Meddelelser

31. marts 2015: It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Dr. Klaus Tschira, who passed away unexpectedly today in Heidelberg at the age of 74. Klaus Tschira was a devoted supporter of science education and astronomy, and a close friend of ESO. The foundation he established offered to ESO the donation of a state-of-the-art facility to showcase astronomy to the public: the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. Work on the building began in early 2015 and it was a privilege to hold a special groundbreaking ceremony on 24 February in the presence of Dr. Tschira. We extend our most sincere condolences to his family and his colleagues.

27. marts 2015: On 9 April 2015, ESO will host an industry event for Spanish businesses at its headquarters in Garching, Germany. At the meeting, representatives of interested Spanish companies and institutions will be offered information about ESO, given an introduction to the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and presented with the potential opportunities that are available to take part in its industrial activities. Astronomy in Spain has a long history, dating as far back as the year 800, to Al-Andalus, or Islamic Iberia, where Indian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Greek and Roman knowledge was all absorbed by early Muslim astronomers, such as Al-Faraghani — whose calculations of the Earth’s circumference were used by Columbus. Astronomy in the country saw a big leap forward more recently, in the late 1970s, when Spain began to develop as a nation invested in modern astronomy. International agreements promoting the use of observatories in the Canary Islands were established ...

26. marts 2015: As a scientific institution, ESO provides good infrastructure to deliver cutting-edge astronomical data to astronomers in ESO’s Member States. But, among many other things, ESO also offers almost 10 000 images and 2500 videos for the wider use of the media and public. All of ESO’s images and videos are provided free of charge, and most of our internet traffic results from the distribution of videos — everything from video podcasts to large Ultra HD and planetarium fulldome videos. Some of the bigger files are a few gigabytes in size, and can be up to 400 gigabytes for fulldome planetarium shows. Up to now ESO has only had one server location — at ESO Headquarters in Germany — from where it distributed all content across the globe. However, with about 40% of ESO’s public traffic originating from outside Europe, the disadvantage in terms of speed and the ease with which ...

25. marts 2015: In response to information provided by the Meteorological Service of Chile, through its weather alert system, the Meteorological Service of Chile in coordination with the Regional Directorate ONEMI has declared a Red Alert for parts of North-Central Chile due to intense rain storms. As a result we would like to inform that our staff at APEX, ALMA and Paranal are currently without any communication. No injuries have been reported and all staff are safe. Member of families can contact ESO Human Resources for further information: +56 2 24633000. Update as of 25.03.15 20:43 CET: Communications at Paranal are now re-established. Update as of 25.03.15 20:53 CET: Communications at APEX and ALMA are now also re-established.

24. marts 2015: The latest edition of ESO's quarterly journal, The Messenger, is now available online. Find out the latest news from ESO on topics ranging from new instruments to the latest science discoveries. Highlights of this edition include: SPHERE Science Verification The Return of the Mid-infrared to the VLT: News from the VISIR Upgrade An Unbiased Near-infrared Interferometric Survey for Hot Exozodiacal Dust An Astrophysical Laboratory: Understanding and Exploiting the Young Massive Cluster Westerlund 1 The GIRAFFE Inner Bulge Survey (GIBS) Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy.

19. marts 2015: On 23 April 2015, ESO will participate in Germany’s nationwide Girls’ Day activities, in which technical enterprises, universities and research organisations arrange open days for girls, to give female school students an insight into science and technology professions and to encourage more of them to choose such careers in the future. The ESO Girls’ Day will introduce the work of ESO and highlight many of our daily activities, such as astrophysical research, mechanical design, optical integration, operations, development of cutting-edge technology, construction of large structures, and more. The programme comprises an introductory talk, a tour of the main ESO laboratories, and hands-on workshops in the fields of both engineering and astronomy with the opportunity to discuss and ask questions about the topics that have been presented. The students will learn how astronomical instruments are built, integrated and tested in the laboratories. They will also learn how data are obtained and ...

19. marts 2015: Your ESO Pictures es una comunidad de Flickr donde cualquiera puede compartir sus fotos relacionadas con ESO y ayudar a crear una galería de imágenes impresionantes. Este ESOcast muestra algunas de las mejores contribuciones a Your ESO Pictures a lo largo de los años. Incluyen imágenes de los observatorios de ESO, los espectaculares paisajes del desierto de Atacama chileno, así como vistas de los cielos nocturnos. Puede suscribirse a ESOcasts en iTunes, recibir futuros episodios en YouTube o seguirnos en Vimeo . Muchos otros episodios de ESOcast también están disponibles . Descubra cómo ver y contribuir con subtítulos para ESOcast en varios idiomas, o traducir este video en dotSUB .

17. marts 2015: Following an open call for applications, Ars Electronica in Austria has announced that the winner of the Art & Science residency is the Chilean artist María Ignacia Edwards. The decision was reached by a jury of ten, made up of representatives of Ars Electronica and the seven cultural institutions that make up the Art & Science Network, along with ESO’s Representative in Chile, Fernando Comerón. Edwards’ latticeworks combine delicacy and poise with an intricate spatial awareness, underpinned by mathematical and physical calculations. She will be spending the residency at ESO in Chile and the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Austria. Aesthetics, originality, innovation, a compelling conception, the technique and quality of the presentation, as well as an interest in the ideas of science as expressed by ESO were all criteria under which submissions were evaluated. Fostering interdisciplinary work and intercultural exchange, as well as gaining access to new target audiences, are ...

17. marts 2015: ALMA’s Operations Support Facility will open its doors to the public for the first time on 29 March 2015, offering members of the public a rare opportunity to experience what everyday life is like for those working on one of the most advanced pieces of scientific equipment in the world. ALMA is a state-of-the-art telescope to study light from some of the coldest objects in the Universe. This light has wavelengths of around a millimetre, between infrared light and radio waves, and is therefore known as millimetre and submillimetre radiation. ALMA comprises 66 high-precision antennas, spread over distances of up to 16 kilometres. This global collaboration is the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence. Serving as a centre of operations, the ALMA Operations Support Facility is located 28 kilometres from the telescope array itself and accommodates up to 250 workers, including contractors, maintenance staff and astronomers. Visits to the Operations ...

13. marts 2015: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in printed form. This European journal for science teachers offers inspiring articles, fun games and hands-on activities for students in every issue. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and everyone else involved in European science education. Some of the highlights of this issue include: the challenging logistics of lunar exploration. and the psychology of the perfect meal. Teaching activities include: how to demonstrate the different colours of stars with a light bulb, making pH-sensitive inks from vegetables, and how to turn your students into robots using paper cups. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European intergovernmental scientific research organisations, of which ESO is a member. The journal addresses science teaching both across Europe and across disciplines: highlighting the best in teaching and cutting-edge research. ...

11. marts 2015: ESO invites you to take part in AstroCamera 2015 — an international competition in support of the popularisation of astronomy and astrophotography. The competition is organised by the Hewelianum Centre in Gdańsk, Poland. The winners will receive grants from the organisers. ESO, as one of the sponsors of the event, will award prizes in the form of books and DVDs for the entries that receive honourable mentions from the judges. Initially launched on 28 January 2011, in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of the birth of the 17th century astronomer, Johannes Hevelius, the competition is open to all astronomy and astrophotography enthusiasts. The life and achievements of Hevelius, a renowned observer of the night sky, have been an inspiration for the Hewelianum Centre to make the AstroCamera competition a regular event, with this marking the fifth time it has been held. The competition is organised into the following categories: Category ...

6. marts 2015: ESO invites you to take part in the second Photo Nightscape Awards (PNA) — an international photo nightscape competition for astrophotographers. As a partner in the competition organised by Ciel et Espace Photos, ESO will award the first place winner of the Nightscape category a trip to Paranal, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in northern Chile. The competition categories are: Nightscape, In Town and Timelapse, and they are open to photographers from all countries. The PNA Junior categories for ages 9–12 and 13–17 years are reserved for French nationals only. Those who wish to take part in the competition should submit a registration form, their photo or video submission and, if they are under age, a parental consent form, to the following email address: pna@photonightscapeawards.com. For detailed information please check the rules of the competition on the dedicated web page. Announcements will be made on the PNA Facebook ...

6. marts 2015: Studerende og stab fra alle institutionerne i forskerparken Forschungscampus Garching er invitetet til præsentation af ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre torsdag den 16. april klokken 16:00. Mødet holdes i Eridanus auditoriet i ESOs hovedkvarter. ESO Supernova er under bygning lige ved siden af hovedkvarteret, og centeret åbner midt i 2017. Gæsterne får mulighed for at høre hvilke muligheder, der kan være for dem i projektet. Det er projektkoordinator Fabian Reckmann og chefen for formidlingsafdelingen Lars Lindberg Christensen som fortæller om projektets status, og om hvordan andre interesserede institutioner og personer kan blive del af projektet eller på anden måde komme til at støtte det. ESO Supernova bliver et astronomicenter med de allernyeste muligheder. Gæster kommer til at opleve en opslugende, immersiv præsentation, som vil vække ærefrygt og benovelse over det Univers, som vi lever i. Skoleklasser og familier vil få en uforglemmelig og lærerig oplevelse. Selv de mest abstrakte ...

5. marts 2015: ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has successfully combined its immense collecting area and sensitivity with that of APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) to create a new, single instrument through a process known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). Larger telescopes can make sharper observations, and interferometry allows multiple telescopes to act like a single telescope as large as the separation — or baseline — between them. In VLBI, data from two independent telescopes are combined to form a virtual telescope that spans the geographic distance between them — potentially up to the diameter of the Earth — yielding extraordinary magnifying power. An essential intermediate step is to test the technique on a short baseline. On 13 January 2015 ALMA and the nearby APEX telescope simultaneously studied the quasar 0522-364. This distant galaxy was used for this first-of-its-kind observation due to its remarkable brightness at radio wavelengths. To ensure the telescopes ...

5. marts 2015: A survey of the number of peer-reviewed scientific papers published in 2014 using data from ESO’s telescopes and instruments has shown that ESO remains the world’s most productive ground-based observatory. Astronomers used observational data from ESO facilities to produce 864 refereed papers last year, equalling the all-time high of 2012. The number of papers published from ESO data in 2014 has even remained slightly higher than the number of papers published based on data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Nearly 65% of all papers credited to ESO in 2014 used data acquired with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) or VLT Interferometer facilities. The most productive VLT instruments in terms of papers are UVES and FORS2 with VIMOS in third place. In addition GIRAFFE and SINFONI both show strong upwards trends. The VISTA survey telescope on Paranal provided data for almost twice as many papers as in 2013. FEROS, SOFI ...

4. marts 2015: In January 1954, twelve astronomers from six different European nations congregated in the Senate Room of Leiden University in the Netherlands. The party had met with the intention of discussing a joint venture with the aim of establishing a European observatory under the favourable skies of the southern hemisphere. In the course of the meeting, chaired by Bertil Lindblad of Saltsjöbaden, the twelve astronomers formulated and duly signed their names to a document intended to garner governmental support for their ambitious plan. The subsequently named Leiden Statement laid the groundwork for the ESO Convention of 1962 and so marked the birth of a venture that has since far exceeded even the ambitious vision of those twelve founding astronomers. Today, ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe, operating some of the most advanced scientific equipment ever built and supported by sixteen countries, with several more having expressed an interest ...

26. februar 2015: The MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope has given astronomers the best ever three-dimensional view of the deep Universe. Staring at the Hubble Deep Field South region for 27 hours, the new observations reveal the distances, motions and other properties of far more galaxies than ever before in this tiny piece of the sky; extending even beyond Hubble’s reach to reveal previously invisible objects. This ESOcast takes a look at what MUSE found in the Hubble Deep Field South and the way in which it has made life a little easier for astronomers, by compiling thousands of images of these remote galaxies into a three-dimensional stack of images, each at a different wavelength. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts in iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo.Many other ESOcast episodes are also available. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles for the ESOcast in ...

24. februar 2015: I dag blev første spadestik taget til ESOs Supernova Planetarium og Besøgscenter ved ESO-hovedkvarteret i Garching i Tyskland. Nu kan byggeriet komme i gang for alvor. ESO Supernova bliver et fantastisk nyt fyrtårn for astronomien overfor offentligheden. Det er et samarbejde imellem Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) og ESO, som gør det muligt at sætte dette nye projekt i gang. Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), som er en tysk fond til støtte for naturvidenskaberne og datalogien tilbød at finansiere hele byggeriet, og ESO kommer til at drive institutionen. Den markante bygning er tegnet af arkitekterne Bernhardt + Partner. I det nye besøgs- og formidlingscenter vil gæsterne kunne opleve astronomien, og særligt ESOs forskningsbidrag, projekter og teknologiske gennembrud på en immersiv måde. Centeret indeholder et full-dome[1] planetarium og mere end 2000 kvadratmeter til blivende udstillinger og særudstillinger. Desuden vil der være konferencelokaler, hvor der bliver afholdt en lang række forelæsninger, workshops ...

10. februar 2015: Det nye laser guidestjerne system ESO Wendelstein Laser Guide Star system [1] er nu afprøvet og sat i funktion på Observatorio del Teide på Tenerife i De kanariske Øer. Det er et hold astronomer og teknikere fra ESO, fra Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) og INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, som har stået for opgaven Siden aftalen blev indgået imellem ESO og IAC i april 2014 er udstyret blevet opbygget på observatoriet, og holdet har installeret og ibrugtaget ESOs nye Wendelstein Laser Guide Star Unit laser samt modtageudstyr og automatiseringssoftware. Opgaven har været at forbedre effektiviteten af lasersystemet. Det har især drejet sig om at få så meget lys som muligt spejlet tilbage fra den øvre atmosfære, og især Jordens magnetfelt har været en faktor i denne sammenhæng. I opstillingen bruges en ny fiber laserteknologi, som ESO har udviklet. En 20 watt laser med konstant ...

10. februar 2015: ESO vil gerne give en varm velkomst til vores ven nummer 100.000 på Facebook, og også sige tak til alle som indtil nu er blevet venner med os på Facebook. På den måde hjælper I os med at udbrede interressen for astronomi, rummet og alt det, som alle i ESO arbejder så hårdt på at få til at lykkes. Hver eneste "like", deling og omtale giver et lille skub hen imod at endnu flere kan komme til at dele vores glæde over Universets undere. Vi siger mange tak til alle jer, som har gjort det muligt for ESO at nå ud til mange flere end vi før har kunnet nå. ESO er med på engelsk på de fleste af de sociale medier. Pressemeddelelser, nyhedsbreve, annonceringer og ugens billede udkommer på dansk, og der er en dansksproget ESO-hjemmeside. Vi er langsomt gået i gang med også at være tilstede på Facebook ...