Pressemeddelelser

21. februar 1996: During the first weeks following its discovery on January 31, 1996, Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) has gradually brightened from magnitude 11-12 to 8. As it moves nearer to the Sun and is headed for a close approach to the Earth in late March 1996, the observers continue to describe it as diffuse, with a central condensation, but no typical comet tails were seen so far.

16. februar 1996: In the early morning of January 31, 1996, Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake made his second comet discovery within five weeks. He found the new comet near the border between the southern constellations of Hydra (The Water-Snake) and Libra (The Scales), amazingly just three degrees from the position where he detected another comet on December 26, 1995.

16. februar 1996: This false-colour photo demonstrates the asymmetry, now apparent in the coma of Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake). This comet will make a close approach to the Earth (15 million kilometres) on March 25, 1996.

11. februar 1996: This diagramme shows the first spectrum obtained of comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), which is expected to pass near the Earth in late March 1996. It was taken by Tomaz Zwitter, visiting astronomer at the ESO La Silla Observatory from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It has been flux- [(erg/s/cm2/A) within 2x14 arcsecond slit centered on comet] and wavelength- [Angstrom] calibrated.

11. februar 1996: These false-colour photos show the first images of comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake), obtained with the DFOSC instrument at the Danish 1.54-metre telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory. This comet is expected to become quite bright when it passes near the Earth in late March 1996.

9. februar 1996: This false-colour image of Comet Hale-Bopp is the first to be obtained with a major astronomical telescope after the recent conjunction with the Sun. At the time of this observation, the comet was located in the southern constellation of Sagittarius, and only 32 degrees from the Sun.

9. februar 1996: This new image obtained with ESO's New Technology Telescope (NTT) shows the split nucleus of comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

9. februar 1996: In the context of a comprehensive Key-Programme , carried out with telescopes at the ESO La Silla Observatory, a team of European astronomers [1]. has recently obtained radial velocities for more than 5600 galaxies in about 100 rich clusters of galaxies. With this programme the amount of information about the motions of galaxies (the kinematical data) in such clusters has almost been doubled. This has allowed the team to study the distribution of the cluster masses, and also the dynamical state of clusters in new and interesting ways.

9. februar 1996: One more cosmic mirage has been found with the ESO 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT). It consists of two images of the same quasar, seen very close to each other in the southern constellation of Hydra (The Water-Snake).

2. februar 1996: This photo was obtained on 15 January 1996 and shows the progression of the work on the enclosure for VLT Unit Telescope no. 1 on Cerro Paranal.

2. februar 1996: This aerial photo was obtained on 16 January 1996 and shows the progression of the work at the VLT Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Chilean Atacama desert, about 130 km south of the town of Antofagasta.

19. januar 1996: How many moons has Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system? Until recently, the best answer was eighteen, ranging from innermost Pan that circles the planet 75,000 km above the cloud tops in a little less than 14 hours, to distant Phoebe, 13 million km away in a reverse ('retrograde') 550-day orbit [1]. Now the situation is less clear.

12. januar 1996: For some time, the astronomical community in Australia has expressed interest in closer ties to ESO. One of the main reasons is the construction of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), of which the first 8.2 m unit telescope is scheduled for completion less than 2 years from now.

5. januar 1996: A few months ago, Periodic Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 underwent a dramatic and completely unexpected, thousand-fold brightening. At that time, the cause for this interesting event was unknown. However, observations with the two largest ESO telescopes have now shown that the "dirty snowball" nucleus of this comet has recently split into at least four individual pieces. There is little doubt that the outburst and the splitting event(s) are closely related and that the greatly increased dust and gas production is due to "fresh" material of the icy cometary nucleus becoming exposed to the surrounding space for the first time.

5. december 1995: As the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) rapidly takes on shape, Europe has just come one step closer to the realisation of its 556 million DEM astronomical showcase project.

20. november 1995: Today, forty 16-18 year old students and their teachers are concluding a one-week, educational `working visit' to the ESO Headquarters in Garching (See ESO Press Release 14/95 of 8 November 1995). They are the winners of the Europe-wide contest `Europe Towards the Stars', organised by ESO with the support of the European Union, under the auspices of the Third European Week for Scientific and Technological Culture.

20. november 1995: New observations of the spectrum of the rapidly spinning neutron star (the `pulsar') in the Crab Nebula have been carried out with the ESO 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) by a group of Italian astronomers [1]. Because of greatly improved spectral resolution which allows to register even very fine details in the pulsar's spectrum, they are able to determine for the first time with high accuracy the overall dependance of the emission on wavelength, i.e. the 'shape' of the spectrum. Quite unexpectedly, they also detect a hitherto unknown 100 A (10 nm) broad 'absorption dip', which can be securely attributed to the pulsar. These results open an exciting new window for the study of the extreme physical processes close to a pulsar.

13. november 1995: This photo shows the state of construction of the enclosure (`dome') for VLT Unit Telescope No. 1 on Paranal in late October 1995. It will be ready in 1996, and will later serve to protect the first 8.2-metre VLT telescope, for which the 'first light' is foreseen in late 1997/early 1998.

13. november 1995: In 1989, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Organisation for Astronomy, awarded to REOSC, a subsidiary of the SFIM Group and located in Saint Pierre du Perray (France), a comprehensive contract for the polishing of four 8.2-metre diameter mirrors for the unit telescopes of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) project. These mirrors are the largest ever manufactured and polished. This contract comprises not only the polishing and high-precision optical testing of each giant mirror, but also the safe condition of transportation of the blanks which were manufactured by Schott Glaswerke in Mainz (Germany). In order to fulfill the contract, REOSC conceived, built and equipped a novel, high-tech workshop which would allow to polish and test the mirrors, each of which has a surface area of more than 50 square metres.

8. november 1995: Following the very successful events of 1993 and 1994 [1], ESO again opens its doors for an 'educational adventure' next week. It takes place within the framework of the 'Third European Week for Scientific and Technological Culture', initiated and supported by the European Commission. On Tuesday, November 14, 1995, about forty 16-18 year old students and their teachers will converge towards Munich from all corners of Europe. They are the happy winners of a Europe-wide astronomy contest (`Europe Towards the Stars') that took place during the summer and early autumn. Their prize is a free, week-long stay at the Headquarters of the European Southern Observatory. During this time they will work with professional astronomers and get a hands-on experience within modern astronomy and astrophysics at one of the world's foremost international centres.