Annonces

10 novembre 2017: The latest release of ESO’s Virtual Tours includes the option to view them in virtual reality mode as well as 360-degree panoramic mode. You can now use a cell phone with either a standard cardboard virtual reality headset or oculus rift glasses (instructions here), to experience tours of ESO’s facilities in an exciting new way. This latest release also includes new and updated virtual tours of ESO’s observatories and facilities, bringing with them better functionality on computers and new panoramic views taken during the recent fulldome expedition. Marvel at ALMA’s majestic dishes as they study the iridescent night sky, then pan round to see the starkly beautiful Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama desert — by day, by night, at sunset and at sunrise. Visit two of the most technically advanced and productive astronomical sites in the world — Paranal observatory and La Silla, ESO’s first observatory. You will be able ...

8 novembre 2017: FORSCHA, the annual science fair of Munich, is an event that aims at getting the public involved with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). With a varied programme for children, young people, parents and educators, the event encourages everyone to learn more about our world and the Universe we live in. This year the fair will take place at the MOC in Munich from 17–19 November 2017. Following last year’s successful participation, ESO will have a stand at the FORSCHA event with hands-on experiments based on activities being developed for the new ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. This year, ESO is delighted to be working with students from the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium in Garching, and with support from the Project Management Institute Southern Germany Chapter. The school students will help FORSCHA participants experience the capacity of both current and new ESO telescopes to probe the mysteries of the Universe otherwise beyond ...

2 novembre 2017: What happened at the beginning of the Universe? It’s a question astronomers have pondered for a long time. Whilst we can’t actually travel back in time, astronomers are able to see into the past and observe galaxies and stars that were made when our Universe was still very young. Because light travels at a finite speed, the further away an object is, the longer its light has taken to reach us — so we see distant objects as they were in the past. To see the most distant celestial objects astronomers use some of the world’s most advanced telescopes, many of them unique — like ALMA. ESOcast 135 describes how ALMA enables astronomers see into the past and learn more about what our Universe was like when it was young. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts on iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo. Many other ...

31 octobre 2017: The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) instrument at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile has found its first exoplanet, a hot Jupiter orbiting an M-dwarf star [1] now named NGTS-1. The planet, NGTS-1b, is only the third gas giant to have been observed transiting an M-dwarf star, following Kepler-45b and HATS-6b. NGTS-1b is the largest and most massive of these three, with a radius of 130% and a mass of 80% those of Jupiter. The NGTS uses an array of twelve 20-centimetre telescopes to search for the tiny dips in the brightness of a star caused when a planet in orbit around it passes in front of it (“transits”) and blocks some of its light. Once NGTS-1b had been discovered its existence was confirmed by follow-up observations at ESO’s La Silla Observatory: photometric observations with EulerCam on the 1.2-metre Swiss Leonhard Euler Telescope; and spectroscopic investigations with the HARPS instrument ...

16 octobre 2017: ESO’s telescopes have observed for the first time the visible counterpart to a gravitational wave source. Marking the start of a new era of multi-messenger astronomy, this rare event was captured in extraordinary detail. The observations unveil a high-energy event, known as a kilonova, that can finally be connected to the merging of two neutron stars, stellar remnants that emit gravitational waves as they spiral towards each other and then collide in a spectacular explosion. ESOcast 133 describes what was observed by ESO’s telescopes in Chile, how telescopes around the world found the kilonova, and what astronomers have learned about this newly observed astronomical phenomenon. 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.

16 octobre 2017: ESO, the world’s most productive ground-based observatory, will open its doors to the public on Saturday 21 October 2017 between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST. The ESO Open House Day event will be held at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the world of ESO first hand by taking part in many different activities; the programme of activities for the day is set out below. Our Open House Day is part of the Tag der offenen Tür that is taking place across the Garching research campus, as well as at several other local institutes. If you need help to find your way around during the Open House Day, look out for our members of staff, who will be wearing name badges. As ESO is an international organisation, our staff speak several languages between them. Media representatives who wish to attend the event are ...

16 octobre 2017: ESO will hold a press conference on Monday 16 October 2017 at 16:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present groundbreaking observations of an astronomical phenomenon that has never been witnessed before. Since this result may have very wide interest we are also inviting members of the public to view the press conference online at www.eso.org/live starting at 16:00 CEST. We cannot take questions from the public during the press conference, but anyone who wishes to interact with the people involved in the discovery can attend a Reddit Ask Science AMA session on https://redd.it/76ne3p , starting 18:30 CEST. Details will be provided from Monday 16 October 2017 16:00 CEST on ESO’s social media channels. An ESO press release will be published at the start of the conference on ESO’s website at eso.org. Translations of the press release will be available in several languages.

12 octobre 2017: How can we find out more about the origins of life on Earth? Well, we can leave Earth behind and instead look out into the Universe. The atoms that make up our bodies can only be made in the high pressure and high temperature environments of stars. When stars end their lives, sometimes in spectacular supernova explosions, the atoms that they made within them are spread across space where they form the next generation of stars and planets. In the clouds from which stars and planets form, the atoms bond together to form molecules. ESOcast 132 describes how ALMA can be used to observe many different molecules throughout the farthest reaches of the Universe, including some that are needed for life, . 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 ...

11 octobre 2017: ESO will hold a press conference on 16 October 2017 at 16:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present groundbreaking observations of an astronomical phenomenon that has never been witnessed before. The event will be introduced from ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile by the Director General, Xavier Barcons, and will feature talks by representatives of many research groups around Europe. This invitation is addressed exclusively at media representatives. To participate in the conference, bona fide members of the media must register by completing an online form. Please indicate whether you wish to come in person to the press conference or if you will participate online only. By registering for the conference, journalists agree to honour an embargo, details of which will be provided after registration, and not to publish or discuss any of the material presented before the start of the conference on 16 October 2017 at 16:00 ...

11 octobre 2017: The Irish Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald TD has announced her Government’s commitment to begin the accession process to join ESO as a Member State. The Government desires to have the accession completed by the fourth quarter of 2018, after ratification by Dáil Eireann (the Irish parliament) and approval by the ESO Council. Ireland would become ESO’s 16th Member State. The Government’s announcement signals the accomplishment of a key policy goal, announced in 2015 as part of Ireland’s Innovation 2020 strategy, which identifies the need to strengthen participation in international research organisations, including ESO. This announcement follows many years of informal discussions between the Irish astronomical community and ESO about potential membership, and formal discussions with government officials since January 2016, when the government announced they would begin membership negotiations. ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, explains the significance of this decision: “Ireland ...

6 octobre 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 Strategic Partnership between ESO and Australia Period 100: The Past, Present and Future of ESO Observing Programmes Three Years of SPHERE: The Latest View of the Morphology and Evolution of Protoplanetary Discs The Close AGN Reference Survey (CARS) ALMA Observations of z ~ 7 Quasar Hosts: Massive Galaxies in Formation Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy.

6 octobre 2017: ESO has endorsed the EOSC Declaration and expressed its support for the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative on open access to scientific data. The EOSC is an exciting initiative of the European Commission, that recognises the vital need for open access to trusted and reliable data in today’s world of scientific research. In a letter to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, and EC Director-General of Research and Innovation, Robert-Jan Smits, ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons offered ESO’s expertise towards supporting the governance of the EOSC and in particular with helping to improve the stewardship of archive data in order to enable further scientific discoveries. The EOSC aims to bring about and support changes that accelerate the transition to more effective open science and open innovation by removing barriers to the re-use of research data and tools. The ultimate goal is a globally accessible environment, operating ...

4 octobre 2017: ESO and an international consortium of institutions [1] have signed an agreement under which the planned BlackGEM array of telescopes will be sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. BlackGEM will contribute to the study of merging black holes and neutron stars, and the agreement with ESO will ensure that this exciting new telescope array benefits from one of the best observing sites and associated facilities in the world. The BlackGEM array — initially an array of 3 interconnected telescopes, with the aim of expanding to 15 telescopes — is being designed to take its place at the cutting edge of observational astronomy. It will join the search for some of the most powerful and dramatic events in the Universe — merging neutron stars and black holes. BlackGEM will look for these events in visible light, following up detections of the characteristic gravitational waves arising from the merging of ...

4 octobre 2017: The winners have been announced of the prestigious European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Between 22 and 27 September 2017, 146 young scientists from 40 countries gathered in Tallinn, Estonia to compete in the contest. As a member of the EIROforum, the group of eight major European Intergovernmental Research Organisations, ESO donated a special prize for the best project in the field of astronomy and space physics. This was won by Can Pak (aged 17) from Turkey for his project on “Measuring the surface vibration frequency with laser diode”. He will receive a trip to ESO’s sites in Chile, including visits to the Paranal Observatory and the ESO facilities in Santiago. The trip will offer Can Pak unique insights into life at the most advanced astronomical observatories in the world, a dream experience that we hope will inspire him to pursue astronomy and astrophysics in the future. The prize ...

4 octobre 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 highlighting the many uses of molybdenum; an insight into an evolutionary biology experiment; and another article in the series about gravitational waves. Practical classroom activities include: investigating how the skin of a shark can improve energy efficiency for swimming; making a particle accelerator from a salad bowl; and measuring the distance to the Moon using radio signals. Science in School is published by ...

2 octobre 2017: Surely bigger is better when it comes to telescopes to observe the vast Universe? Well, not always. ALMA is the largest ground-based facility for observing radio waves, but it is made up of 66 comparatively small, movable antennas that join forces to act as one. The resulting images from this array of individual units working together are similar to what would be achieved by a single telescope up to 16 kilometers in diameter. ESOcast 130 describes why astronomers are so keen to exploit ALMA’s enormous size and power, and how its state of the art technology is leading to observations of groundbreaking precision and quality. 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.

28 septembre 2017: On Saturday 21 October 2017 the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will open its doors to the public between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST at its headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. This event is one of the Open House Day activities taking place across the whole Garching research campus, when several other institutes will also open their doors to the public. ESO can be found at location number 39 on this map of the campus. Some of the highlights of the 2017 programme are: See the ESO Headquarters buildings — join guided tours through the innovatively styled office building and the technical building. Learn how ESO creates artificial stars, see what mirror prototypes for the Extremely Large Telescope look like, and more. Find out about the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, currently under construction and due to open in 2018. It will be the largest tilted planetarium in Germany, Austria ...

26 septembre 2017: The 22nd issue of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal is out now! In this issue you will find articles exploring the value and challenges of communicating in venues we do not usually associate with science — our libraries and airport lounges — and what this can mean for outreach and diversifying our audience. The latest issue also highlights uses of 3D printing and virtual reality to bring people closer to large astronomical objects. All of this, and more, is featured in this free, peer-reviewed journal for astronomy communicators — available now for free download. This product will also be available from the ESO shop.

25 septembre 2017: The human eye perceives light in the visible range of the spectrum, but this is just a tiny portion of the light that comes from the cosmos. What we see isn’t always all there is. ESOcast 128 describes how astronomers look at the Universe and why astronomers need ALMA, the largest ground-based facility for observing radio waves, in order to understand phenomena in some of the dustiest and most distant regions of our 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.

15 septembre 2017: MATISSE, the Multi-AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment, has passed a suite of initial tests conducted at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France and will now be transported to Chile for integration into the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. MATISSE is a four-way beam combiner, meaning that it will combine the light collected by up to four of the eight telescopes that make up the VLTI, and perform both spectroscopic and imaging observations. In so doing, MATISSE and the VLTI will together possess the imaging power of a telescope up to 200 metres in diameter, depending on the telescope configuration, and will be capable of producing stunningly detailed images. MATISSE will observe infrared light from the L-band to the N-band, which lie between visible and microwave wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. The instrument is designed to contribute to several fundamental research areas in astronomy, focusing on ...