Oznámení

31. března 2017: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in printed form. 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 article on the topic of gender identity and sexuality in science; a report on the teacher event “Bringing structures to life - new ways of teaching biology” and an article highlighting the role of our oceans in climate change. Practical teaching activities for the classroom include: an activity which uses the astronomical concept of parallax as a context for teaching geometry; microscale chemistry in ...

30. března 2017: The success of the Pale Red Dot campaign [1] was recognised in style last night when Queen Mary University of London, the institution that led the campaign [2], won the Research Impact category of the Guardian University Awards 2017. The Pale Red Dot campaign was an outreach [3] project set up to provide the public with a unique real-time view of how science is carried out. The scientific programme was aimed at identifying an Earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The award marked the significant contribution made by the campaign to bringing cutting-edge science to a general audience. The campaign was launched in January 2016, when observations of Proxima Centauri began, using ESO telescopes such as the HARPS spectrograph at La Silla in Chile, amongst others [4]. Their search lasted until April 2016, and was accompanied by blog posts and social media updates via ...

28. března 2017: 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: The ALMA Science Archive ALMA Band 5 Science Verification The Nearby Evolved Star L2 Puppis as a Portrait of the Future Solar System Supernova 1987A at 30 Highlights from the CERN/ESO/NordForsk “Gender in Physics Day” 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.

17. března 2017: On 16 March 2017, members of the Consular Corps in Bavaria visited ESO’s Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. The Corps consists of consuls and honorary consuls from over 100 consular missions based in the federal state of Bavaria, the largest Consular Corps in any German federal state. The visitors were welcomed by the Dean of the Consular Corps, Mr. Friedemann Greiner, and by ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw who outlined the mission and activities of ESO. They were then taken on a tour of the facilities. Highlights of the tour included the integration hall, where researchers and engineers assemble instrumentation for use at ESO’s observatories in Chile, and the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, the world’s first open-source planetarium, currently under construction. This was followed by a luncheon, giving the Consular Corps the chance to engage in conversation with ESO staff and to learn more about ESO.

15. března 2017: School students from around the world are invited to take part in the 2017 Catch a Star contest. This is a European astronomical writing contest, with some 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 20 December 2017. 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 ...

3. března 2017: A survey of peer-reviewed scientific papers published in 2016 and using data from ESO’s telescopes and instruments 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 936 refereed papers last year. There were 565 papers credited to ESO in 2016 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 VIMOS, which featured in 123, 109 and 75 papers, respectively. The MUSE and SPHERE instruments also saw large increases from the previous year. Data from the VISTA and VST survey telescopes on Cerro Paranal led to 93 and 18 papers, respectively. Facilities located at La Silla provided data for almost 200 papers in total. HARPS remains La Silla’s most productive instrument, with ...

22. února 2017: A total of seven Earth-like, potentially habitable worlds have been discovered orbiting a nearby star known as TRAPPIST-1. Just 40 light-years away, the star’s diminutive size and dim light output mean it is known as an ultracool dwarf. ESOcast 96 explores this important discovery, from how the astronomers made the incredibly intricate measurements required to find and study the planets — including observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope — to each world’s potential to support life as we know it. Excitingly, three of the planets in the system orbit in the habitable zone around TRAPPIST-1, and could harbour oceans of water on their surfaces. Dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 are very common in our galaxy, making rich planetary systems like this some of the best targets in humanity’s search for life elsewhere in the Universe. This ESOcast takes you on a journey through one such system, which contains both the largest ...

22. února 2017: The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine, has announced the key dates for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 competition — its annual global search for the most beautiful and spectacular visions of the cosmos, whether they are striking pictures of vast galaxies millions of light-years away, or dramatic images of the night sky much closer to home. ESO supports the 2017 competition by providing a judge from its education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD). Now in its ninth year, the hugely popular competition will open to entrants on Monday 27 February, giving them the chance of taking home the grand prize of £10 000. Entrants will have until Friday 7 April to enter up to ten images in the various categories of the competition via www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto. Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 has nine main categories: Skyscapes: Landscape ...

20. února 2017: ESO is proud to announce its new collaboration with the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) to support AstroCamp 2017, an astronomy-focused summer academic program for secondary school students. The Summer AstroCamp 2017 will be held from 6 to 20 August in northern Portugal, at the Centre for Environmental Education and Interpretation of the Corno de Bico Protected Landscape. On 25 February, the organisers will host a webcast to provide further information to prospective applicants and their families. The camp aims to stimulate students’ curiosity and critical thinking skills, particularly in the area of astrophysics, and to bring together students from different backgrounds and life experiences. Students will take two courses, which will have daily lessons, some assignments, and a final exam. Some highlights of this year’s programme include: Astronomical observation sessions, both with the naked eye and telescopes — including a session coinciding with the peak ...

15. února 2017: ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), scheduled to see first light in 2024, is at the cutting edge of telescope technology. Its optical system will consist of no fewer than five separate mirrors, each of them a significant engineering challenge. ESO has now awarded the contract to polish the third mirror in the light path, known as M3, to the French company Reosc [1], a subsidiary of Safran Electronics & Defense. They will receive the blank from SCHOTT, design the mirror and its mounting interfaces, polish the surface, and complete all necessary optical tests before delivery [2]. Reosc were also awarded the contracts to design, polish and test the telescope’s secondary mirror in July 2016, and to manufacture the deformable shell mirrors that will comprise the ELT’s fourth mirror (M4). M3 will be a giant 3.8-metre concave mirror — as big as the primary mirror of many of today’s world-class telescopes. ...

27. ledna 2017: ESO is now inviting submissions for the fourth Photo Nightscape Awards (PNA) — an international competition for astrophotographers. As a partner in the competition, which is organised by the Association Française d’Astronomie, ESO will arrange for the winner of the Nightscape category to visit the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The competition categories for adult entrants are: Nightscape, Timelapse, and In Town, and they are open to photographers from all countries. The PNA Junior category, for entrants under 18 years old, is reserved for French nationals only. Anyone wishing to take part in the competition should submit a registration form, their photo or timelapse sequence and, if they are under 18 years of age, a parental consent form, to the following email address by 15 August 2017: pna@photonightscapeawards.com. For more detailed information, please refer to the competition rules on the dedicated web page. ...

20. ledna 2017: On 27 April 2017, ESO will participate in Germany’s Girls’ Day activities, in which technical enterprises, universities and research organisations open their doors to female school students to give them an insight into science and technology professions and to encourage more of them to choose careers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Places for the event are limited. To register, please visit the Girls’ Day website. The ESO Girls’ Day will introduce the work of ESO and highlight many of our daily activities, such as astrophysical research, mechanical and opto-mechanical design and integration, operations, and much more. The programme includes introductory talks as well as hands-on workshops on astronomy and engineering. The students will learn how astronomical instruments are built, tested and operated. They will also learn how data are collected and used in astronomical research to answer the big questions about the Universe. This will provide the ...

11. ledna 2017: The winners of this year’s Catch a Star Contest have been announced. The top three prizes were awarded to: The Lost Planet, by Andrea Moral Suárez, Natalia Serrano López and Ana Sánchez Díez from Spain; Life on Mars, by Daniel Vilda Rodríguez, Daniel Sayad Pérez Peréz and Iván Rodríguez Lozano from Spain; and Dark Matter in the Classroom by Simona Stoyanova and Ognyan Simeonov from Bulgaria. A complete list of the winners can be found on the Catch a Star website. ESO is presenting a mounted astronomical image to each of the top five places and each winning team will also have the chance either to carry out remote observations at the National Astronomical Observatory “Rozhen”, Bulgaria, or to hold a video conference with a professional astronomer. Secondary school students from around the world were invited to take part in the contest. To participate students had to submit a written ...

4. ledna 2017: With ESOCast episode 90 we are introducing the ESOcast Light series, a podcast to present the wonders of the Universe in bite-sized pieces. Short, snappy and straight to the facts, the brand new Light format presents cutting-edge science wrapped up in a crisp visual style, allowing those on the go to keep up with astronomical news and discoveries. The quick format is perfect to watch any time and anywhere. A 4K UHD version is also available for the ultimate in quality. The ESOcast Light episodes will not be replacing the standard, longer ESOcasts, but complement them with current astronomy news and images in ESO press releases. You can watch the first ESOcast Light episode here. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts in iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo. Many other ESOcast episodes are also available.

22. prosince 2016: Zájem o náš sousední hvězdný systém Alfa Centauri se výrazně zvýšil od nedávného objevu planety Proxima b s hmotností podobnou Zemi, která obíhá kolem Proximy Centauri, třetí - a Slunci nejbližší - hvězdy systému. Ačkoli se zdá, že pár větších hvězd, Alfa Centauri A a B, má vlastní pohyb podobný menší a slabší Proximě Centauri, nikdy nebylo dokázáno, že tyto tři hvězdy opravdu tvoří jeden, gravitačně vázaný trojitý systém.V současnosné době tři astronomové, Pierre Kervella, Frédéric Thévenin a Christophe Lovis, došli k závěru, že ony tři hvězdy skutečně tvoří vázaný systém. Ve století, které následovalo po objevu Proximy, bylo kvůli nízké jasnosti hvězdy velmi obtížné spolehlivě změřit její radiální rychlost (rychlost, se kterou se pohybuje od Země). Ale přístroj ESO HARPS, určený pro detekci planet, poskytl extrémně přesná měření radiální rychlosti Proximy Centauri. A ještě větší přesnost se dá dosáhnout při započtení dalších slabých efektů[1].Ve výsledku byli astronomové schopni odvodit ...

20. prosince 2016: 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: Reaching New Heights in Astronomy — ESO Long Term Perspectives VLT/VLTI Second-Generation Instrumentation: Lessons Learned Science-Grade Imaging Data for HAWK-I, VIMOS, and VIRCAM: The ESO–UK Pipeline Collaboration A Deep ALMA Image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field First ALMA Detection of a Galaxy Cluster Merger Shock 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.

19. prosince 2016: The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Great Websites for Kids (GWS) has selected Space Scoop as one of the ten best websites for young children up to 14 years of age. ALSC is a division of the American Library Association (ALA) and the selection of the Great Websites for Kids by the GWS committee takes place three times a year. ESO is delighted to be one of the partner research institutes that provide content for Space Scoop, alongside ESA, NASA Chandra, the Las Cumbres Observatory and others. The Space Scoop website was launched one year ago as part of the European Commission-funded EU Universe Awareness and EU Space Awareness projects. Every week it brings the latest astronomy news in a form suitable for children and their teachers, to educate and to inspire. Space Scoops are published in digital and print form, as well as via a mobile app, ...

15. prosince 2016: For nearly eight years, the VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph (VIMOS) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile has been piecing together a three-dimensional map of galaxies in two patches of the southern sky. A total of 440 hours of observing time has gone into measuring the spectra of more than 90 000 distant galaxies, producing a map of a 24-square-degree region on the sky, out to a distance corresponding to when the Universe was around half its current age [1]. In 2013, ESO reported that the international team of astronomers behind the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Survey (VIPERS) had collected data for around 60% of their target galaxies. With the full set of observations now completed, this is the largest redshift survey ever undertaken with ESO telescopes [2] and it provides a view of structures in the younger Universe with an unprecedented combination of detail and spatial extent. By surveying how ...

15. prosince 2016: The 21st issue of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal is out now! In this issue our contributors outline a summer programme in astronomy for high-school students; evaluate a massive open online class in astronomy; provide essential tips on how to write a successful press release; and describe astronomy communication at its most informal — a growing programme of astronomy events held in bars. All of this, and more, is featured in this free, peer-reviewed journal for astronomy communicators — available now for download. This product will also be available from the ESO shop.

6. prosince 2016: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in printed form. This European journal for science teachers offers inspiring articles and hands-on activities for students in every issue. 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: Blended senses: understanding synaesthesia; Under pressure: the role of Earth’s mantle in our climate; an interview with Andy Brunning, the mastermind behind Compound Interest; and a report on the European CanSat Competition 2016. Practical teaching activities for the classroom include: a primary school activity where pupils can “Be a magnet for the day”; Wind and rain: meteorology in the classroom for physics students; and Chembot: chemistry with robots. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European intergovernmental scientific research organisations, of which ESO ...