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

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.

News from ESO's Quality Control

Published: 23 Sep 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.

When Galaxies Meet: Zooming into the Multi-Scale Physics of Interaction and Mergers across Cosmic Time (GALMEET), Garching near Munich, 14 - 18 June 2027

Published: 23 Sep 2026

This ESO workshop will explore the extreme environments and physical processes associated with galaxy interactions and mergers across cosmic time. Galaxy encounters often give rise to some of the most spectacular star-forming events, rapid accretion and coalescence of supermassive black holes, and powerful feedback phenomena capable of transforming galaxies completely. The workshop will revisit the recent advancements in this key area of galaxy evolution research, from both observational and theoretical perspectives, and envision future directions enabled by the next-generation multi-wavelength wide-field facilities and surveys.

Conference "Probing the Cosmos with White Dwarf Binaries", 26-30 July 2027, Garching bei München

Published: 22 Sep 2026

ESO is pleased to announce that the international conference "Probing the Cosmos with White Dwarf Binaries" will be held in person from 26 to 30 July 2027, at ESO's Headquarters in Garching bei München. This workshop will bring together researchers across the diverse sub-fields of white dwarf binaries to foster discussion in key areas, including: Galactic archaeology, binary evolution, pathways to Type Ia Supernovae, and multi-messenger & gravitational-wave sources.

Discontinuation of Support for the ESO MacPorts Repository

Published: 09 Sep 2026

ESO announces the discontinuation as of 2026-09-01 of support for the ESO MacPorts Repository in favour of Homebrew, which has the advantage of providing a unique package management system for both Mac and Linux systems.

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.