Meddelanden 2017

6 oktober 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 oktober 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 oktober 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 oktober 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 oktober 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 september 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 september 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 september 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 september 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 ...

15 september 2017: At a ceremony on 14 September 2017 at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK, the winners of this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition were announced. All of the winning photographs will be available for viewing in a free public gallery at the Observatory’s Astronomy Centre from 16 September 2017. ESO plays a part by contributing a judge, Oana Sandu, from its education and Public Outreach Department. This year’s overall winner, who receives a cash prize of £10,000, was Artem Mironov of Russia. His spectacular image of the colourful gas and dust in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a nebula located 400 light years from Earth, also won the Stars and Nebulae category. The prizewinners in all of the categories are: Stars and Nebulae — Photos of stars, star clusters, supernova remnants, and nebulae Artem Mironov (Russia) with The Rho Ophiuchi Clouds (Winner and Overall Winner) András Papp (Hungary) ...

12 september 2017: From almost 300 entries, both photos and timelapses, spread across more than 40 countries, the nine winners of the 2017 Photo NightScape Awards, a competition supported by ESO, have now been chosen. Lars Lindberg Christensen, Head of ESO’s education and Public Outreach Department, was one of the jury members who selected the winners. The competition was created in 2014 by Franck Séguin and it is currently run by the non-profit organisation Chasseurs de Nuits. Prizes were awarded to the first and second places in three categories: Nightscape; In Town; and Timelapse. A junior prize was also awarded to a French national under 17. The first prize in the Nightscape category went to Marcio Cabral of Brazil for his spectacular nightscape of the Milky Way with subtly lit carnivorous plants in the foreground. His prize is a one-week trip to the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile, home of the Very Large ...

1 september 2017: ESO now has a blog: the ESOblog! The project aims to share with readers from all walks of life day to day stories from the world’s most productive ground-based observatory. ESO currently operates an impressive fleet of telescopes, equipped with several dozen instruments, that together are pushing astronomy research towards ever more exciting discoveries. Hidden behind the scenes of all this work are amazing stories about our people, our technology and the science they enable. The ESOblog was born from a desire to share more of the many interesting stories at ESO, going beyond the news items that we already release. The blog has the following categories: People@ESO: more about the people who make ESO work; On the Ground: stories about the ESO Sites and facilities; Letters from the DG; Outreach@ESO: behind the scenes of ESO’s public-facing communication; Science Snapshots: quirky or interesting scientific results from our community; Science@ESO: science ...

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 augusti 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 augusti 2017: In ESOcast 124 ESO’s outgoing Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, gives us his thoughts and reflections on a decade at ESO. Over the last ten years ESO has consolidated its position as the world’s foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation. In this period of growth the organisation has seen the accession of two new member states and also the construction of new telescopes, instruments and facilities, leading to astonishing new discoveries. As Director General, Tim de Zeeuw has played an extremely important role in the evolution of ESO, an evolution which continues to take the organisation into new territory. Perhaps most significant is that under his leadership, the ESO Council has agreed to proceed with the construction of the Extremely Large Telescope, which is set to usher in a new era of astronomy. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts on iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo. Many ...

22 augusti 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 augusti 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 augusti 2017: Stjärnornas banor kring det supermassiva svarta hålet i mitten av vår galax visar för första gången tecken på de subtila skiftningarna som Einsteins allmänna relativitetsteori förutspår. Det framgår av en analys av mätningar som gjorts med bland annat ESO:s Very Large Telescope. Omloppsbanan för stjärnan S2 tycks avvika något från banan som beräknas enligt den klassiska fysiken. Det eggande resultatet ger en försmak av de allt noggrannare mätningar och tester av relativitetsteorin som kommer att utföras med hjälp av instrumentet GRAVITY när stjärnan passerar väldigt nära det svarta hålet under 2018. I mitten av Vintergatan, 26 000 ljusår från jorden, ligger vårt närmsta supermassiva svarta hål. Detta monster, som har en massa fyra miljoner gånger solens, omges av en liten grupp av stjärnor som kretsar i hög fart i det starka gravitationsfältet runt det svarta hålet. Det är en perfekt miljö för att testa tyngdkraftens fysik och särskilt Einsteins allmänna ...

7 augusti 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 augusti 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 ...