A detailed report on the results of the ACA Standalone Cycle 8 2021 Supplemental Call is now available. The report details the proposal statistics and regional distributions, as well as the proposal distribution across science categories and receiver bands.

The report can be downloaded as a pdf document.

VANDELS is a deep Public Spectroscopic Survey of high-redshift galaxies with the VIMOS spectrograph. It is designed to exploit the multi-wavelength imaging and near-IR grism spectroscopy available in the CANDELS UDS and CDFS fields. The goal is to obtain spectra with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to derive metallicities and velocity offsets from absorption and emission lines, allowing a detailed investigation of the physics of galaxies in the early Universe. Within an area of 0.2 deg², the survey will deliver more than 2500 high (15-20) signal-to-noise spectra of star forming galaxies in the redshift range 2.5 < z< 5.5, passive galaxies with H< 22.5 at 1.5 < z < 2.5, and star forming galaxies at 3.0 < z < 7.0 with H < 27, in the AB magnitude system.

The ALMA Long Baseline Campaign, taking place from 1 September to 30 November 2014, has been proceeding well. As a result, the observatory has decided to expand the scope of the capabilities to be demonstrated with two Science Verification (SV) targets with Band 7: the pre-main sequence star HL Tau and the gravitational lens SDP 81. Information on ALMA SV can be found here.

The project "Equation of State: SupErNovae trace Cosmic Expansion" (ESSENCE) aimed to collect ~200 Type Ia SNe over the redshift range 0.15 to 0.75 to study the equation of state of Dark Energy. Spectra were taken for this project with FORS1 in a Large Programme (ID 170.A-0519) and published by Matheson et al. 2005. Advanced data products are now available for these spectra via the query form of the Science Archive.

This issue 193 focuses on the potential synergies between ESO and SKAO facilities and what science would be possible with well-planned coordinated surveys. The specific cases of exploring with such surveys the Galaxy, galaxy formation and evolution, cosmology, and the epoch of reionisaiton are presented in a series of articles. Further in this issue the VST-SMASH survey and its first results are presented, as well as the latest news on the ongoing upgrades of GRAVITY+. 

With the Extremely Large Telescope (ESO’s ELT) just a few years away from completion, ESO has started the process to identify its next programme. The process has been given the name Expanding Horizons and will aim to identify the next transformational facility that will advance humanity’s understanding of the Universe whilst fostering international collaboration. 

By the deadline on October 15, 2024, ESO received nine letters of intent for the ESO public survey with KMOS. These letters of intent cover a wide range of scientific topics from young stellar objects to the evolution of galaxies at cosmic noon and beyond. There are three submitted letters of intent covering galactic and stellar evolution topics, followed by the local universe (two letters of intent) and galaxy evolution at higher redshift (four letters of intent). Nine PIs and more than one hundred co-Is are participating in these scientific projects. The overall total time request is equivalent to an over-subscription by a factor 5.

This is the initial announcement for the upcoming ESO workshop "Galactic Ecosystems under the Microscope: Lessons from High-Resolution Studies" at ESO Garching, 7-11 July 2025. This workshop will explore the latest developments in resolved galaxy properties and evolution. With next-generation observatories such as JWST, ELT and SKA, and upgrades to ALMA and VLA, a new era is being entered in understanding these critical aspects of galaxies throughout cosmic history.

The deadline for proposal submission for Period 115 (1 April 2025 - 30 September 2025) was 26 September 2024. 763 valid proposals were submitted. On the VLT, the most demanded ESO instrument was MUSE with a request of 233 nights, followed by ESPRESSO with 214 nights, and XSHOOTER with 182 nights. HARPS/NIRPS on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope was the most demanded instrument at La Silla, with a combined request of 202 nights. The figure above shows the time request since Period 62, for Paranal (VLT/I), La Silla, and APEX. The fluctuations since Period 106 are partly because Large Programmes are offered only in even periods since P106. The highest peak in P106 is due to the extension of the proposal submission deadline during the pandemic.

This ESO workshop will focus on variability in young stellar objects and its role in the evolution of their protoplanetary disks. Specifically, addressing accretion and ejection variability and their connection to outer disk scales. Such variability is observed at the time of formation of stars and planets, two closely linked events. With the ratio of accretion to ejection still not fully understood, it remains an open question how exactly protoplanetary disks lose their mass and disperse. Since the mass budget within disks directly influences how and where planets can form, it is critical to understand and discuss results from the time-dependent nature of these environments. ESO welcomes researchers to join in May 2025.