Annonces 2017

2 août 2017: Light is the lifeblood of astronomy and by collecting it using telescopes and instruments astronomers can study almost everything in space. Atmospheric turbulence, however, distorts the light arriving at telescopes on Earth. At ESO’s Very Large Telescope, researchers are meeting this challenge with the revolutionary new Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) helping the MUSE instrument to break new records. ESOcast 119 explores why adaptive optics is necessary for research at ESO, how the new AOF will improve the capabilities of ESO’s MUSE instrument, and the future of adaptive optics on instruments at ESO’s Very Large Telescope. 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, or translate this video on YouTube.

1 août 2017: One of our most popular products, the ESO Calendar, is now available in its 2018 incarnation, and can be ordered from the ESO online shop. The calendar’s cover features a spectacular long-exposure image of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Cerro Paranal in Chile’s Atacama desert. The striking yellow beam, cutting across the hundreds of star trails, is produced by laser light from the VLT Unit Telescope named Yepun. With this, the telescope can compensate for atmospheric distortion to produce stunningly sharp images. Inside, the calendar is packed with amazing images of the cosmos as well as photographs of ESO’s telescopes against the striking Chilean landscapes. The month of October, for example, sees an artist’s impression of the forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope that will be the world’s largest optical and infrared telescope, set to tackle the biggest scientific questions in cosmology. Other observatories — La Silla in April, and ALMA ...

18 juillet 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: A Long Expected Party — The First Stone Ceremony for the Extremely Large Telescope The Adaptive Optics Facility: Commissioning Progress and Results The Cherenkov Telescope Array: Exploring the Very-high-energy Sky from ESO’s Paranal Site Towards a Sharper Picture of R136 with SPHERE Extreme Adaptive Optics The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS): Science Highlights and Final Data Release 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.

14 juillet 2017: A selection from ESO’s archive of more than 11 000 photos, regular Pictures of the Week and stunning Photo Releases will now be released on Instagram, as ESO joins the popular social media channel for sharing images. We invite you to follow ESO @esoastronomy to revel in spectacular vistas of the Universe, taken with some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, to learn about the astounding discoveries that astronomers make, and to view life at ESO’s observatories. To discover ESO amidst the undergrowth of social media channels, we invite you to explore our social media overview page, where we feature all of the places where you can connect with ESO and its observatories. This includes dozens of fan pages set up by people who are just as keen to share information about ESO as we are. Several hashtags may be of interest to you: #ESOjobs, #ELTprogress, #ESOcast, #ESOcastLight, ...

10 juillet 2017: Following a competitive selection process, the ALMA Board has appointed Sean Dougherty to lead the Observatory as the new ALMA Director for 5 years, starting in April 2018. Sean Dougherty is currently Director of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, Canada’s national radio astronomy facility, which is run by NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics. He has served as a member of the ALMA Board representing North America for 4 years and was the chair of the ALMA Budget Committee for the last 2 years. Sean received his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Calgary, Canada, in 1993, following a degree in Mathematics and Physics from University of Nottingham, England. He has over 20 years of science and engineering management experience in radio astrophysics, from management and representation of Canada’s contributions to international radio astronomy facilities and R&D projects, to leadership of major science and engineering activities at the Dominion Radio ...

7 juillet 2017: In August 2015, ESO and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a cooperation agreement setting the terms and conditions for mutual cooperation and the exchange of scientific research information between the two organisations. The first project to be implemented under this cooperation agreement is the deployment of a Test-Bed Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. Operating alongside a similar project in the northern hemisphere, the 56-cm Test-Bed Telescope (TBT) will act as a precursor to a full autonomous optical sensor network which will detect and track an extensive list of near-Earth objects, such as asteroids. The TBT will demonstrate the instrument’s hardware and software capabilities, such as automatic scheduling, remote real-time control, and autonomous data processing.

7 juillet 2017: To astronomers, ESO’s state-of-the-art telescopes are not just about collecting pretty pictures, however alluring they may be; they are tools to collect data, through which remarkable discoveries are made. But there is simply not enough observing time available for everyone to observe to their heart’s content — so how is telescope time allocated? ESOcast 116 explores how astronomers request time to use an ESO telescope, and how ESO’s Observing Programmes Committee, embarking on its one-hundredth meeting, examines and judges these proposals in order to ensure that ESO is making the best use of its telescopes to advance our knowledge and understanding of the Universe. 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, or translate this video on YouTube.

6 juillet 2017: One of the most challenging and exciting areas of astronomy today is the search for exoplanets — other worlds orbiting other stars. The exoplanet HIP 65426b has recently been discovered using the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Some 385 light-years from us, HIP 65426b is the first planet that SPHERE has found [1] — and it turns out to be a particularly interesting one. The planet is warm (between 1000 and 1400 degrees Celsius), and is between six and twelve times the mass of Jupiter. It seems to have a very dusty atmosphere filled with thick cloud, and it orbits a hot, young star that rotates surprisingly fast. Unusually, given its age, the star does not appear to be surrounded by a disc of debris, and the absence of a disc raises puzzling questions about how the planet formed in the first ...

4 juillet 2017: As the construction of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre here in Garching continues apace, ready for its opening in Spring 2018, ESO continues to make an unprecedented range of high-quality materials available for use in planetariums, produced by world-renowned astrophotographers, artists, technicians and musicians. The latest additions to our collection include: New 4k live fulldome webcams for ALMA and VLT, new deep-sky night-time cameras. These new webcams show many wonderful day- and night-time phenomena live from the observatories, such as zodiacal light, gegenschein, airglow, atmospheric absorption and diffraction. New free music tracks produced for our archive by our new music ambassadors. More ESO fulldome clips, including stunning timelapses of ESO’s observatories, an artist’s impression of the TRAPPIST-1 system, and renderings of violent events in the Universe such as a black hole devouring a star and merging stars creating a supernova. More ESA/Hubble fulldome clips. More beautiful image compositions ...

29 juin 2017: It took some of the brightest minds in science and technology to build ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, one of the largest and most sophisticated telescope facilities in the world. Now Dutch astronomer Frans Snik and a team of dedicated helpers have created a unique LEGO® model of the entire Paranal platform, complete with replicas of the four 8.2-metre VLT Unit Telescopes (UT), the four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes and other astonishingly minute details [1]. This mind-boggling one-of-a-kind model has been handed over to ESO and is on display at the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany. When the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre opens at the ESO Headquarters in spring 2018, the model will be displayed there. The model of the Paranal platform, at a scale of approximately 1:150, comprises the VLT telescopes and their dome structures, and all of the instruments used on the real VLT are also present. ...

19 juin 2017: ESO has signed a contract with the German company Physik Instrumente GmbH & Co. KG, based in Karlsruhe, to construct the position actuators (PACTs) that will adjust the positions of the 798 hexagonal segments of the primary mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The segments that make up the ELT’s enormous 39-metre main mirror will be connected to the main telescope structure via a support system (ann15003), of which the PACTs are fundamental components. Each segment, some 1.4 metres across and weighing 250 kg will be mounted on three PACTs — meaning 2394 in total. The PACTs will support the segment and actively control its position in three directions, known as piston, tip and tilt. The control system of the ELT primary mirror will initiate tiny adjustments to the PACTs to maintain the mirror’s overall shape, correcting for deformations which may be caused by changes in telescope elevation, temperature ...

19 juin 2017: The team behind the Pale Red Dot campaign, who last year discovered a planet around the closest star to our Sun (eso1629), are resuming their search for Earth-like planets and launching another initiative today. The Red Dots campaign will follow the astronomers as they use ESO’s exoplanet-hunter to look for planets around some of our nearest stellar neighbours: Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star and Ross 154. ESO is joining this Open Notebook Science experiment — real science presented in real time — that will give the public and the scientific community access to observational data from Proxima Centauri as the campaign unfolds. The scientific team [1] led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé from Queen Mary University of London will acquire and analyse data from ESO’s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) and other instruments across the globe [2] over approximately 90 nights. Photometric observations began on 15 June and spectrographic observations start ...

16 juin 2017: Capturing and recording the (often very faint) light from the heavens has always been an essential aspect of astronomy. The very first astronomical “detector” was, of course, the unaided human eye — astronomy has come a long way from that to reach today’s cutting-edge detectors mounted on modern telescopes. In this ESOcast, Dr. J delves into the history of the sensors that have been used to study the Universe over the centuries, from the first telescopes to photographic plates to the CCDs that ESO has helped develop over the past decades. 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 or translate this video on YouTube.

15 juin 2017: The winner of the AstroCamp 2017 bursary offered by ESO has now been selected from almost 100 applications from about a dozen countries. ESO is delighted to announce that Eva Forrest from the United Kingdom is the winner of the ESO bursary. The standard of applications was extremely high, from a variety of enthusiastic future scientists and engineers keen to attend this year’s camp. The ESO bursary covers the full cost of the camp, providing Eva with financial assistance to participate in this potentially career-defining event. AstroCamp is an academic programme devoted to astronomy and physics, organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences. The camp will take place from 6 to 20 August 2017 in northern Portugal, at the Centre for Environmental Education and Interpretation of the Corno de Bico Protected Landscape. The program is intended for ...

15 juin 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 looking at how structures in nature are inspiring the design of the buildings of the future; an interview with Nobel prizewinner Sir Paul Nurse; and an article looking at how the sensitivity needed to detect gravitational waves was achieved. Practical teaching activities for the classroom include: exploring how chemistry and physics are used to solve crimes; and an activity about the spread of ...

13 juin 2017: The ESO Annual Report 2016 is now available. It presents an overview of ESO’s many activities throughout the year. The contents include: Research highlights from ESO facilities, with the latest results across many fields of astronomy stretching from high-redshift galaxies to the discovery of an Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, the nearest star. A summary of operations at ESO’s observatories in Chile. The latest news from the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) projects. News about ESO staff and buildings — including the ALMA Residencia and the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. This product is available for sale in the ESOshop.

12 juin 2017: Up to now ESO’s giant telescope project has been referred to as the European Extremely Large Telescope or E-ELT, but this name, which was always intended to be interim and not final, is becoming less appropriate. To address this as the project moves rapidly forward into the construction phase, the organisation has decided on a shorter name. Instead of the European Extremely Large Telescope, the world’s biggest eye on the sky will now be known simply as the Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT. The new name, as well as being shorter and easier to say, reflects the growing number of ESO’s international partners, both at national level and as regards the commercial companies involved in the project, and also the fact that the telescope is located in Chile. Whilst older material may continue to refer to the telescope by its original name, ESO will be using the new name from ...

6 juin 2017: ESO and its Science Outreach Network are collaborating with the science education event organiser Sterrenlab and the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) to arrange the fifth ESO Astronomy Camp on the topic of Distances in the Universe. The camp will take place from Tuesday 26 December 2017 to Monday 1 January 2018 in the Aosta Valley, Italy. The camp will explore the theme of Distances in the Universe through several astronomical sessions, including lectures, hands-on activities, and night-time observations with the telescopes and instruments at the observatory. Social activities, winter sports and excursions will contribute to making the camp a memorable experience for the participants. ESO and OAVdA will be responsible for the scientific programme of the ESO Astronomy Camp, and will provide lecturers and material together with several other partners. The registration fee of €500 covers full-board accommodation at the hostel in Saint ...

5 juin 2017: The Big Science Business Forum 2018 (BSBF2018) aims to be the first one-stop-shop for European businesses and other stakeholders to learn about the future investments and procurements coming from Europe’s Big Science organisations. The event is organised by the Danish Ministry for Science and Higher Education in Copenhagen, Denmark, together with ESO and other European Big Science organisations. It is hosted by bigscience.dk and takes place on 26–28 February 2018. 1000 participants are expected to participate, mainly from European businesses and organisations planning to engage in the Big Science market. Dedicated parallel sessions, one-on-one meetings and an exhibition will give participants an opportunity to: Learn about business opportunities in the coming years, within a wide range of business areas. Meet representatives from Europe’s Big Science organisations and their key suppliers. Partake in discussions related to the opportunities and challenges of the Big Science market. Network and establish partnerships via business-to-business ...

30 mai 2017: To enhance its programme of scientific cooperation with its host country, ESO provides and manages an annual fund devoted to the development of disciplines related to astronomy and technology in Chile. The board, which consists of representatives of ESO and the Chilean Government (working through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), evaluates and selects the programmes to be supported by this fund. These fall into five areas: ESO grant funding to postdoctoral programmes in astronomy at Chilean academic institutions. Funding for academic faculty positions for periods of up to two years at Chilean academic institutions. Funding to support the development and presentation of educational programmes for the teaching and dissemination of astronomy in Chile. Funding to support development programmes and the construction of technological systems for astronomy. Funding to support the development of astronomy in areas not covered by the above four categories. The Joint Committee of ESO and Government of ...