Persbericht
ESO Highlights in 2007
2 januari 2008
Another great year went by for ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. From 1 January 2007, with the official joining of Czechia, ESO has 13 member states, and since September, ESO has a new Director General, Tim de Zeeuw.
Many scientific discoveries were made possible with ESO's telescopes. Arguably, the most important is the discovery of the first Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of a low-mass red dwarf (eso0722). If there is water on this planet, then it should be liquid!
In our own Solar System also, astronomers made stunning breakthroughs with ESO's telescopes, observing the effect of the light from the Sun on an asteroid's rotation (eso0711), describing in unprecedented detail the double asteroid Antiope, peering at the rings of Uranus (eso0737), discovering a warm south pole on Neptune (eso0741), showing a widespread and persistent morning drizzle of methane over the western foothills of Titan's major continent, and studying in the greatest details the wonderful Comet McNaught (eso0707).
In the study of objects slightly more massive than planets, the VLT found that brown dwarfs form in a similar manner to normal stars. The VLT made it also possible to measure the age of a fossil star that was clearly born at the dawn of time (eso0723).
Other discoveries included reconstructing the site of a flare on a solar-like star, catching a star smoking (eso0734), revealing a reservoir of dust around an elderly star, uncovering a flat, nearly edge-on disc of silicates in the heart of the magnificent Ant Nebula, finding material around a star before it exploded (eso0731), fingerprinting the Milky Way (eso0715), revealing a rich circular cluster of stars, hunting galaxies, discovering teenage galaxies, and finding the first known triplet of supermassive black holes (eso0702).
On the instrumentation side, the VLT has been equipped with a new 'eye' to study the Universe in the near-infrared, Hawk-I (eso0736), while the Laser Guide Star used at the VLT to create an artificial star appears to fulfil all its promises. Successful tests were also done of a crucial technology for Extremely Large Telescopes (eso0719).
The VLT Rapid Response Mode showed it unique capabilities in the study of gamma-ray bursts (eso0717), as did the REM, a robotic telescope at La Silla, that allowed astronomers to measure for the first time the speed of matter ejected in these tremendous explosions (eso0726).
The world's largest bolometer camera for submillimetre astronomy, LABOCA, is now in service at the 12-m APEX telescope, while the construction of ALMA moves forwards. Two 12-m ALMA prototype antennas were first linked together as an integrated system to observe an astronomical object, the ALMA Operations Support Facility is almost completed, and the ALMA transporters were shipped to Chile (eso0732).
ESO is also present on the educational front with, for example, its annual international contest for students, Catch a Star (eso0746). In April 2007, ESO organised with its partners the second EIROforum Science on Stage festival, a unique event, showcasing the very best of today's science education and to which participated the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potočnik. The Commissioner also visited the Paranal observatory and took part in the observation of a beautiful galaxy (eso0749).
This was not the only nice image coming out from ESO telescopes. A rather amazing Cosmic Bird - or a gigantic Tinker Bell - was photographed, as well as a Purple Rose and a stellar firework.
And last but least, at the end of the year, the United Nations passed a resolution proclaiming 2009 the International Year of Astronomy (eso0754).
Over dit bericht
| Persberichten nr.: | eso0801 |
| Legacy ID: | PR 01/08 |
| Naam: | European Southern Observatory |
| Type: | Unspecified |
| Facility: | Other |
Afbeeldingen
Our use of Cookies
We use cookies that are essential for accessing our websites and using our services. We also use cookies to analyse, measure and improve our websites’ performance, to enable content sharing via social media and to display media content hosted on third-party platforms.
ESO Cookies Policy
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy. It carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy.
This Cookies Policy is intended to provide clarity by outlining the cookies used on the ESO public websites, their functions, the options you have for controlling them, and the ways you can contact us for additional details.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit. They serve various purposes, such as remembering login credentials and preferences and enhance your browsing experience.
Categories of cookies we use
Essential cookies (always active): These cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our website. Without these cookies, the website cannot operate correctly, and certain services, such as logging in or accessing secure areas, may not be available; because they are essential for the website’s operation, they cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies enhance your browsing experience by enabling additional features and personalization, such as remembering your preferences and settings. While not strictly necessary for the website to function, they improve usability and convenience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent.
Analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors interact with our website, such as which pages are visited most often and how users navigate the site. This data helps us improve website performance, optimize content, and enhance the user experience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent. We use the following analytics cookies.
Matomo Cookies:
This website uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), an open source software which enables the statistical analysis of website visits. Matomo uses cookies (text files) which are saved on your computer and which allow us to analyze how you use our website. The website user information generated by the cookies will only be saved on the servers of our IT Department. We use this information to analyze www.eso.org visits and to prepare reports on website activities. These data will not be disclosed to third parties.
On behalf of ESO, Matomo will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Matomo cookies settings:
Additional Third-party cookies on ESO websites: some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
Such third-party services are outside of ESO control and may, at any time, change their terms of service, use of cookies, etc.
YouTube: Some videos on the ESO website are embedded from ESO’s official YouTube channel. We have enabled YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, meaning that no cookies are set unless the user actively clicks on the video to play it. Additionally, in this mode, YouTube does not store any personally identifiable cookie data for embedded video playbacks. For more details, please refer to YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
Cookies can also be classified based on the following elements.
Regarding the domain, there are:
- First-party cookies, set by the website you are currently visiting. They are stored by the same domain that you are browsing and are used to enhance your experience on that site;
- Third-party cookies, set by a domain other than the one you are currently visiting.
As for their duration, cookies can be:
- Browser-session cookies, which are deleted when the user closes the browser;
- Stored cookies, which stay on the user's device for a predetermined period of time.
How to manage cookies
Cookie settings: You can modify your cookie choices for the ESO webpages at any time by clicking on the link Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.
In your browser: If you wish to delete cookies or instruct your browser to delete or block cookies by default, please visit the help pages of your browser:
Please be aware that if you delete or decline cookies, certain functionalities of our website may be not be available and your browsing experience may be affected.
You can set most browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in, shop check out).
Updates to the ESO Cookies Policy
The ESO Cookies Policy may be subject to future updates, which will be made available on this page.
Additional information
For any queries related to cookies, please contact: pdprATesoDOTorg.
As ESO public webpages are managed by our Department of Communication, your questions will be dealt with the support of the said Department.