enable the staff to continue their regular work. The Crisis Management Team has developed a full-recovery plan in consultation with cyber security officers from ESO/NAOJ/NRAO. Our highest priority is to work hard to resume observations before the end of the year. Last Saturday, 29 October, at 6:14 AM (GMT-3), the ALMA observatory in Chile suffered a cyberattack on its computer systems, forcing the suspension of astronomical observations and the public website. There are limited email services at the observatory. The threat has been contained, and our specialists are working hard to restore affected systems. ...

26 October 2022: Leiden University has recently announced that a professor at the university has been found by the university’s Complaints Committee to have subjected colleagues to intimidating and unacceptable behaviour, including harassment. Media reports have named the professor as Tim de Zeeuw, who was ESO’s Director General from 2007 to 2017. This has now been confirmed by a statement to Physics World by a lawyer acting on his behalf. First and most importantly, we express our deep support and sympathy for the victims of this harassment. ESO is strongly against all forms of harassment, bullying and other unacceptable behaviour. At ESO, we are committed to creating a work environment that is safe and professional, where everyone is treated with courtesy, respect, and mutual trust, and where diversity and inclusion are valued. To this end, we have in place a respectful workplace policy, which applies to everyone working at or visiting ESO, and ...

3 October 2022: The ESO-Government of Chile Joint Committee has announced the 19 winning projects for the 2022 call, which will share funds for 478 million pesos. Said funds will be invested in initiatives for the development of astronomy-related research in science, technology, education and cooperation in Chile. Since 1996, the ESO-Government of Chile Joint Committee is one of the main funds for the development in this area, supporting astronomy post-doctoral programmes and academic tenures in Chilean institutions. It also finances national and international scientific visits, technology build and educational programmes for teaching and disseminating astronomy in the country. The ESO-Government of Chile Joint Committee includes representatives of ESO and the Chilean government, from the Energy, Science, Technology and Innovation Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, and the Chilean Astronomy Association. The winners of ESO-Government of Chile Joint Committee 2022 are: Name of the ...

22 September 2022: Update on the search for Tom Marsh (10 November 2022) We are very sorry to share the news, as reported to us by the Chilean police, that a body was found during the search near La Silla on 10 November 2022. The identity of the person has not yet been formally confirmed, but Tom Marsh’s family has been informed, and our thoughts are with them at this extremely difficult time. Thomas Richard (Tom) Marsh, an astronomer from Warwick University in the UK who was on an observing trip at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, was reported missing on Friday 16 September. Despite extensive and thorough search by the national police, supported by ESO staff and British police, Marsh has unfortunately not yet been found. ESO’s La Silla Observatory is located in a mountainous area in the northern part of the Coquimbo region. Marsh is described as white, about 192 ...

11 August 2022: On 10 and 11 of August, the Chilean Science Minister Flavio Salazar visited ESO’s Paranal Observatory. This is the first time the new Science Minister visits an ESO site, with the purpose of strengthening the connections between ESO and Chile. Additionally, the visit provided an excellent opportunity for the Minister to get familiar with ESO's operations and facilities. The science minister was welcomed by ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, ESO’s Representative in Chile, Luis Chavarría and ESO’s Director of Operations, Andreas Kaufer. The visit started off with a tour to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) followed by different support facilities of the observatory. Xavier Barcons said: “Chile has been a partner and host state to ESO for nearly 60 years, and we are very honoured to welcome Chile’s Science Minister to ESO’s facilities in Paranal. This is an opportunity to explore ways to strengthen international collaboration for the benefit of ...