Science Users Information

These pages are aimed at ESO community astronomers and contain all the information required in order to prepare, execute, process and exploit observations with ESO facilities. They also provide information on the scientific activities taking place at ESO. Details can be accessed via the navigation menu.

ESO Science Announcements

News from ESO's Quality Control

Published: 23 Oct 2026

Quality Control at ESO has seen changes with respect to its tools and the data organization and processing with the reduction pipeline recipes (EDPS). The overhaul of quality control software and data processing was driven in parts to augment the real-time science data assessment and OB grading with up-to-date calibrations.

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ESO Opens a Call for Letters of Intent for Expanding Horizons

Published: 30 Sep 2026

The aim of the Expanding Horizons process is for ESO to gather input from the community to decide on its next major programme, following the completion of ELT construction. ESO has now formally opened the call for Letters of Intent (LoI) for the Expanding Horizons process with deadline 1 December 2026. The submission of a LoI is a requirement for submitting a proposal.

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ESO Period 118 Proposal Submission Statistics

Published: 29 Sep 2026

ESO received 1286 valid proposals for observations in Period 118 (1 May 2027 - 30 April 2028). The deadline for proposal submission was 22 September 2026. On the VLT, the most demanded ESO instrument was MUSE with a request of 7170 hours, followed by ESPRESSO (5873 hours), and XSHOOTER (4971) hours. HARPS/NIRPS on the ESO 3.6-m telescope was the most demanded instrument at La Silla, with a combined request of 4470 hours, followed by SOXS, with a combined request of 3045 hours.

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ALMA User Survey

Published: 29 Sep 2026

ALMA is implementing the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) to address the ALMA 2030 Development Roadmap and keep ALMA at the forefront of astronomical discovery. The WSU will bring major observing improvements, including increased instantaneous bandwidth (by at least 2x), improved sensitivity, and higher spectral resolution across wider bandwidths than is currently possible with ALMA. To help ALMA assess user support needs over the next decade we invite your input via the following ALMA user survey.

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ESO Workshops Selected for 2027

Published: 28 Sep 2026

ESO is delighted to announce the ESO workshops chosen to take place in 2027. These events will bring together astronomers from around the world to explore some of the most exciting frontiers in astrophysics. Fourteen proposals were submitted this year and reviewed by a panel of experts from ESO in Garching and Chile. After careful consideration, and with input from ESO's Programme Scientists, the top-ranked proposals were confirmed by the Heads of the Offices for Science and the Director for Science.

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The Messenger

The Messenger 196 is now available. Highlights include:

  • Matrà, L.: Exocometary Belts Transformed by ALMA
  • Andreani, P., Díaz Trigo, M.: ALMA–CTAO Synergies
  • Péroux, C., Mérand, A. et al.: Report on the ESO workshop "VLT Beyond 2030 and Call for White Papers”

The ESO Science Newsletter

The August 2026 issue is now available.

The ESO Science Newsletter, mailed approximately once per month, presents the most recent announcements. Subscription is controlled through the Manage Profile link on the User Portal. Back issues (2013-) are archived.

Citing ESO data in research papers

Researchers are kindly asked to indicate the identifiers (programme IDs or Data DOIs) of the (new or archival) observations they used in their papers as explained in ESO’s data citation policy. This enables the telbib curators to cross-link research output to make data Findabie, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable as suggested by the FAIR Principles.  

Pitch Your Research to ESO COMM

Are you an author on an upcoming scientific study based on ESO data that could be relevant to journalists or the wider public? Or are you a Principal Investigator on ESO observations with potential to become stunning images? If so, please consider sending to ESO your paper and/or a preview of the image(s) obtained with ESO telescopes.