Announcements

17 May 2018: In April 2018, a team composed of scientists and engineers from the Geneva Observatory and ESO were at the La Silla Observatory to commission HELIOS (HARPS Experiment for Light Integrated Over the Sun) [1]. This novel device was built under an agreement between ESO, the University of Geneva and the Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto [2]. HELIOS is a solar telescope feeding the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) instrument, which is attached to the ESO 3.6-metre telescope. HARPS is one of the most powerful planet hunters in existence and spends most nights monitoring stars for minute signals that indicate the presence of an exoplanet. HARPS has unparalleled accuracy and is regularly generating results that will present fresh challenges for future telescopes such as ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. HELIOS will be able to feed sunlight into HARPS to achieve very high precision spectroscopy of the Sun for ...

11 May 2018: The cutting-edge ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre provides unforgettable learning experiences for students of all ages. Engaging workshops, tours and two new educational planetarium shows all capture the night sky’s incredible ability to inspire a love for science in young people. All educational activities are available free of charge. Open to the public since 28 April 2018, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre offers a wide range of captivating shows, workshops and events. The ESO Supernova educational programme has been designed to be adaptable to students aged 4–18, and includes a range of interactive workshops and tours, as well as access to our cutting-edge astronomy exhibition. Furthermore, two presenter-led planetarium shows — The Skies Above Us and A Tour of the Solar System — have recently joined the exciting educational program on offer at the ESO Supernova. The Skies Above Us is an interactive planetarium show that has ...

7 May 2018: The digging of the foundations for the dome and telescope structure of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has begun on Cerro Armazones — at an altitude of over 3000 metres in Chile's Atacama Desert. The work is being carried out by the ACe Consortium, consisting of Astaldi and Cimolai. These dramatic pictures were taken to mark this event by ESO photo ambassador Gerhard Hüdepohl, who used a drone to gaze down on Cerro Armazones. Dubbed ELT, this revolutionary new ground-based telescope concept will have a 39-metre main mirror and will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world: “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”. Construction is targeted for completion in time for first light in 2024. Working at such a high altitude is not easy, but the rewards will be great; this site is high, dry, and removed from light pollution. It will provide truly excellent seeing conditions, allowing ...

19 April 2018: ESO has signed a contract with VDL ETG Projects B.V. (the Netherlands) for the manufacture, assembly, testing and delivery of the Segment Support Mechanics for the primary mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The segment supports together act as the backbone of the primary mirror, holding each of the 798 mirror segments in place. Sensors and actuators monitor and control each segment’s shape and position to very high accuracy. The contract was signed by Harrie Schonewille, Managing Director of VDL ETG Projects, Willem van der Leegte, President VDL and Xavier Barcons, Director General of ESO, at a ceremony at ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany on 19 April 2018. When completed, the ELT’s primary mirror (M1) will be 39 metres in diameter and will consist of 798 hexagonal mirror segments. The hexagonal shape means that a common support structure can be used for all segments. Each segment will be connected ...

29 March 2018: The latest edition of ESO's quarterly journal, The Messenger, is now available online. Find out the latest news from ESO on topics ranging from new instruments to the latest science discoveries. Highlights of this edition include: 40+ Years of Instrumentation for ESO End-to-End Operations in the ELT Era The VLTI Roadmap The ELT in 2017: The Year of the Primary Mirror Exploring the Sun with ALMA The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Band Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES) Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy. This product is also available in the ESOshop.

29 March 2018: ESO will host a press conference on 26 April 2018 at 13:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre on the occasion of its inauguration. The media will be introduced to the facility and there will be opportunities for interviews. There will also be a tour of the exhibition as well as a planetarium show. The press conference will be in German, but there will be opportunities for interviews in English and material will be provided in both languages where possible. This invitation is addressed exclusively to media representatives. To participate in the conference, bona fide members of the media must register by completing an online form. Space is limited so we recommend early registration. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cutting-edge astronomy centre for the public and an educational facility. The centre hosts the largest tilted planetarium ...

23 March 2018: The French optics company Safran Reosc has completed the first of six shells that will comprise the M4 deformable mirror system, which forms a fundamental part of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). When complete, the adaptive M4 mirror will be 2.4 metres in diameter but only 1.95 millimetres thick. This very thin mirror is one of the five main mirrors of the ELT’s optical system, with the main segmented mirror being 39 metres in diameter. Safran Reosc are manufacturing all six of the deformable shell mirrors that comprise the M4 mirror. Together, these 60-degree petal sections form the circular segmented M4 mirror. They will be mounted and supported in the adaptive mirror unit. Meanwhile, the Italian consortium AdOptica is manufacturing the complex adaptive support system needed for the M4. Deformable mirrors, such as the M4 mirror of the ELT, are key components of adaptive optics systems, which help reduce the ...

21 March 2018: Over the past months, the ESO Supernova team has been keenly working on the preparation of the programme for the exciting new planetarium and visitor centre, due to open to the public on 28 April 2018. We are delighted to announce that the programme is now available online. The programme contains lots of information about the range of planetarium shows, guided tours and educational workshops offered by the ESO Supernova. It also features special public events such as science talks, concerts and much more. The programme allows you to click on each show, tour or event to find out more information and to book your place. In 2018 all activities are free, but bookings are necessary. After booking, tickets can be printed using the ESO Supernova on-site ticket kiosks. The planetarium shows on offer — which are all free of charge — can guide you through the highlights of the ...

21 March 2018: ESO has signed a contract with the Spanish company IDOM Consulting, Engineering, Architecture SAU for the production of a major new component of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. The Prefocal Station will direct the light collected by the telescope’s huge optical system into science instruments and other test equipment. It also contains parts of the active optics system of the telescope [1]. The contract was signed by Luis Rodríguez, President of IDOM, and the ESO Director General, Xavier Barcons, at a ceremony at ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany, on 21 March 2018. As well as representatives of the company and ESO staff, the Consul General of Spain in Munich, Francisco Pascual de la Parte, was also welcomed to the ceremony. The Prefocal Station is a massive structure, standing over 12 metres high, which sits on one of the two platforms on either side of the Extremely Large Telescope’s giant tube structure. ...

12 March 2018: ESO has signed a contract with the engineering and construction company Abengoa Chile to build the ELT Technical Facility at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. This new facility will host the assembly and maintenance facilities for the mirrors of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), as well as all the coating, washing and stripping facilities needed to coat and maintain the reflectivity of the mirrors. The primary mirror of the ELT will consist of 798 separate reflective segments [1]. At the ELT Technical Facility, the polished segment assemblies will be coated and integrated with the edge sensors on the sides of each segment, to detect the position of each segment relative to its neighbours [2]. Once the telescope is complete and in operation, each segment of the primary mirror will need recoating every 1.5 years to ensure its cleanliness and reflectivity. As there are 798 segments, the most efficient way ...

2 February 2018: Big Science is a term that encapsulates the way in which scientific progress increasingly relies on large-scale projects, often funded by national governments or groups of governments, leading to increasingly collaborative research and global, scientific projects. It relies on businesses large and small from all over the world, in areas ranging from cryogenics, superconductors, materials and electronics — as well as groundbreaking astronomical technologies. This is why ESO, along with some of Europe's largest international science organisations, including CERN, ESA, EMBL, ESRF and others, is participating in the Big Science Business Forum 2018 (BSBF2018), from 26–28 February 2018, in Copenhagen, Denmark. With more than 650 delegates from 25 countries, and representing more than 250 businesses and organisations from the Big Science landscape, BSBF2018 aims to be the first “one-stop-shop” for European business and other stakeholders to learn about the status and future of Europe’s Big Science organisations. ESO is a ...

30 January 2018: ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) now has a second instrument working with the powerful Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF). The infrared instrument HAWK-I (High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager) [1] is now also benefiting from sharper images and shorter exposure times. This follows the successful integration of the AOF with MUSE (the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer). The Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) is a long-term project that is nearing completion on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). It provides adaptive optics correction for all the instruments attached to one of the VLT Unit Telescopes (UT4, also known as Yepun). Adaptive optics works to compensate for the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere. This upgrade now enables HAWK-I to obtain sharper images, needing shorter exposure times than before to obtain similar results. By using the AOF, astronomers can now get good image quality with HAWK-I, even when the weather conditions are not perfect. Following a ...

21 December 2017: On 19 December 2017 in Brussels, ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, met the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, and the EC Director-General of Research and Innovation, Robert-Jan Smits. The Commissioner and ESO Director General discussed ways to reinforce the relationship between the European Commission and ESO in order to further the development of fundamental science across the European Research Area. ESO’s role as the main driver for ground-based astronomy in Europe gives it a unique responsibility to ensure that collaboration in astronomy infrastructure, instrumentation and science is well-fostered. The meeting addressed the development of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) which currently lists ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope as a landmark European infrastructure. ESO’s Director General also offered ESO’s expertise towards supporting the governance of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) initiative and in particular with helping to improve the stewardship of archive data in ...

18 December 2017: ESO has signed a new agreement with TOPTICA, the German photonics company, for the production of lasers to be used in ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) adaptive optics system. TOPTICA [1], in partnership with the Canadian company MPB Communications Inc. (MPBC) [2], will build at least four laser sources for the ELT [3], helping the telescope to achieve unprecedented spatial resolution for an optical/infrared ground-based telescope. The ELT is scheduled to see first light in 2024. The laser system for the adaptive optics system on the ELT will be based on the Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The Adaptive Optics Facility, which uses the 4LGSF, has already shown spectacular improvement in image sharpness on the VLT (eso1724). The TOPTICA/MPBC Guide Star Alliance was the main contractor for the laser system on the VLT (eso1613). Adaptive optics compensate for the blurring effect of the ...

7 December 2017: ESO’s governing body, the Council, has just authorised additional spending to cover the cost of both the five inner rings of segments for the main mirror (M1) of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), and one spare set of 133 mirror segments (one sixth of the total M1), and also an additional mirror segment maintenance unit. The decision was made at the recent meeting of the Council in Garching, Germany, after the positive recommendation by the ESO Finance Committee and made possible by an improved funding scenario. The ELT is a revolutionary ground-based telescope concept which will have a 39-metre main mirror made of 798 hexagonal segments. It will be the largest optical telescope in the world: “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”. First light for the ELT is targeted for 2024. Up to now the inner five rings of segments of the ELT primary mirror were in Phase 2 ...

7 December 2017: ESO’s governing body, the Council, has elected Professor Willy Benz of the Swiss National Centre for Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS and the University of Bern, Switzerland, as the next ESO Council President. Willy Benz is looking forward to his new role: “I feel very honoured that the Council has entrusted me with this significant responsibility. I’m delighted to be offered the possibility to take a more active role in ensuring ESO’s capability to provide the community with world-class astronomical facilities across wavelengths, techniques, and even telescope sizes. I am looking forward to working with everyone during the coming year.” Benz is the current director of NCCR PlanetS and Professor for Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His research is primarily focussed on planets, both inside and outside the Solar System, which he has studied since the mid-1980s in a career that has taken him across the ...

10 November 2017: The latest release of ESO’s Virtual Tours includes the option to view them in virtual reality mode as well as 360-degree panoramic mode. You can now use a cell phone with either a standard cardboard virtual reality headset or oculus rift glasses (instructions here), to experience tours of ESO’s facilities in an exciting new way. This latest release also includes new and updated virtual tours of ESO’s observatories and facilities, bringing with them better functionality on computers and new panoramic views taken during the recent fulldome expedition. Marvel at ALMA’s majestic dishes as they study the iridescent night sky, then pan round to see the starkly beautiful Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama desert — by day, by night, at sunset and at sunrise. Visit two of the most technically advanced and productive astronomical sites in the world — Paranal observatory and La Silla, ESO’s first observatory. You will be able ...

16 October 2017: ESO, the world’s most productive ground-based observatory, will open its doors to the public on Saturday 21 October 2017 between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST. The ESO Open House Day event will be held at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the world of ESO first hand by taking part in many different activities; the programme of activities for the day is set out below. Our Open House Day is part of the Tag der offenen Tür that is taking place across the Garching research campus, as well as at several other local institutes. If you need help to find your way around during the Open House Day, look out for our members of staff, who will be wearing name badges. As ESO is an international organisation, our staff speak several languages between them. Media representatives who wish to attend the event are ...

11 October 2017: The Irish Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald TD has announced her Government’s commitment to begin the accession process to join ESO as a Member State. The Government desires to have the accession completed by the fourth quarter of 2018, after ratification by Dáil Eireann (the Irish parliament) and approval by the ESO Council. Ireland would become ESO’s 16th Member State. The Government’s announcement signals the accomplishment of a key policy goal, announced in 2015 as part of Ireland’s Innovation 2020 strategy, which identifies the need to strengthen participation in international research organisations, including ESO. This announcement follows many years of informal discussions between the Irish astronomical community and ESO about potential membership, and formal discussions with government officials since January 2016, when the government announced they would begin membership negotiations. ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, explains the significance of this decision: “Ireland ...

4 October 2017: The winners have been announced of the prestigious European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Between 22 and 27 September 2017, 146 young scientists from 40 countries gathered in Tallinn, Estonia to compete in the contest. As a member of the EIROforum, the group of eight major European Intergovernmental Research Organisations, ESO donated a special prize for the best project in the field of astronomy and space physics. This was won by Can Pak (aged 17) from Turkey for his project on “Measuring the surface vibration frequency with laser diode”. He will receive a trip to ESO’s sites in Chile, including visits to the Paranal Observatory and the ESO facilities in Santiago. The trip will offer Can Pak unique insights into life at the most advanced astronomical observatories in the world, a dream experience that we hope will inspire him to pursue astronomy and astrophysics in the future. The prize ...