Science Users Information

These pages are aimed at ESO community astronomers and contain all the information required in order to prepare, execute, process and exploit observations with ESO facilities. They also provide information on the scientific activities taking place at ESO. Details can be accessed via the navigation menu.


ESO Science Announcements

Pitch your Research to ESO Communications to Reach a Broad Audience

Published: 05 Jun 2023

Are you an author on an upcoming scientific study based on ESO data that could be relevant to journalists or the wider public? Or are you a Principal Investigator on ESO observations with potential to become stunning images like that above? If so, please consider sending your paper and/or a preview of the image(s) obtained with ESO telescopes to ESO's Media Manager Barbara Ferreira at press@eso.org

Metal Production and Distribution in a Hierarchical Universe - II

Published: 05 Jun 2023

Metals trace the full evolution of the Universe: from primordial Helium and Lithium in the big-bang nucleosynthesis to all heavier elements produced in stars and explosive events. Their relative abundances in different environments, and across cosmic time, reveal the underlying star formation history and gas exchange processes. We can now use metal production and distribution to test our ideas of galaxy evolution at many different hierarchical scales: from stellar clusters to clusters of galaxies. The hierarchical build up of present-day structures at different redshifts can also be followed, which goes in parallel with the build-up of stellar and metal mass. These processes are interwoven: during most of cosmic history metal production happens at stellar scales, but metal distribution is effective on spatial scales covering several orders of magnitude. Therefore simulations require exceptional computational power, and tracing metals across cosmic time needs an equivalent investment in observational facilities. Ten years later the original meeting held at Paris Observatory, the time has come to gather the scientific community and discuss the impact of the recent advent of massive spectroscopic surveys (e.g., APOGEE, LAMOST, the Gaia ESO survey, Gaia, GALAH...), the Gaia astrometric mission and the now operative James Webb Space Telescope.

MOONS Detector Systems – All Science Grade Detector Systems are Shipped

Published: 15 May 2023

All six of the final Science Grade Detector systems have now been shipped to the UK Astronomy Technology Centre to be integrated into the MOONS instrument. The MOONS Detector System work package began in 2017 with the initial design phase and procurement. A total of eleven detectors have been tested in this time, this included 7 x Teledyne H4RG-15 detectors in the latest FRSBE package with 2.5 µm cut-off material (1 x Multiplexer, 1 x Engineering Grade, 5 x Science Grade detectors) as well as 4 x LBNL fully-depleted CCDs (2 x Engineering Grades and 2 x Science Grades). At the same time, 3 new test facilities had to be designed and developed, CRISLER for H4RG detector testing, CEAT for MOONS detector cryogenic cable testing and a new test cryostat for the CCDs.

The Messenger 190 is Now Available Online-only, Subscribe to Receive it into your Inbox

Published: 15 May 2023

As previously announced, after nearly half a century in publication, ESO’s journal for science and technology, The Messenger, is making a jump into the digital world by becoming an online-only publication. As reader habits have continued to shift online along with journal publication practices, and with sustainability an ever greater focus at ESO, The Messenger has evolved accordingly. Readers will now be able to find both new and old issues of the historic journal at a new redesigned webpage, making the published articles in The Messenger more accessible, usable and traceable than before. 

Scientific and Technical Committee Meeting

Published: 15 May 2023

Under its remit to “Advise Council and the Director General on policy matters of scientific and technical importance related to the planning and operation of ESO”, the STC had its 102nd meeting on 17 and 18 April in Vitacura, Chile. The agenda included the updates on current and future ESO facilities. As always the STC was deeply impressed by the high level of activity at all of ESO’s observatories -ALMA, ELT and Paranal/La Silla.

The Messenger

The Messenger 190 is now available. Highlights include:

  • Mainieri, et al.: The 4MOST Community Surveys
  • Jerabkova, T., et al.: The First Results of Distributed Peer Review at ESO Show Promising Outcomes

The ESO Science Newsletter

The May 2023 issue is now available.

The ESO Science Newsletter, mailed approximately once per month, presents the most recent announcements. Subscription is controlled through the Manage Profile link on the User Portal. Back issues (2013-) are archived.