Meddelelser 2015

6. oktober 2015: Expo Milano 2015, the biggest World Exposition, will be held in Milan, Italy from 1 May to 31 October 2015. It will have an important component devoted to astronomy and ESO will have a strong presence. The period 5–8 October 2015 will be “Astronomy Week” at the Chilean Pavilion. With talks and activities, the organisers will highlight the qualities and the importance of the Chilean skies as a window to the Universe, and the role of facilities like ESO’s Paranal Observatory to help develop state-of-the-art astronomy in Chile. ESO will have a prominent role during the week. Massimo Tarenghi, ESO Astronomer Emeritus, is one of the organisers and will give the opening talk along with the Chilean astronomer María Teresa Ruiz. They will discuss the big astronomical observatories installed in Chile, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These events will kick off four ...

5. oktober 2015: Impressive photographs and videos showing the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) take centre stage at the free exhibition, ALMA, exploring our cosmic origins, held at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Santiago, Chile, between 7 October 2015 and 3 January 2016. The exhibition, which is divided into four sections, will describe the innermost workings of the most powerful ground-based observatory in history. It will explore the story behind its development and construction in addition to explaining what ALMA has already discovered about our cosmic origins. The fascinating and diverse exhibition will be accompanied by a series of free activities, including night-sky observations, music performances based on the cosmos, and robotics and astrophotography workshops. Round tables on topics such as art and astronomy, astro-engineering, and how to get the most out of the Chilean skies will also be held. Teachers and students will have access to special activities, such as talks by ALMA ...

2. oktober 2015: The number of public images on the ESO website has reached a new milestone, with 10 000 images now free for public use. The collection features an impressive array of cosmic phenomena — including galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. In addition there are also many spectacular views of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the APEX telescope, high in the Andes, as well as of the Paranal and La Silla Observatories in the barren landscapes of northern Chile. Must-see images include the famous Horsehead Nebula (eso0202a), the centre of the Milky Way (eso0846a) and the first direct image of an exoplanet (26a_big-vlt). Each image can be downloaded in a variety of formats and resolutions, including the original version for maximum quality, as well as in the form of wallpapers. The 10 000th image was posted to the Your ESO Pictures Flickr group by Adhemar Duro on 30 September 2015. ...

30. september 2015: The 18th issue of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal is out now! In this issue you will find articles discussing key findings in astronomy communication, including research into astronomers’ views on outreach; reflections on the highly successful Galileoscope project and Global Astronomy Month; and insights into new ways to share and improve access to the huge files we, as astronomy communicators, are creating. We also gain a new perspective in this issue by hearing from those who have participated in our projects. All of this, and more, is featured in this free, peer-reviewed journal for astronomy communicators — now available for download.

30. september 2015: On 28 and 29 September 2015, ESO’s Paranal Observatory welcomed a very special visitor — British rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and astrophysicist, Brian May. Unbeknownst to many, Brian May — famed for being the lead guitarist of the legendary rock band Queen — has a passion for astronomy. In addition to holding a PhD in astrophysics, the guitarist is a science team collaborator for NASA's New Horizons mission, which flew past Pluto in July 2015. ESO therefore decided to invite Brian May to come to Paranal while he was in Santiago, Chile, as part of his current South American Queen tour with Queen drummer Roger Taylor and American singer Adam Lambert. ESO’s Paranal Observatory is located 130 kilometres south of Antofagasta, in the arid Chilean Atacama Desert. It is home to the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes and four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Paranal is one of ...

28. september 2015: ESO has signed an agreement with a consortium of institutes around Europe [1] for the design and construction of METIS, an infrared camera and spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The agreement was signed by H. W. (Willem) te Beest, Vice-President Executive Board, Leiden University, on behalf of the consortium, and Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General, at a ceremony at the Science Faculty Club of Leiden University in the Netherlands, on 28 September 2015. Bernhard Brandl, the Principal Investigator of METIS, was also in attendance as well as all Co-Investigators and the project managers of all the partners in the consortium. METIS is one of the Phase 1 instruments for the E-ELT. It will offer imaging and medium-resolution spectroscopy over a wavelength range from 3–19 micrometres, and high-resolution integral field spectroscopy over a wavelength range of 3–5.3 micrometres. METIS is the only E-ELT Phase 1 instrument to ...

25. september 2015: Between the 17 and 21 September 2015, over 169 young scientists aged between 14 and 20 presented a total of 103 projects from 39 countries to a panel of international judges at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, Italy. This was the 27th time that the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) contest had been held, and this year's contest was the largest in its history of over three decades. The winners have now been announced. The three first prizes of €7000 each were awarded to Sanath Kumar Devalapurkar from the USA for “On the Stability and Algebraicity of Algebraic K-theory”, Michał Bączyk and Paweł Piotr Czyż from Poland for “The studies of behaviour of single and coupled on-off type oscillators on the example of bottle oscillators” and Lukas Stockner from Germany for “Statistical modeling of volume-scattered light”. The second prizes (€5000) went to teams from Austria, Russia and ...

25. september 2015: ESO telescopes are being used to search for the subtle signs of magnetic fields in other stars and even to map out the star spots on their surfaces. This ESOcast looks at how this information — and particularly the polarisation of light — is beginning to reveal how and why so many stars, including our own Sun, are magnetic, and what the implications might be for life on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe. 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. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles to the ESOcast in multiple languages.

23. september 2015: ESO has signed an agreement with an international consortium of institutes [1] for the design and construction of the HARMONI instrument for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The agreement was signed by Grahame Blair, Executive Director of Programmes, Science and Technology Facilities Council, on behalf of the consortium, and Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General, at a ceremony at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, on 22 September 2015. Patrick Roche, President of ESO Council and Niranjan Thatte, Principal Investigator for HARMONI, were also in attendance. HARMONI, or the High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical and Near-infrared Integral field spectrograph, will be one of the first-light instruments installed on the giant telescope and will function as the workhorse instrument for visible light and near-infrared spectroscopy in the wavelength range 0.5–2.4 µm. It can work with different adaptive optics systems, or even without adaptive optics at all, and will ...

22. september 2015: 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: History of Polish Astronomy Shaping ESO 2020+ Together: Feedback from the Community Poll Simultaneous HARPS and HARPS-N observations of the Earth Transit of 2014 as seen from Jupiter: detection of an Inverse Rossiter-McLaughlin effect Using Solar Twins to explore the Planet-Star Connection with unparalleled precision Red Supergiants as Cosmic Abundance Probes Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy.

18. september 2015: ESO har underskrevet en aftale med et konsortium af institutter rundt omkring i Europa[1] om design og bygning af et kamera til E-ELT teleskopet. Kameraets navn bliver the MICADO (en forkortelse af Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations). Det bliver et af de første instrumenter, som er klart til brug når kæmpeteleskopet E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) står klar omkring 2024. MICADO bliver i stand til som det første at tage billeder via kæmpeteleskopet, og takket være adaptiv optik bliver det de skarpeste billeder nogensinde, optaget fra Jordens overflade. Aftalen blev underskrevet på vegne af konsortiet af Reinhard Genzel, som er direktør for Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik og af Tim de Zeeuw, som er generaldirektør for ESO, ved en ceremoni i ESOs hovedkvarter den 18. september 2015. Til stede var også MICADOs chefforsker Ric Davies. Med MICADO kan E-ELT helt fra starten anvendes til nær-infrarøde himmeloptagelser helt til den teoretiske ...

17. september 2015: A magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck central Chile at about 20:00 local time on Wednesday 16 September 2015 (01:00 CEST on 17 September) between Santiago and La Serena, followed by several aftershocks. According to government reports, eight people have died and one million people have been evacuated in response to tsunami warnings. ESO expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and its sympathy and support for all those affected by the earthquake. The epicentre was distant from both the ALMA/APEX site on the Chajnantor Plateau and the Paranal site but the quakes were felt quite strongly in Santiago and at the La Silla Observatory, which were the ESO sites closest to the earthquake. However, no casualties among ESO staff have been reported and no major problems have been reported from La Silla, where telescope checks are ongoing. ESO is currently investigating whether any staff or visiting astronomers may ...

17. september 2015: 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, fun games 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: the second of two articles on the strange world of transmissible cancers; understanding how nature is inspiring us to make colour without pigments; and a look at how scientists are trying to understand fear. Teaching activities include: a way to understand physics using craft materials; a practical lesson using colour match apps on mobile phones; and an activity on the safety of tattoo inks. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European intergovernmental scientific research organisations, of which ESO is a ...

11. september 2015: Der er nu to webcams installeret på byggepladsen til ALMA Residenciaen, så alle kan følge med i byggeriet. ALMA Residenciaen bliver hjemsted for stab og midlertidig arbejdskraft ved Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Residenciaen bygges ved ALMA Operations Support Facility, tæt ved San Pedro de Atacama i det nordlige Chile. Officielt begyndte byggearbejdet 23. februar 2015, og det forventes at vare 17 måneder. Webcambillederne sendes ud live. De to nye webcams supplerer ESOs allerede lange liste af webcams i Chile og Tyskland. Der er blandt andet live transmissioner fra: Very Large Telescope (Cerro Paranal, Chile): Følg astronomer og teknikere i deres arbejde ved VLT. ALMA Observatoriet (Chajnantor Plateau, Chile): Spot ALMA antennerne mens de arbejder for ESO og de andre partnere. La Silla Night Cam (Atacama Desert, Chile): Se nattekig på Mælkevejen fra La Silla Observatoriet. ESO Hovedkvarteret (Garching bei München, Tyskland): Et kig fra taget af ESOs hovedkvarter viser ...

24. august 2015: Den 20. august 2015 underskrev generaldirektørerne for ESO, Tim de Zeeuw og ESA, Johann-Dietrich Wörner en samarbejdsaftale imellem de to organisationer. Det skete i ESOs hovedkvarter i Santiago i Chile. ESAs generaldirektør var ledsaget af Álvaro Giménez, ESAs Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. Der er et betragteligt overlap af interesser imellem ESO, som er i forfronten af den jordbaserede astronomi, og ESA, som er førende i Europa indenfor rumforskning og teknologi. Den nye aftale giver rammerne for et fremtidigt tæt samarbejde og for informationsudveksling indenfor mange områder. Det drejer sig blandt andet om teknologi og videnskabelig forskning. Aftalen kommer til at fremme den strategiske koordination de to organisationer imellem, både med hensyn til lantidsplanlægning og koordineringen af udvalgte programmer. Desuden vil den fremme koordineringen af programmer for videnskab og oplæring, og udvekslingen af "best practices" indenfor mange områder. Også koordinering af service, værktøjer og ressourcer bliver forbedret. Den nye ...

20. august 2015: One of our most popular products, the ESO Calendar 2016, is now available to order in the ESO online shop. The calendar’s cover features a spectacular picture of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) observing the region around the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s centre. The calendar itself is packed with images of the cosmos as well as photographs of ESO telescopes in the rugged landscapes of northern Chile. Highlights include Comet Lovejoy glowing emerald green above ESO’s La Silla Observatory for the month of February, and the most detailed image ever taken of the strange Medusa Nebula for September. In June, the sharpest image taken so far by ALMA — sharper than is routinely achieved with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in visible light — shows the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star HL Tauri. Each month also marks the dates of lunar phases. The calendar measures 43 ...

20. august 2015: Astronomers using ESO facilities have been advancing astronomical studies for decades. Along the way, there have been many truly significant findings that have had a major impact on our understanding of the Universe. This ESOcast takes a look at what have been ranked as the top 10 discoveries made using ESO telescopes. From exoplanets to voracious black holes, this rundown covers many of the most exciting findings made by astronomers over the last half century 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. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles to the ESOcast in multiple languages.

11. august 2015: Det nye instrument med navnet GRAVITY er afsendt til Chile, og det er blevet afprøvet på Paranalobservatoriet. GRAVITY er et andengenerationsinstrument til VLTs interferometer, og med det kan der måles positioner og bevægelser for astronomiske objekter i en detaljerigdom, som er meget bedre end hvad der er muligt indtil nu[1]. GRAVITY bliver også et kraftigt redskab til at studere de fineste strukturer i svagtlysende objekter, og det vil kunne fungere som spektrometer. I denne funktion kombineres de fire store teleskoper på Paranal, så de tilsammen fungerer som ét teleskop med en diameter på mere end 100 meter. Det nye instrument vil forstærke mulighederne for at studere området nær det sorte hul i Mælkevejens centrum for ESOs VLT-teleskop. Eksistensen af et sort hul med en masse fire millioner gange større end Solens kan fastslås med sikkerhed. GRAVITY kommer også til at undersøge området omkring det sorte hul, hvor tyngdekraften er ekstremt ...

5. august 2015: Polen har nu afsluttet ratificeringen af landets medlemskab af ESO, og bliver dermed ESOs femtende medlemsland. Vi er stolte af at kunne byde velkommen til Polen, og vi ser frem til bidragene fra landets astronomer og industri. Den formelle ratificeringsproces for Polens medlemskab af ESO blev afsluttet med at ratificeringsdokumentet blev deponeret hos det franske udenrigsministerium i Paris den 8. juli 2015. Det sker efter at teksten er godkendt af den Polske kongres og senatet. Dokumentet er underskrevet af Polens præsident Bronisław Komorowski og af primierminister Ewa Kopacz. Den polske minister for videnskab og højere uddannelser Lena Kolarska-Bobińska underskrev aftalen aftalen i oktober 2014. Ratificeringen underbygger Polens stilling i fronten af Verdens astronomiske samfund. Med medlemskabet har landet nu adgang til ESOs teleskoper og instrumenter, blandt andre Very Large Telescope (VLT) på Paranal og Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) på Chajnantor, og har også mulighed for at bidrage til opbygningen ...

17. juli 2015: After more than five years of development and construction, ALMA successfully opened its eyes on another frequency range after obtaining the first fringes with a Band 5 receiver, specifically designed to detect water in the local Universe. Band 5 will also open up the possibility of studying complex molecules in star-forming regions and protoplanetary discs, and detecting molecules and atoms in galaxies in the early Universe, looking back about 13 billion years. ALMA observes the Universe in radio waves: light that is invisible to the human eye. The weak electromagnetic glow from space is captured by the array of 66 antennas, each with diameters up to twelve metres. Their receivers transform this weak radiation into an electrical signal. To scout a broad range of frequencies, each ALMA antenna is equipped with up to ten different receivers, each one specially designed to cover a specific range of wavelengths. The new Band ...