Announcements

9 June 2015: ESO has signed an agreement to license its cooling system technology to the Spanish company FRACTAL SLNE. This follows earlier technology transfer agreements regarding the licensing of cutting-edge laser technology that were made by ESO in 2010 [1]. Such licences offer significant opportunities both for industry and for ESO. Continuous flow cooling systems were first developed at ESO for the cooling of instruments and detectors for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The technology has been used intensively during the last decade. Continuous flow systems are more compact than traditional systems that use a bath of very cold liquid, but share the advantage of being vibration free [2]. The continuous flow system allows the temperature within an instrument to be changed from room temperature to –193 degrees Celsius and is not affected by the loss of electrical power. As a result, the instrument can be kept very close to its operating ...

7 April 2015: Images of unequalled sharpness that show the almost perfect gravitational Einstein ring of a distant galaxy and the surface of the asteroid Juno have recently been captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These stunning pictures were taken at the end of 2014 as part of ALMA’s Long Baseline Campaign, which has successfully tested and verified the telescope’s ability to see the finest details. This is achieved when the antennas are at their greatest separation: up to 15 kilometres apart. Five targets were selected for study during the ALMA Long Baseline Campaign. They included the protoplanetary disc HL Tauri, the gravitationally lensed galaxy SDP.81, asteroid Juno, the star Mira, and the quasar 3C138. The Astrophysical Journal Letters has published four scientific papers written by representatives of the entire international team of the ALMA Partnership, detailing these observations. SDP.81 is an active star-forming galaxy nearly seen at a time when ...

27 March 2015: On 9 April 2015, ESO will host an industry event for Spanish businesses at its headquarters in Garching, Germany. At the meeting, representatives of interested Spanish companies and institutions will be offered information about ESO, given an introduction to the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and presented with the potential opportunities that are available to take part in its industrial activities. Astronomy in Spain has a long history, dating as far back as the year 800, to Al-Andalus, or Islamic Iberia, where Indian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Greek and Roman knowledge was all absorbed by early Muslim astronomers, such as Al-Faraghani — whose calculations of the Earth’s circumference were used by Columbus. Astronomy in the country saw a big leap forward more recently, in the late 1970s, when Spain began to develop as a nation invested in modern astronomy. International agreements promoting the use of observatories in the Canary Islands were established ...

24 February 2015: A groundbreaking ceremony for the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre took place today at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, Germany. This event marked the beginning of the main construction phase of the facility. The ESO Supernova will be a magnificent showcase for astronomy for the public. It is made possible by a collaboration between the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and ESO. The Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), a German foundation that supports the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science, offered to fully fund the construction and ESO will run the facility. The striking building was designed by the architects Bernhardt + Partner. This new facility will provide visitors with an immersive experience of astronomy and ESO’s scientific results, projects and technological breakthroughs. It will include a fulldome planetarium and more than 2000 square metres of permanent and temporary exhibitions. Further rooms housing conference facilities will also host a variety ...

10 February 2015: A team of astronomers and engineers from ESO, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) and INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma has achieved first light and successful commissioning of the ESO Wendelstein Laser Guide Star system [1] at the IAC's Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife in Spain. Following an agreement in April 2014 between ESO and the IAC, the required infrastructure for the experiment was built at the observatory. The team carried out the installation and commissioning of the ESO Wendelstein Laser Guide Star Unit laser, the receiver system and the automated observing software. These joint activities are research and development studies to optimise the laser guide star return brightness from the upper atmosphere with special attention being paid to the influence of the geomagnetic field on the performance. The experimental setup uses fibre laser technologies developed at ESO to produce a 20-watt continuous wave ...

2 February 2015: Louise Mayor has won the 2014 European Astronomy Journalism Prize. Her prize consists of a trip to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) — a state-of-the-art telescope to study light from some of the coldest objects in the Universe — in northern Chile. The winning article explores the quest to directly detect gravitational waves using a technique involving studying pulsars with radio telescopes. Entitled “Hunting Gravitational Waves Using Pulsars”, the article was published in the October 2014 issue of Physics World, the magazine for members of the Institute of Physics. It was also promoted via a short clip. As features editor of Physics World, Louise Mayor is helping physicists and science writers to tell their stories in different areas of cutting-edge physics. Before joining Physics World in 2010, Louise did a PhD in dye-sensitised solar cells at the University of Nottingham. “I am absolutely delighted to win the prize. My ...

16 January 2015: ESO has signed parallel contracts with CESA (Spain) and VDL (the Netherlands) for the design and production of qualification models [1] for mirror segment support and related auxiliary equipment for the primary mirror of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). This follows the earlier design and development of prototypes, their intensive testing at the ESO facility and a detailed assessment of lessons learned. The complete E-ELT primary mirror will be 39 metres in diameter. The mirror surface will comprise 798 hexagonal segments, plus a maintenance set, for a total of 931 segments. The hexagonal shape means that a common support structure can be used for all segments. These contracts include the delivery of detailed and complete instructions and engineering drawings for the production of the series. They also include the development of the procedures required to integrate the supports with the E-ELT glass segments, to handle and transport the segment ...

15 December 2014: 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: Way forward for the E-ELT: Details of ESO Council Decision Fifteen Years of Service Mode Operations: Closing the Loop with the Community The Eta Carinae Homunculus in Full 3D with X-shooter and Shape STREGA: STRucture and Evolution of the GAlaxy with the VST CLASH-VLT: A VIMOS Large Programme to Map the Dark Matter Mass Distribution in Galaxy Clusters and Probe Distant Lensed Galaxies Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy. Please note that subscribers to the print version of The Messenger must confirm their subscription. Without confirmation this will be the last print edition of The Messenger you will receive. If you ...

4 December 2014: In early December 2014, ESO’s main governing body, the Council, gave the green light for the construction of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in two phases. Spending of around one billion euros has been authorised for the first phase, which will cover the construction costs of a fully working telescope with a suite of powerful instruments and first light targeted in ten years time. This ESOcast looks more closely at the telescope and at what it means for astronomy to have a 39-metre telescope equipped with advanced adaptive optics. More episodes of the ESOcast are also available. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles for the ESOcast in multiple languages . Credit: ESOVisual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser and Luis Calçada.Editing: Herbert Zodet. Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida. Written by: Mathias Jäger, Herbert Zodet and Richard Hook.Narration: Joe Liske (Dr. J). Music: Johan ...

8 October 2014: On 7 October 2014, after several months of renovation work, Fernando Comerón, ESO Representative in Chile, and Paula Baltra, General Manager of Fundación Ruinas de Huanchaca reopened the exhibition A Window to the Universe. It is one of five permanent exhibitions installed at the Museum Ruinas de Huanchaca [1], in the city of Antofagasta, Chile. The event was held in the auditorium of the museum, and was attended by several local authorities and representatives from different communities of Antofagasta. This space, designed and donated by ESO as a contribution to the Region of Antofagasta in 2009, has been updated with new graphics, images and information about the biggest ESO projects, including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Extremely Large Telescope. From now on, visitors will see 12 gigantic panels, as well as videos and interactive displays showing the history of the Universe. These start from the origins ...

7 October 2014: We would like to remind you that ESO, the world’s most productive ground-based observatory, will open its doors to the public on Saturday 11 October 2014 between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST. The event will be held at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. This year ESO will welcome guests to its extended Headquarters, including the two impressive new buildings that have been inaugurated since the last Open House Day in 2013. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the world of ESO first hand by taking part in many different activities. If you need help on your way during the Open House Day, look for our members of staff, who are wearing name badges. As ESO is an international organisation, we have staff speaking several languages. Media representatives who wish to attend the event are asked to confirm their participation by contacting osandu@partner.eso.org. List of Activities on Offer Area ...

22 September 2014: On 19 June 2014 construction work for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) started in the Chilean Atacama Desert. It began with blasting off the top of Cerro Armazones, the future construction site of the world’s largest telescope, to create a flat surface for the future telescope. Although work has already begun the first light of the telescope — which has a main mirror with a diameter of 39 metres — will not be before 2024. To accelerate the process, at least in some sense, Dutch astronomer Frans Snik has spent several months of his spare time designing his own E-ELT. Except this one is made of LEGO© bricks! Snik used design tools ldraw and bricksmith to build a model containing exactly 5274 parts ordered from bricklink. The total cost of the model, which has a scale of approximately 1:150, is about 600 euros. Using a detailed construction manual and ...

19 September 2014: On 1 October 2014, Aussenwirtschaft Austria (Foreign Trade Austria) will host an industry event for an Austrian business delegation at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, WKO) in Vienna. At the meeting representatives of Austrian companies and institutions will be offered information about ESO, an introduction to the E-ELT and potential opportunities to take part in ESO’s industrial activities. Austria signed the accession agreement to join ESO on 30 June 2008 (eso0820) and its membership was ratified by the Austrian Parliament on 1 July 2009. Contracts over 7 million euros have been awarded to the Austrian industry since it joined the organisation[1]. In June 2012 the country confirmed that it will participate in the E-ELT programme (ann12096). Most recently, a specialist Austrian team from Linz has completed a very successful final review of a four-year project. Together the team consisting of experts from the Institute for Industrial Mathematics of ...

12 September 2014: A state-of-the-art 360-degree high-resolution camera has been installed at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in northern Chile, at the home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The new webcam allows anyone online to see the platform of the observatory in its entirety — for the first time in very high resolution — as well as more distant sights such as Cerro Armazones, home of the future European Extremely Large Telescope. The high-resolution camera delivers a 16,000-pixel 360-degree panorama every hour to the web. The system, a so-called NEOS360 camera, was installed by Apical Technologies also features extremely high resolution zooms in on specific points of interest on the VLT platform and around the observatory. The camera itself is located on the VLTI building [1]. The new camera complements the existing live webcams at ESO which shows views from APEX, and from the ALMA Array Operations Site (AOS) at the Chajnantor Plateau, located ...

12 September 2014: On 30 September 2014, ESO will host an industry event for Czech businesses at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany. At the meeting representatives of interested Czech companies and institutions are offered information about ESO, given an introduction to the E-ELT and presented potential opportunities that are available to take part in its industrial activities. Astronomy in Czechia has a long history, dating as far back as 3500 BC. The famous astronomers Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) established themselves in Prague, by invitation of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II. This laid the foundation for the first golden age in astronomy. Later, eminent scientists such as Christian Doppler, Ernst Mach and Albert Einstein also resided in the famous city. Furthermore, the Czech capital Prague has hosted to the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, first in 1967 and again in August 2006. Czechia formally joined ESO in 2007 ...

21 July 2014: As part of its green initiatives, ESO has signed an agreement with the Chilean company, Astronomy and Energy (a subsidiary of the Spanish LKS Group), to install a solar farm at the La Silla Observatory. ESO has been working on green solutions for supplying energy to its sites for several years, and these are now coming to fruition. Looking to the future, renewables are considered vital to satisfy energy needs in a sustainable manner. ESO’s ambitious programme is focused on achieving the highest quality of astronomical research. This requires the design, construction and operation of the most powerful ground-based observing facilities in the world. However, the operations at ESO’s observatories present significant challenges in terms of their energy usage. Despite the abundance of sunshine at the ESO sites [1], it has not been possible up to now to make efficient use of this natural source of power. Astronomy and Energy ...

3 July 2014: ESO Fellow Claudia Del P. Lagos has won a 2014 MERAC (Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology) Prize for her doctoral thesis on the treatment of star formation and feedback in simulations of galaxy formation. The prize was presented at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS) 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland on 2 July 2014 in the category of Best Doctoral Thesis in Theoretical Astrophysics [1]. Claudia gave a plenary lecture at EWASS and will later give a lecture in Switzerland under the patronage of the FONDATION MERAC. Claudia’s PhD thesis focused on the galaxy formation model, GALFORM, which can implement essentially all existing theoretical models of star formation. Her work addresses the two key processes at the centre of how galaxies are made: the formation of stars and the regulation of star formation following the injection of energy into the interstellar medium — the material that ...

2 July 2014: On 19 June 2014, a major milestone for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) was passed. Part of the 3000-metre peak of Cerro Armazones, the future site of the telescope, was blasted away as a step towards levelling the summit. This new ESOcast tells the story of the blasting, the associated groundbreaking ceremony and the future prospects of the E-ELT. The ESOcast also shows spectacular views of Cerro Armazones, the E-ELT’s future home in the Atacama Desert, the explosion itself and explains the necessity to flatten its top to construct the telescope. This blast was only the first of several steps in this process. The first civil works at Cerro Armazones started in March 2014 and are expected to take 16 months. These works include the laying of a paved road, the construction of the summit platform and the construction of a service trench to the summit. A groundbreaking ceremony, ...

30 June 2014: 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: Exploring the Cold Universe at High Spectral Resolution using CRIRES+ NAOMI — a New Adaptive Optics Module for Interferometry The Austrian in-kind contribution on Adaptive Optics for the E-ELT ALMA resolves the disk of young starburst galaxy LABOCA and ALMA observe of sub-millimetre galaxies in CANDELS A report on the E-ELT workshop on exoplanets Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy.

27 June 2014: The ESO Annual Report 2013 is now available. It presents the many activities of the European Southern Observatory during the year, including: Research highlights from ESO facilities, with the latest results from fields covering aspects of astronomy stretching from observations of the Solar System out to the study of the early Universe. A summary of the activities at ESO’s observatories in Chile. The status of the telescopes and instruments at the La Silla and Paranal Observatory, describing in detail new instruments and upgrades. The latest news from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) projects. News about the ESO staff and buildings — including the new Headquarters extension in Garching.