Meddelanden från ESO

19 december 2022: Forty-eight days after suspending observations due to a cyberattack, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is observing the sky again. The computing staff has worked diligently to rebuild the affected observatory’s computer system servers and services. This is a crucial milestone in the recovery process. On 29 October, ALMA suffered a cyberattack. The computing staff took immediate countermeasures to avoid loss and damage to scientific data and IT infrastructure. The attack affected various critical operational servers and computers. “The challenge was to securely restore all the communication and computer systems as quickly as possible. We established an aggressive plan that required coordination with the ALMA partnership worldwide,” explains Jorge Ibsen, Head of the ALMA Computing Department. “Thanks to the active engagement of everyone in the collaboration, especially the Computing, Engineering, and Science Operations staff, and the cybersecurity experts from ESO, NAOJ, and NRAO, we managed to be observing as planned.” ...

25 november 2022: Den 2 december klockan 19.00 är du inbjuden till en virtuell rundvandring i realtid på ESO:s observatorier och anläggningar. Se vad som händer bakom kulisserna på våra observatorier i Chile, en av de mest avlägsna platserna på jorden. Lär dig om vad som krävs för att driva ett teleskop i Atacamaöknen och vad astronomerna letar efter där. Följ med till integrationshallen vid ESO:s huvudkontor i Garching, Tyskland, där instrument konstrueras, och mycket mer! Rundvandringen kommer att hållas på engelska på ESO:s YouTubekanal och Facebooksida. Den håller på i en timme och följs av en frågestund. ESO-medarbetare finns också till hands på sociala medier för att svara på dina astronomifrågor. I Garching när München håller ESO Supernova planetarium och vetenskapscenter öppet med kostnadsfritt inträde och aktiviteter. Där kommer rundvandringen att visas och astronomer och ingenjörer finnas på plats för att berätta om ESO och astronomi. Boka en plats här. Den virtuella ...

23 november 2022: ESO’s newest scientific instrument, the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) has successfully completed its first test observations. One of them exposed the heart of the galaxy NGC 1097 in mesmerising detail. Installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal in northern Chile, this infrared instrument will be able to see further and in finer detail, leading the way in Solar System, exoplanet and galaxy observations. The versatility of ERIS [1] will lend itself to many fields of astronomical research as it aims to take the sharpest images obtained to date using a single 8.2-metre telescope. It will do so using adaptive optics, a technique that corrects for the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere in real time. ERIS will be active for at least ten years and is expected to make significant contributions to a myriad of topics in astronomy, ranging from distant galaxies and black holes through ...

2 november 2022: Update (18 Nov 2022) This event is under investigation by local authorities. The Computing team quickly isolated the Antennas and Correlator systems and the Science Archive data systems. However, communication and other operational clusters were affected, forcing ALMA to stop all observations. Since then, email communication has been restored safely, along with new collaboration tools that enable the staff to continue their regular work. The Crisis Management Team has developed a full-recovery plan in consultation with cyber security officers from ESO/NAOJ/NRAO. Our highest priority is to work hard to resume observations before the end of the year. Last Saturday, 29 October, at 6:14 AM (GMT-3), the ALMA observatory in Chile suffered a cyberattack on its computer systems, forcing the suspension of astronomical observations and the public website. There are limited email services at the observatory. The threat has been contained, and our specialists are working hard to restore affected systems. ...

26 oktober 2022: Leiden University has recently announced that a professor at the university has been found by the university’s Complaints Committee to have subjected colleagues to intimidating and unacceptable behaviour, including harassment. Media reports have named the professor as Tim de Zeeuw, who was ESO’s Director General from 2007 to 2017. This has now been confirmed by a statement to Physics World by a lawyer acting on his behalf. First and most importantly, we express our deep support and sympathy for the victims of this harassment. ESO is strongly against all forms of harassment, bullying and other unacceptable behaviour. At ESO, we are committed to creating a work environment that is safe and professional, where everyone is treated with courtesy, respect, and mutual trust, and where diversity and inclusion are valued. To this end, we have in place a respectful workplace policy, which applies to everyone working at or visiting ESO, and ...

21 juli 2022: ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, is one of the confirmed speakers at the Starmus VI festival, joining a star-studded line-up that includes no less than eight Nobel Prize laureates, five astronauts, and prominent artists and thinkers. The Starmus Festival is an artistic and scientific celebration of the wonders of the Universe and science communication. Conferences, speeches, presentations, the Stephen Hawking Science Medal award and other events are a part of the programme. The sixth edition of the Starmus festival will take place from 5 to 10 September 2022 in Yerevan, Armenia. This edition is set to be the biggest yet and the theme is a dedication to the planet Mars. Speakers at Starmus VI will include world-renowned astronauts, including Chris Hadfield and former NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden Jr. In addition, Starmus will feature a wide selection of Nobel Laureate scientists such as Kip Thorne, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Donna Strickland, as ...

14 juli 2022: 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 ...

12 juli 2022: After nine months of work, ESO and the Saesa Group inaugurated the Paranal-Armazones photovoltaic plant, which will supply renewable energy to ESO's Paranal Observatory and, soon, to the construction and operation of ESO's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the largest optical telescope in the world. After its inauguration, the plant became the largest solar complex in Chile supplying renewable energy to an astronomical observatory. With 18 565 panels, distributed over 7.2 hectares of land, it will harvest 9 megawatts of electric power. This will make it possible to cover 100% of the energy needed to operate ESO’s facilities, such as the Very Large Telescope and the ELT, during a day, the period with the greatest energy demand due to the telescopes’ cooling systems. “This milestone is a dream that becomes reality! Today we are closing an endeavour that started more than ten years ago, when the Chilean Ministry of Energy together ...

27 juni 2022: The Near InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS) instrument, mounted on ESO’s 3.6-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, has successfully performed its first observations. Its mission is to search for new exoplanets around the Milky Way’s coolest stars. “NIRPS has been a long time in the making, and I’m thrilled with how this mission has come together!” says René Doyon, Director of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, and co-Principal Investigator of NIRPS. “This incredible infrared instrument will help us find the closest habitable worlds to our own Solar System.” The instrument will focus its search on rocky worlds, which are key targets for understanding how planets form and evolve, and are the most likely planets where life may develop. NIRPS will search for these rocky exoplanets around small, cool red dwarf stars — the most common type of stars in our Milky Way galaxy, which ...

20 maj 2022: ESO’s observatory sites in Chile are once again opening their doors to the public, after two years of pandemic-related closures. From 28 May, visitors will be able to take free tours of the sites in Paranal and La Silla. “We hope to once again amaze people with ESO's impressive telescopes, immersed in the most incredible landscapes of the Atacama Desert,'' says Luis Chavarría, ESO Representative in Chile. “The reopening of our sites to the public marks a small but significant step for ESO.” Tours of the ESO sites provide a unique opportunity for anybody to experience what it is like at the forefront of astronomy research. Visitors can explore inside the ESO telescopes, learn about their technology, and even witness where astronomers and engineers find a much-needed oasis in the desert. Public tours will run every Saturday at 10:00 and 14:00 in Spanish and English. Each tour will be limited ...

4 maj 2022: On April 29, Josep Borrell Fontelles, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, visited ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Borrell is the Commission Vice-President in charge of coordinating the external action of the European Union (EU), which involves strengthening the EU’s ties with other countries around the globe. During his visit, Josep Borrell met with Luis Chavarría, ESO Representative in Chile, Bárbara Nuñez, ESO’s Regional Relations Officer and Maxime Boccas, Head of Paranal Observatory's Maintenance, Support and Engineering Department. Borrell was accompanied by León de la Torre, EU ambassador in Chile and a committee of the EU. His visit to Chile aims to support economic and scientific collaboration between Chile and the Member states of the European Union. ESO is an illustration of this cooperation, for example, the Observatory and Chile signed an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation for the construction and operation of ESO’s ...

28 april 2022: Europeiska sydobservatoriet (ESO) och Event Horizon Telescope-projektet (EHT) håller en presskonferens för att presentera nya forskningsresultat från EHT. När? 12 maj kl. 15:00 Var? Eridanus Auditorium, ESO:s högkvarter, Garching bei München, Tyskland, och online Vad? En presskonferens för att presentera nya forskningsresultat från EHT Vem? ESO:s generaldirektör öppnar mötet. EHT:s projektledare Huib Jan van Langevelde och Anton Zenaua (EHT Collaboration Board Founding Chair) deltar också. En panel med EHT-forskare förklarar resultaten och svarar på frågor: Thomas Krichbaum, Max Planckinstitutet för radioastronomi, Tyskland Sara Issaoun, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, USA och Radbouduniversitet, Nederländerna José Gómez, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Spanien Christian Fromm, Würzburgs universitet, Tyskland Mariafelicia de Laurentis, University of Naples “Federico II” och National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italien OSA: Denna inbjudan gäller representanter från media. För att delta i presskonferensen måste journalister registrera sig via onlineformuläret senast 9 maj kl. 23:59. Ange om ...

11 mars 2022: Due to the war in Ukraine, to support our colleagues in the scientific community and their families, ESO is announcing a Special Visitor Programme for Scientists working in the country to visit one of the ESO premises (Garching, Germany or Vitacura, Chile) to conduct scientific or technical projects. Grants will be provided in support of these scientific visits, and travel and accommodation will be covered for the full duration of the project. More information can be found on the ESO science pages. All ESO Member States have condemned the military invasion of Ukraine ordered by the Russian leadership, which blatantly violates the most fundamental human rights and is entirely incompatible with our values at ESO. ESO does not have and does not intend to have any official relationship with institutions and companies from Russia and Belarus under the current circumstances.

24 februari 2022: Last year proved to be a record-breaking year for research based on observations conducted at ESO observatories. A recent report by the ESO Library and Information Centre shows that, in 2021 alone, over 1100 papers including ESO data were released, the highest annual number of publications from ESO telescope data to date. The most significant contribution to these publications comes from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI), which yielded data included in over 600 studies. The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) continues to be one of the most productive VLT instruments, providing data for over 160 articles in 2021. There has also been a steep increase in papers using data from the VLTI instrument GRAVITY this year. Highlights from these facilities include the discovery, using MUSE, of the closest pair of supermassive black holes to date and investigations into the causes of Betelgeuse’s great dimming, which ...

11 februari 2022: Today marks the United Nations’ International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The day aims to promote equal access to science for women and girls, serving as a reminder that they play a critical role in science and technology communities, and that their participation in them should be promoted. ESO has taken important steps towards diversity and inclusion of all genders, including over the past year, and will be hosting a week of activities to celebrate this day. In October 2021, as part of the agreement between ESO and UN Women signed in 2020, ESO started participating in the Second Chance programme (Tu Oportunidad) in Chile. In partnership with UN Women, ESO began to train seven Chile-based women in key astronomical technical skills, such as the coating of large telescope mirrors, which will allow them to expand their job opportunities and gain the skills to work in top astronomical ...

10 februari 2022: On 9 February, ESO and Australia signed an amendment to broaden the scope of their strategic partnership. By virtue of this expanded agreement, Australia will join ESO’s Technology Development Programme, meaning Australian companies and institutions will be eligible to work with ESO in developing future technologies for ground-based telescopes. Australia has been a Strategic Partner of ESO since 2017. The partnership has granted Australian astronomers and industry access to ESO’s state-of-the-art research infrastructure at the La Silla and Paranal observatories, including telescopes such as ESO’s Very Large Telescope or ESO’s 3.6m Telescope [1]. They also have the opportunity to collaborate with ESO Member State institutions on developing instruments for these observatories. The amendment signed today will further strengthen this partnership by allowing Australia to participate in ESO’s Technology Development Programme. Launched in 2014, this programme brings ESO’s engineers and industry together to develop future technologies for ground-based astronomy in areas ...

7 februari 2022: An international collaboration involving ESO has submitted a new paper to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) seeking better protections for the Earth’s dark and quiet skies. The paper was accepted for discussion today at the ongoing session of the COPUOS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, marking the first time the dark and quiet skies have ever been tabled as a formal agenda item by the United Nations. The paper, which has been endorsed by Chile, Spain and Slovakia, encourages the international community to protect global astronomical observing capabilities from disruptive and harmful artificial interference. The night sky offers a rich tapestry of stars to the fortunate viewer, but over the last few decades, its quality has been diminished as a result of encroaching ground-based light pollution. A new threat is now emerging: the large number of satellites being introduced into low Earth orbits. As many ...

12 november 2021: As one of the world’s leading astronomy organisations, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is fully committed to fighting climate change by reducing the environmental impact of its activities. The ESO Directors Team has now approved a new set of measures to gradually decrease the organisation’s carbon footprint over the coming years. The measures are inspired by the United Nations guidelines and build upon the actions ESO had already adopted in the past. ESO carries out the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities, providing astronomers worldwide with some of the best tools for their research and discoveries. This work leads to invaluable scientific and technological progress and other societal benefits, but also unavoidably places demands on resources, energy and the environment. In a carbon audit conducted in 2019, ESO’s 2018 footprint budget was estimated to be around 28 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (tCO2e/yr) [1], with ...

29 oktober 2021: Twenty years ago today, light from two of the 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes (UTs) of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile was combined for the first time. The event marked the historic moment when these telescopes first operated as a true interferometer, sparking the beginning of a new era for astronomy. When the light beams of the two UTs were combined on the night of 29 October 2001, the VLTI did not only successfully start its operations, but also delivered its first scientific results: the measurement of the size of the southern star Achernar, which was found to be approximately ten times larger than our Sun. This was followed by three more nights of scientific observations, where the VLTI showcased its excellent potential by measuring ten more stars, and notably performing the first interferometric observation of the intriguing Eta Carinae. The successful concept of the VLTI ...

6 oktober 2021: The largest adaptive mirror ever built, the M4 mirror for ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), has reached an important milestone in its development: all six petal-shaped segments that make up the mirror are now completed. M4, the fourth mirror in the light path of the telescope, can change shape quickly and very precisely, and is a key part of the ELT’s adaptive optics system. Light from cosmic objects is distorted by our planet’s atmosphere, producing blurred images. To correct for these distortions, the ELT will use advanced adaptive-optics hardware and software, some of which has been specially developed for the telescope. This includes powerful lasers that create artificial reference stars when there aren’t stars bright enough close to the object of interest to allow measurements of atmospheric distortions, and fast and accurate sensing cameras that measure these distortions. The measurements are then passed to extremely fast real-time computers that ...