ESO's Science Prioritisation Working Group is tasked with reviewing the ESO programme from a scientific perspective. This working group is composed of members of the Scientific Technical committee (STC), the Users Committee (UC) and ESO staff. The working group has devised a survey to better understand the priorities of the ESO community for the upcoming decade. Invitations to answer the survey have been emailed to astronomers registered on the ESO User Portal and/or on the ALMA Science Portal. If you have received a personal invitation, use the provided link with your unique token. In case you have not received an invitation, or you wish to share the poll with unregistered colleagues, please use this registration link. Please answer the poll on 28 February 2020.
ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 22–26 June 2020
The recently reported discord among Hubble constant determinations – based on the Universe as it is today versus as it was shortly after the Big Bang – is puzzling cosmologists and astrophysicists alike. With the discord's significance rising thanks to improved measurements, the community is getting increasingly excited about the potential for modifications to cosmology. However, questions remain whether systematic uncertainties and biases are sufficiently understood and under control.
ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 13–17 July 2020
Please mark your calendars and register to participate in the second edition of The Early Stages of Galaxy Cluster Formation (GCF) 2020: Mergers, Proto-clusters, and Star Formation in Overdense Environments. Proto-clusters, high redshift galaxy clusters, and merging clusters represent the initial stages in the formation of largest gravitationally-bound structures in the Universe. Forming via mergers and accretion, (proto-)cluster assembly has a decisive impact on their subsequent evolution, and is thus an important process to understand. The aim of GCF2020 is to discuss cluster formation over the last roughly ten billion years, from its beginnings to the present day, with a particular focus on the progress and developments since our first GCF meeting in 2017.
ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 14–18 September 2020
The detection in 2017 of electromagnetic light from a pair of merging neutron stars first identified in gravitational waves ushered in a new era for astronomy. This multi-messenger era is rapidly becoming established with the identification of gravitational wave sources and astrophysical neutrinos occurring at ever-increasing rates, although joint electromagnetic detection remains challenging. This meeting will seek to review the recent dramatic progress in this field, evaluating the science from the current LIGO/VIRGO O3 run that will complete before the workshop. It will also look to what future ESO (E-ELT, next-generation VLT instruments) and ESA (ATHENA, LISA, THESEUS) projects contribute to this nascent field.
Planets2020 ALMA Offices, Santiago, Chile, 2 – 6 March 2020
Exploration of the Solar system and subsequent discoveries are made with planetary missions and ground-based observatories. During this workshop, we expect to further explore the synergies between these two ways of exploring space, and to foster collaboration between communities by sharing scientific and technical knowledge, needs, requirements, and techniques. Capabilities of major ground and space based observatories will be discussed, including JWST. We will take advantage of the workshop location to showcase the current and future capabilities of ALMA for planetary science, and encourage planetary scientists to use this facility.
Ground-based astronomical observations in the thermal infrared wavelength regime (3-30 microns) provide a powerful tool to discover and characterise the most obscured and cool sources in the Universe. This workshop aims to bring together the experts in the field to review the science highlights from various thermal infrared instruments, from protoplanetary discs to active galactic nuclei. We will review some future facilities, and we will compare techniques and approaches for observations and calibrations, with the aim to reach the theoretical limit, the background-limited performance.
The goal of the workshop is to develop interesting scientific projects guided by experts of missions as New Horizons, Juno, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, Hayabusa 2, MAVEN and representatives of Nasa's Planetary Data System and ESA's Planetary Science Archive.
Share your photos from ESO sites!
If you are visiting ESO sites and you like to capture your experience on camera, the Department of Communication invites you to share your photos with the world. If you are interested please submit your pictures for evaluation by e-mail.
