ESO Annual Report 2021

The ESO Annual Report 2021 is now available. It presents a summary of ESO’s many activities throughout the year. The contents include:

• The restart of operations at the La Silla Paranal Observatory, which reached close to full operation by the end of the year.
• The remote commissioning of CRIRES+ (the upgraded CRyogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph) and IRLOS (the InfraRed Low Order Sensor), and the assembly, integration and verification of ERIS (the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph), at Paranal.
• The installation of the CONCERTO (CarbON CII line in post-rEionisation and ReionisaTiOn epoch) instrument at APEX, and progress on the installation of NIRPS (the Near Infra Red Planet Searcher) at La Silla.
• The restart of operations at ALMA, as well as continuing ALMA Development activities: the start of Band 1 observatory integration, Band 2 pre-production, and the approval of a new Band 6 prototype.
• Significant progress on the ELT, both in design and manufacturing in Europe and at the construction site at Armazones, where civil work resumed in May — under strict COVID-19 safety conditions — and ramped up through the rest of the year. The telescope main structure successfully passed its Final Design Review, more than 50% of the glass of the 39.3-metre‑diameter primary mirror has now been cast, and progress continues on the rest of the optomechanics, as well as the very complex and challenging ELT instruments.
• The approval by Council of an updated formulation of ESO’s Values, which will underpin all organisational activities.
• Highlights of the latest scientific research enabled by ESO’s facilities, which once again resulted in more than 1000 refereed papers in 2021, and ESO’s ongoing fostering of cooperation in astronomy, as well as education and outreach activities.

This Annual Report is not available for sale.