Meddelanden från ESO

30 maj 2012: The European Astronomical Society [1] has announced that the 2012 Tycho Brahe Prize has been awarded to Professor Reinhard Genzel, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to European near-infrared instrumentation and for groundbreaking work in galactic and extragalactic astronomy. German astronomer Reinhard Genzel — director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics — and his team were responsible for building SINFONI, a near-infrared integral-field spectrograph attached to the ESO Very Large Telescope. Since its first light in 2005, SINFONI has become a key instrument for the study of the structure and dynamics of distant galaxies and, in particular, of the dynamics of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. His team has been involved in an unprecedented 20-year-long study of the movement of stars around the galactic centre, which is based on observations made with ESO’s New Technology Telescope at La Silla Observatory as well as ESO’s Very Large Telescope ...

22 maj 2012: ESO has taken a further step towards the construction of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) by awarding the preliminary design study contract for the adaptive fourth mirror (M4) of the E-ELT to the AdOptica consortium made up of ADS International (Italy) and Microgate (Italy) [1]. This mirror will be a major milestone in adaptive optics technology, becoming the largest adaptive mirror ever made for a telescope. It will be crucial for exploiting the E-ELT’s unprecedented potential, allowing astronomers to achieve major scientific breakthroughs during the next decades. The M4 mirror is part of the E-ELT’s adaptive optics system, which will be responsible for correcting the blurring effects produced both by turbulence in the atmosphere, and the effects of wind on the telescope structure. When installed this remarkable deformable mirror will allow the E-ELT to reach the theoretical maximum resolution possible in its observations [2].The M4 flat mirror will be ...

15 maj 2012: On the Chajnantor plateau in northern Chile, construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the most complex ground-based astronomy observatory in the world, continues apace. On 12 May 2012, another ALMA antenna was carried up to Chajnantor, bringing the total on the plateau to 33. This marks a half-way point for ALMA, as the telescope will have a total of 66 antennas when completed in 2013. The giant antennas, fifty-four of them with 12-metre-diameter dishes, and twelve with 7-metre-diameter dishes, use sensitive receivers to detect millimetre- and submillimetre-wavelength light from the cosmos. The first of the antennas made the trip up to the 5000-metre-altitude Array Operations Site in September 2009 (see eso0935). Now, as ALMA approaches completion, antennas are arriving at an increasing rate. The state-of-the-art ALMA antennas, which weigh about 100 tonnes each, need a custom-constructed transporter vehicle to move them between the Operations Support Facility and the ...

11 maj 2012: with Dr. Martin Gorbahn (Excellence Cluster Universe)While the Standard Model of particle physics explains many details of the building blocks of matter and their interactions, many questions still remain unanswered. Several on-going experiments, including CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, will help to clarify things. With these new tools, we can now study the forces of nature down to a scale of 10-19 metres, which is about one ten thousandth of the diameter of a proton! During the next Café & Kosmos, Dr. Martin Gorbahn will discuss what physicists expect to see at that scale. Please note that the Café & Kosmos events take place in German. What: Digging down into the quantum worldWhen: Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 19:00 until approximately 20:30Where: Vereinsheim, Occamstr. 8, 80802 München, near Münchener FreiheitAdmission is free.

10 maj 2012: Leading up to ESO’s 50th anniversary in October 2012, we are releasing eight special ESOcasts, each a chapter from the movie Europe to the Stars — ESO’s First 50 Years of Exploring the Southern Sky. The third special episode of this series — ESOcast 43 overall — presents ESO’s flagship facility: the Very Large Telescope (VLT). In this episode we discover the state-of-the-art technology behind this telescope, which has provided astronomers with an unequalled view of the Universe. To obtain the sharpest images of the sky, the VLT has to cope with two major effects that distort the images of celestial objects. The first one is mirror deformations due to their large sizes. This problem is corrected using a computer-controlled support system — active optics — that ensures that the mirrors keep their desired shapes under all circumstances. The second effect is produced by Earth’s atmosphere, which makes stars appear ...

27 april 2012: Event organisers are invited to join an international series of coordinated public events on 5 October 2012 marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory. The events will celebrate Europe’s quest to explore the southern sky, with unique and exciting activities. ESO invites venues such as public observatories, planetariums, science centres, museums, art galleries, and other public spaces, as well as organisers working with these venues, to apply to host one of these events. The centrepiece of the coordinated events will be a live connection to ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile, home of the world’s most advanced visible light astronomical observatory — the Very Large Telescope (VLT). A never-before-seen stunning astronomical image from ESO will also be unveiled. In addition to the live streaming and never-before-seen image, ESO representatives will visit venues to talk about ESO’s state-of-the-art observatories, and the latest scientific and technological results. Organisers ...

27 april 2012: On 21 April 2012, amateur radio operator Jan van Muijlwijk pointed the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in the Netherlands at the Moon. Radio waves carrying a digital version of the ESO’s 50th anniversary logo were then transmitted into outer space from Howard Ling’s amateur radio station in England. After the signals bounced off Earth’s natural satellite they were picked up by Jan, less than three seconds later, after a round trip of about 800 000 km. The result can be seen in this image which literally traveled to the Moon and back. Patrick Barthelow, who works with Echoes of Apollo and is a keen promoter of Moonbounce [1] outreach and STEM [2] education activities was the initiator of this project to mark ESO’s 50th anniversary. Artist Daniela de Paulis (www.opticks.info) is the one who first put forward the idea to Moonbounce images and continues to apply her professional experience in this ...

26 april 2012: The European Southern Observatory (ESO) invites venues such as public observatories, planetariums, science centres, museums, art galleries, and other public spaces, as well as organisers working with these venues, to join an international public exhibition campaign in 2012–2013 celebrating Europe’s quest to explore the southern sky. "Awesome Universe — the Cosmos through the Eyes of the European Southern Observatory" marks the 50th anniversary of ESO. A number of grants for financial support are available. The exhibition campaign is aimed at the general public. Visitors will discover 50 visually stunning images, showcasing celestial objects such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters as seen by ESO’s observatories — home to the world’s most advanced ground-based telescopes — as well as beautiful images of the observatories themselves, which are located in some of the most unusual places on Earth. Additional exhibition panels introduce ESO itself, and present the highlights of the observatory's first ...

19 april 2012: Leading up to ESO’s 50th anniversary in October 2012, we are releasing eight special ESOcasts, each a chapter from the movie Europe to the Stars — ESO’s First 50 Years of Exploring the Southern Sky. “Looking Up” is the second special episode of this series and ESOcast 42 overall. In it we look at how, over the past fifty years, ESO has helped to unravel some of the mysteries of the Universe in which we live. Astronomers were in need of more powerful tools to observe the sky and ESO provided them. A new generation of revolutionary ground-based telescopes has offered astronomers a front-row seat to study the wonders of the Universe. From the relative proximity of the planets in our Solar System to very distant galaxies, some of which are seen soon after the Universe was born, almost fourteen billion years ago, ESO’s telescopes and advanced instrumentation are allowing ...

4 april 2012: with Dr Frank Simon (Max Planck Institute for Physics) The study of the early Universe requires the most modern particle accelerators in order to explore the behaviour of the smallest building blocks of the cosmos. During the next Café & Kosmos, we will take a look at the evolution of the earliest stages of the Universe, and also on the future projects that will influence our understanding of physics. On 10 April 2012, Dr Frank Simon (Max Planck Institute for Physics) will discuss the moments just after the Big Bang, when the Universe was filled with elementary particles. To understand this period of the cosmos better, new and even more powerful instruments will be required. Future particle accelerators, including global projects like the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider (CLiC), will serve as huge particle microscopes to look deep into the history of the Universe. Please note ...

29 mars 2012: A new journalism competition to capture and promote inspirational coverage of European astronomy is launched today (Thursday 29 March) at the UK National Astronomy Meeting 2012 [1]. The prize is the ultimate for any astronomy enthusiast — a trip to the world’s most advanced optical instrument: the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile. Entries for the European Astronomy Journalism Prize must be about astronomy and related areas of technology, or about the work and lifestyles of astronomers, engineers or others working in the field of astronomy. The entries must reflect European interests and they can be online, written or broadcast. The competition is being run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society. It is open for entries from Monday 2 April 2012 until Friday 27 July ...

28 mars 2012: Astronomers used observational data from ESO’s telescopes and instruments to write a total of 783 refereed papers during 2011. This is an all-time high in ESO’s history. ESO remains the most productive ground-based observatory by far. Over the past few years the number of papers using observations from ESO has been almost identical to the number from observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with both rising rapidly after a slight dip in 2009. The VLT/VLTI alone provided data for 551 papers in 2011, an increase of about 8% since 2010. The total number of papers using VLT/VLTI data is now well above 4000. Papers that use data taken from the ESO archives have been accounting for a steady fraction of 12% during recent years, with a strong increase in 2011. Remarkably, even if the contribution from ESO’s flagship VLT/VLTI telescopes is excluded from the total, the remaining telescopes ...

28 mars 2012: The latest edition of ESO’s quarterly journal, The Messenger, is now available online. Find out the latest from ESO, with topics ranging from new instruments to the latest discoveries. Highlights include: A report on the progress of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), a second generation panoramic integral field spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Instrument (APEX-SZ), four years of observing galaxy clusters. Testing the feasibility of the near-infrared surface brightness method to measure distances to Cepheid variables. The story behind the search of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters and their connection with supermassive black holes in early galaxy formation. The description of the GAIA-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey, a large library of high quality spectroscopy of 100 000 Milky Way stars.

27 mars 2012: The ESO Council has approved the appointment of Alistair McPherson as Project Manager for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), and E-ELT Division Head, effective 1 July 2012. This appointment follows Alistair’s successful tenure as interim E-ELT Project Manager, in which he lead the delta Phase B activities of the project, culminating in the definition of the 39.3-metre baseline design of the E-ELT and the successful cost reviews last year. Alistair has a proven track record with the placing and following of very large contracts, and of leading projects with values of in excess of 1 billion Euros. His previous role as Programme Manager for the UK Lynx Helicopter Fleet means that he is thoroughly experienced with projects where reliability and maintainability are paramount. Alistair has considerable experience with project management in the astronomical field, having led both the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) project and the ...

22 mars 2012: The internet is buzzing with talk about the Retina display on the third generation iPad and we can see no better challenge for it than exploring the details of astronomical images. Take full advantage of the third generation iPad’s display and quad core graphics to enjoy ESO’s best views of the Universe. Vito Technology Inc.® has rebuilt the popular stargazing guide Star Walk for the new iPad with new superior graphics and content. Using astronomical images from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and ESA/HUBBLE, the Picture of the Day section of the app brings high-resolution pictures of star clusters, Messier and other astronomical objects. The Star Walk app delivers the ultimate cutting-edge experience to present-day astronomers, students and night-sky fans by allowing users to easily locate and identify 20 000+ objects in the night sky. The 360-degree, Multi-Touch star map displays 3D spinning models of constellations, stars, planets, satellites and ...

21 mars 2012: Leading up to ESO’s 50th anniversary in October 2012, we are releasing eight special ESOcasts, each a chapter from the movie Europe to the Stars — ESO’s First 50 Years of Exploring the Southern Sky. This first special episode — entitled “Going South” — describes the birth of ESO, and in particular why astronomers from European countries decided to explore the southern sky by placing an astronomical observatory in Chile. Until fifty years ago, almost all major telescopes were located north of the equator. However, astronomers soon realised the importance of the southern sky. For instance, the centre of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, can hardly be seen from the northern hemisphere but in the south it passes high overhead. Other important objects are the Magellanic Clouds — two small companion galaxies to the Milky Way — which cannot be observed from Europe, but which are very conspicuous south ...

19 mars 2012: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in print. As always, the European journal dedicated to science teachers and educators offers numerous interesting articles and activities for students. Issue 22 takes a closer look at the real science behind forensics, and at how students can do genetic fingerprinting at school. In the same vein, an article explains how you can build your own microscope. In “Harnessing the power of the Sun”, you can find out how a tokamak fusion reactor works, while other articles include natural production of hydrogen by bacteria, global warming research in Antarctica, one space scientist’s passion for astronomy and a guide to build and launch your own paper rocket. You can also find out about the most recent European Union Contest for Young Scientists, at which the EIROforum members — including ESO — offered great prizes. Science in ...

12 mars 2012: The famous British synthpop band Erasure today released a video for their latest single — Fill Us with Fire (ESO 50th Anniversary Exclusive), as a tribute to ESO’s 50th Anniversary. The video, which was improvised on the spur of the moment during an informal visit, features the Very Large Telescope as well as some of ESO’s stunning images of the night sky. This is the third single to be released from their 2011 album Tomorrow’s World. The project started with a visit to the observatory by Andy Bell, lead singer of the band. The observatory, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), sits atop a solitary mountain at 2635 metres altitude in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, and offers stunning vistas of the surrounding desert and of the night sky. Taken with the magnificent setting, Andy asked if he could take the opportunity to film while on site. Andy ...

9 mars 2012: The European Southern Observatory has launched an initiative to attach extra information about context (metadata) to the images in its huge collection. The Astronomy Visualization Metadata standard that is now implemented has been developed in collaboration with many other major observatories, including partners from NASA, ESA, the California Academy of Sciences and the University of Arizona. It is now easier than ever to learn more about the fantastic imagery of the Universe, including the archives of ESO. The Astronomy Visualization Metadata (AVM) standard was created to make access to astronomical images easier by collecting extra information in a standard way [1]. This extra information — known as metadata — includes details similar to those included with every digital snapshot picture coming from cameras today — who took the picture, when was it taken, where in the sky was the camera pointed and so on. It is, however, specifically designed for ...

9 mars 2012: with Dr. Henk Spruit (Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik) Global warming and the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide affect us all. The Sun brings us the warmth that we need to live. But could part of global warming be caused by changes in the Sun, and not by our greenhouse gases? In other words, are we the main culprits after all? In the news, we hear regularly about destructive tropical storms, extreme cold, or unusually warm winters. Are these caused by the global warming? Insurance companies have gathered a lot of statistics. Dr. Henk Spruit (Max-Planck-Institute für Astrophysik) will debate these critical issues with Café & Kosmos guests on 14 March. He will also discuss recent changes in the Sun, and explain how we understand our star and what is happening inside it. Please note that the Café & Kosmos events take place in German. What: Sun, sunspots and climate changeWhen: Wednesday, ...