Astronomy at ESO

ESO's main mission, laid down in the 1962 Convention, is to provide state-of-the-art research facilities to European astronomers and astrophysicists, allowing them to conduct front-line science in the best conditions.

Whilst La Silla, the first of ESO's observational facilities, remains one of the scientifically most productive observatories in the world, the most prominent new facility is the Paranal Observatory with the Very Large Telescope Array (VLT). The VLT was offered for the first time to the astronomers on April 1, 1999, and has since provided a great number of unique scientific discoveries. Since 2005, a new 12-m submillimetre telescope, APEX, is also in operations on the Chajnantor plateau, the place where ESO, together with its international partners, is presently building ALMA.

Astronomers from around the world make extensive use of the unique facilities operated by ESO, which prove every year more and more popular. Around 1700 proposals for observing are received each year by ESO, requesting more than 4 times the available observable time. This great success is also visible in the publications coming out from ESO telescopes: last year, there were 630 scientific papers in refereed journals published, or almost 2 papers per working day. Moreover, research articles based on VLT data are in the mean quoted twice as often as the average.

The very high efficiency of the ESO's "science machines" now generates huge amounts of data at a very high rate. These are stored in a permanent Science Archive Facility at ESO headquarters. The archive now contains more than 1.5 million images or spectra with a total volume of about 60 Terabytes (60,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data. This corresponds to the content of about 30 million books of 1000 pages each; they would occupy more than 1000 kilometres of bookshelves!

With ESO's telescopes, astronomers tackle key questions that challenge our minds and our imagination. Astronomy is the study of origins. It is also the study of apocalyptic events. And great mysteries. Most of all, however, it is humankind\u2019s boldest attempt to understand the world in which we live.

To enable these observations, astronomy employs some of the most sophisticated instruments and methods ever conceived by humans. High technology plays a very important role in astronomy.

In the following pages, you can learn more about:

• The ESO telescopes and their armada of instruments
• The Science done with ESO telescopes;
• The ESO Science Archive;
• The future facililities ESO is constructing or designing to pursue its mission of leading world astronomy.

A glossary of astronomical terms is also provided, as well as a list of acronyms used at ESO.