The ESPRESSO 4-UT mode is a new capability offered at the VLT. The commissioning of this instrument mode is nearing completion, and an integral part of this process is Science Verification (SV). SV programmes include a set of typical scientific observations that should verify and demonstrate to the community the capabilities of the new instrument in the operational framework of the VLT Observatory. ESO encourages the community to submit highly challenging or risky science observations that will push ESPRESSO in 4-UT mode to its limits in order to better understand the performance parameter space and its constraints.

The Offices for Science and the Astronomy Faculty are very pleased to present the 2019 ESO Fellows. Here is an introduction to the Fellows due to start in Garching, Germany later this year.

The Offices for Science and the Astronomy Faculty are very pleased to present the 2019 ESO Fellows. Here is an introduction to the Fellows due to start in Chile later this year.

The ESO Annual Report 2018 is now available. It presents a summary of ESO’s activities throughout the year, outlining progress on the design, construction and operation of ground-based astronomical facilities, as well as various initiatives to promote and organise astronomical research.

The ESO Public Survey ATLAS with VST (ESO programme ID: 177.A-3011; PI: Tom Shanks) is targeting 4700 square degrees of the southern sky in u,g,r,i and z bands to depths comparable to those of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey SDSS (r ~ 22). Its wide wavelength coverage, from the u to z band, complements the VISTA, VHS and VIKING Surveys in YJHK bands. This fourth data release (DR4) provides new stacked reduced images and associated source lists for the period Oct 2014 to July 2017 and reprocessed stacked reduced images, associated source lists and the band-merged catalogue from the beginning of observations in August 2011 to July 2017. DR4 data contain a global photometric calibration based on Gaia. The basic data reduction of the VST imaging was carried out at the Cambridge Astronomical Surveys Unit (CASU), while the band-merged catalogue was produced by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit (WFAU) at Edinburgh.
 

This is the second data release from the ESO Large Programme Dissecting GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP; 196.B-0578; Principal Investigator: B. Poggianti). This completes the release for this programme and provides deep MUSE 3D cubes observed in wide field mode and natural seeing plus ancillary products, comprising the observations taken from Periods 99 to 101. The scientific goal of the large programme is to study galaxies at z = 0.04-0.07 in different environments. For each target galaxy, the released science data products are the reduced and combined MUSE 3D data cubes that can be queried and downloaded via the Archive Science Portal here.

The instrument VISIR has been moved to UT4 and modified to search for planets around Alpha Cen as part of the experiment called New Earths in the Alpha Cen Region (NEAR; see Kasper et al., 2017). The first data of alpha Cen from NEAR commissioning have been released and are available. Please see the commissioning page for more details. This programme is being supported by the Breakthrough Initiatives, see this recent press release for more details.

ESO, Santiago, Chile, 25–29 November 2019 

VIMOS, the VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph, was decommissioned in March 2018. After 15 years of operations, VIMOS has amassed over 9700 hours of science data, mostly devoted to spectroscopic surveys of galaxies across cosmic time. To commemorate this milestone, a  five-day workshop is being held to review past and current spectroscopic surveys on galaxy evolution (both with ESO and non-ESO instruments), as well as to explore future surveys that will be soon enabled by new MOS and IFU facilities. The workshop will bring together the low- and high-z extragalactic communities to review progress and prepare for the challenges ahead.

As part of ESA and ESO's ongoing efforts to foster ideas and collaboration, they are releasing a new Call inviting astronomers to submit proposals for an ESA-ESO conference to be held in 2020 at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain. The deadline for proposals is 5 June 2019. Detailed information, including instructions for preparing and submitting proposals, can be found on the webpage for the Call.

The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for PhD students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories. ESO's studentship positions are open to students enrolled in a university PhD programme in astronomy or related fields. Students accepted into the programme work on their doctoral project under the formal supervision of their home university, but they come to ESO to work and study under the co-supervision of an ESO staff astronomer for a period of between one and two years.