Aankondigingen

1 september 2017: A powerful new instrument called NIRPS (Near Infra Red Planet Searcher) is to be installed on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Built by an international collaboration [1] co-led by the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic (OMM) team at the Université de Montréal and the Astronomy Department team at the Université de Genève, NIRPS is a high accuracy radial velocity infrared spectrograph designed to detect Earth-like rocky planets around the coolest stars. The formal agreement to add NIRPS to the suite of instruments on ESO telescopes was signed by Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, Marie-Josée Hébert, Vice-rector for Research, Discovery, Creation and Innovation at the Université de Montréal and Michel Oris, Vice-rector at the Université de Genève. NIRPS will complement the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) instrument currently attached to the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. HARPS is the ...

31 augustus 2017: The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has signed a three-year partnership agreement with Softmachine Immersive Productions GmbH as a Technology Partner of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. Softmachine is an award-winning and innovative animation studio producing 360° fulldome content, with over 10 years of expertise and experience in immersive storytelling. Softmachine, the biggest fulldome producer and distributer based in Munich, produces 2D and 3D immersive content for digital theatres, planetariums, science centres, entertainment parks and VR experiences. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cooperation between ESO and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). The building is a donation from the German foundation Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) and the facility is managed by ESO. Under the terms of this partnership with ESO, Softmachine will provide a licence to show the highly-rated movie The Secrets of Gravity, lasting for 3 years from the opening of the ESO ...

24 augustus 2017: In ESOcast 124 blikt ESO’s vertrekkend directeur-generaal Tim de Zeeuw terug op zijn tien jaar bij ESO. De afgelopen tien jaar verstevigde ESO zijn positie als 's werelds belangrijkste intergouvernementele astronomieorganisatie. In deze periode van groei traden twee lidstaten toe en werden nieuwe telescopen, instrumenten en faciliteiten gebouwd die tot opmerkelijke ontdekkingen leiden of zullen leiden. Als directeur-generaal speelde Tim de Zeeuw een belangrijke rol in de evolutie van ESO en de nieuwe terreinen de organisatie betreedt. De belangrijkste ontwikkeling onder zijn leiderschap is wellicht dat de ESO Council instemde met de bouw van de Extremely Large Telescope. Die telescoop zal een nieuw tijdperk in de sterrenkunde inleiden. Abonneren op de ESOcasts kan op iTunes, YouTube of Vimeo. Veel andere ESOcast afleveringen zijn ook beschikbaar. Ontdekt hier hoe je de ondertitels kunt bekijken of kunt bijdragen aan het ondertitelen van de ESOcast in meerdere talen of vertaal deze video op ...

22 augustus 2017: ESPRESSO — the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations — has passed ESO’s Preliminary Acceptance Europe (PAE). This means that it has successfully completed all preliminary testing, and the instrument will now be packed up and shipped to Chile, where it will be installed at the combined coudé focus of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). ESPRESSO is expected to see first light later in 2017. ESPRESSO, an echelle spectrograph, is one of the most eagerly awaited instruments in the astronomical world [1]. It is the successor to ESO’s planet-hunting HARPS instrument on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, and will exceed HARPS’s precision by about 10 times [2]. As the next-generation planet hunter, ESPRESSO will measure minuscule changes in the light from stars, as planets — many of them smaller than Neptune — rotate around them. This radial velocity method, as it is known, records tiny ...

10 augustus 2017: Back in October 2012, the near-Earth asteroid 2012 TC4 had a close encounter with Earth. It passed our planet at a distance only a quarter of that between the Earth and the Moon. In October 2017, this small asteroid, with a size of only about 15 to 30 metres, will return for another very close fly-by, making it the perfect object to test the asteroid detection and tracking network. As 2012 TC4 could not be observed for several years, its orbit was not very well known. In particular, astronomers could not yet predict just how close it will come to Earth during its next fly-by in 2017. So finding it again and observing it in detail are crucial to learning more about how close it will get to Earth and refining our understanding of the path it will take. Because the asteroid is so small and is still far away ...

9 augustus 2017: Een nieuwe analyse van gegevens van ESO’s Very Large Telescope en andere telescopen wijst er voor het eerst op dat de omloopbanen van sterren rond het superzware zwarte gat in het centrum van de Melkweg de subtiele effecten kunnen vertonen zoals die zijn voorspeld door Einsteins algemene relativiteitstheorie. Er zijn aanwijzingen dat de omloopbaan van de ster S2 enigszins afwijkt van het pad dat met behulp van klassieke fysica is berekend. Dit spannende resultaat is een voorproefje van de veel nauwkeurigere metingen en tests die in 2018 met het GRAVITY-instrument zullen worden gedaan wanneer S2 heel dicht langs het zwarte gat beweegt. In het centrum van de Melkweg, ruim 26.000 lichtjaar van de aarde, bevindt zich het meest nabije superzware zwarte gat, dat vier miljoen keer zoveel massa heeft als de zon. Dit monster is omringd door een klein groepje sterren dat met hoge snelheid om hem heen draait. Het ...

7 augustus 2017: This video takes a relaxed look at a tense process — cleaning and recoating the surface of one of the ESO Very Large Telescope’s 8.2-metre main mirrors. Every night the huge mirrors are exposed to the atmosphere whilst uncovered during observing sessions. They gradually accumulate dust and other pollutants that reduce their reflectivity, making them less effective at capturing faint light from the cosmos. So they are regularly removed from the telescope, taken down the mountain to the recoating facility, cleaned and finally recoated with a thin and highly reflective new aluminium layer. 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.

4 augustus 2017: The Chilean Minister of Energy, Andrés Rebolledo, recently attended a ceremony marking the connection of ESO’s Paranal and Armazones sites, the latter being where the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will be located, to the Chilean national electricity grid. The new electricity supply will reduce costs and reduce the observatory’s carbon footprint. Minister Rebolledo remarked on the importance of this development as an example of the capability of Chile’s electricity network and its ability to provide a safe, high-quality supply of energy for cutting-edge astronomical research. Roberto Tamai, the ELT Programme Manager, who was the Project Manager for this ESO upgrade, thanked the Chilean government and institutions for helping to create the energy infrastructure that will underpin progress on the ELT site. With its 39-metre main mirror the construction of the ELT is a demanding technological and engineering challenge. Tamai stressed that the electricity supply is a key part of the ...

2 augustus 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 augustus 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 juli 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 juli 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 juli 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 juli 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 juli 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 juli 2017: Een van de meest uitdagende en opwindende terreinen van de moderne astronomie is de jacht op exoplaneten – andere werelden die om andere sterren draaien. Onlangs is met het Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument – kortweg SPHERE – van ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) een nieuwe exoplaneet opgespoord: HIP 65426b. Deze planeet, die ongeveer 385 lichtjaar van ons verwijderd is, is de eerste die SPHERE heeft ontdekt [1] – en het blijkt om een bijzonder interessant exemplaar te gaan. Met een temperatuur van 1000 tot 1400 graden Celsius is de planeet, die zes tot twaalf keer zoveel massa heeft als Jupiter, behoorlijk warm. Hij lijkt te zijn gehuld in een zeer stoffige atmosfeer met dikke bewolking, en draait om een hete, jonge ster die verrassend snel om zijn as wentelt. De ster lijkt niet te zijn omringd door een schijf van puin, wat merkwaardig is voor zijn leeftijd. Het ontbreken ...

4 juli 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 juni 2017: Bij de bouw van de ESO-sterrenwacht op Paranal in Chili – een van de grootste en meest geavanceerde telescoopfaciliteiten ter wereld – waren enkele van de knapste wetenschappers en ingenieurs betrokken. En nu hebben de Nederlandse astronoom Frans Snik en een team van toegewijde helpers dat nog eens dunnetjes overgedaan. Zij hebben een uniek LEGO®-model gemaakt van het complete Paranal-platform, compleet met verrassend gedetailleerde replica’s van de vier 8,2-meter VLT Unit Telescopes (UT) en de vier ondersteunende 1,8-meter Auxiliary Telescopes [1].Dit verbazingwekkende eenmalige model is overgedragen aan ESO, en te bezichtigen in het ESO-hoofdkwartier in Garching, Duitsland. Zodra in het voorjaar van 2018 het ESO Supernova planetarium & bezoekerscentrum in het ESO-hoofdkwartier is geopend, zal het model daar een plek krijgen.Het model van het Paranal-platform, op een schaal van ongeveer 1:150, omvat niet alleen de verschillende VLT-telescopen en hun behuizingen: ook alle instrumenten die bij de echte VLT worden gebruikt ...

19 juni 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 juni 2017: Het team achter de Pale Red Dot-campagne, dat vorig jaar een planeet ontdekte bij de meest nabije buurster van onze zon (eso1629), zet zijn zoektocht naar aarde-achtige planeten voort en start vandaag een nieuw initiatief. De Red Dots-campagne zal astronomen volgen terwijl deze met behulp van ESO’s ‘exoplanetenjager’ speuren naar planeten rond enkele van onze meest nabije stellaire buren: Proxima Centauri, de Ster van Barnard en Ross 154. ESO sluit zich aan bij dit Open Notebook Science-experiment – echter wetenschap die live wordt gepresenteerd – dat het publiek en de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap gaandeweg de campagne toegang geeft tot waarnemingsgegevens van Proxima Centauri. Het wetenschappelijke team [1], dat onder leiding staat van Guillem Anglada-Escudé van Queen Mary University te London, zal gedurende negentig nachten gegevens verzamelen en analyseren van ESO’s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) en instrumenten van elders ter wereld [2]. De fotometrische waarnemingen begonnen op 15 juni ...