Comunicados de Prensa

7 de Marzo de 2007: The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international telescope project, reached a major milestone on 2 March, when two 12-m ALMA prototype antennas were first linked together as an integrated system to observe an astronomical object.

7 de Marzo de 2007: New data obtained on the apparent celestial couple, NGC 5011 B and C, taken with the 3.6-m ESO telescope, reveal that the two galaxies are not at the same distance, as was believed for the past 23 years. The observations show that NGC 5011C is not a giant but a dwarf galaxy, an overlooked member of a group of galaxies in the vicinity of the Milky Way.

24 de Febrero de 2007: Repasando 20 años de observaciones de esta supernova con telescopios de ESO

La Supernova 1987A ha sido una bonanza para los astrofísicos, al ofrecer la oportunidad de presenciar fenómenos nunca observados antes: la detección de neutrinos procedentes de una estrella en explosión, la observación de la estrella progenitora en placas fotográficas, las evidencias de una explosión no esférica, la observación directa de elementos radiactivos producidos en la explosión, entre otros.

23 de Febrero de 2007: Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, has been delighting those who have seen it with the unaided eye as a spectacular display in the evening sky. Pushing ESO's New Technology Telescope to its limits, a team of European astronomers have obtained the first, and possibly unique, detailed observations of this object. Their images show spectacular jets of gas from the comet spiralling several thousands of kilometres into space, while the spectra reveal the presence of sodium in its atmosphere, something seen very rarely.

23 de Febrero de 2007: The ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, which allows astronomers to scrutinise objects with a precision equivalent to that of a 130-m telescope, is proving itself an unequalled success every day. One of the latest instruments installed, AMBER, has led to a flurry of scientific results, an anthology of which is being published this week as special features in the research journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

19 de Enero de 2007: El cometa McNaught ha dado un gran espectáculo en el hemisferio sur. Observadores en Chile, sobre todo desde el Observatorio Paranal de ESO, pudieron capturar imágenes impresionantes de este viajero del sistema solar.

17 de Enero de 2007: The world's biggest infrared camera for Europe's newest telescope left the UK today for Chile. The 67 million pixel camera will equip VISTA - a UK provided survey telescope being constructed in Chile for ESO. VISTA will map the infrared sky faster than any previous telescope, studying areas of the Universe that are hard to see in the visible due to either their cool temperature, surrounding dust or high redshift.

11 de Enero de 2007: The ESO Council has just appointed Tim de Zeeuw, 50, as the next Director General of ESO, effective as of 1 September 2007, when the current Director General, Catherine Cesarsky will complete her mandate.

8 de Enero de 2007: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and the California Institute of Technology, USA, have discovered what appears to be the first known triplet of quasars. This close trio of supermassive black holes lies about 10.5 billion light-years away towards the Virgo (The Virgin) constellation.

4 de Enero de 2007: Last year proved to be another exceptional year for the European organisation for ground-based astronomy. ESO should begin the New Year with two new member states: Spain (PR 05/06) and the Czech Republic (PR 52/06).

24 de Diciembre de 2006: A Happy New Year!

22 de Diciembre de 2006: Today, an agreement was signed in Prague between ESO and the Czech Republic, aiming to make the latter become a full member of ESO as of 1 January 2007.

22 de Diciembre de 2006: On the night of 15 December 2006, the fourth and last-to-be-installed VLTI Auxiliary Telescope (AT4) obtained its 'First Light'. The first images demonstrate that AT4 will be able to deliver the excellent image quality already delivered by the first three ATs. It will soon join its siblings to perform routinely interferometric measurements.

21 de Diciembre de 2006: A new, stunning image of the cosmic spider, the Tarantula Nebula and its surroundings, finally pays tribute to this amazing, vast and intricately sculpted web of stars and gas. The newly released image, made with ESO's Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-m ESO/MPG Telescope at La Silla, covers 1 square degree on the sky and could therefore contain four times the full Moon.

20 de Diciembre de 2006: Nature has again thrown astronomers for a loop. Just when they thought they understood how gamma-ray bursts formed, they have uncovered what appears to be evidence for a new kind of cosmic explosion. These seem to arise when a newly born black hole swallows most of the matter from its doomed parent star.

20 de Diciembre de 2006: Astronomers at ESO's frontline Paranal Observatory got a surprise on the morning of 18 December when looking at the observatory's all-sky camera, MASCOT. For about 45 minutes in the early morning, an object appeared first as a bright stripe then as a cloud that dissolved.

14 de Diciembre de 2006: Today, Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research received a statement of support for the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers from EIROforum.

11 de Diciembre de 2006: La Astronomía acaba de recibir un impulso considerable con la decisión del comité directivo de ESO de proceder al estudio detallado del Telescopio Europeo Extremadamente Grande. Con un presupuesto de 75 millones de euros, este estudio hará posible, dentro de tres años, el comienzo de la construcción de un telescopio óptico/infrarrojo de unos 40 metros de diámetro que revolucionará la astronomía terrestre. El diseño elegido está basado en un concepto revolucionario especialmente desarrollado para un telescopio de este tamaño.

6 de Diciembre de 2006: Using VIMOS on ESO's Very Large Telescope, a team of French and Italian astronomers have shown the strong influence the environment exerts on the way galaxies form and evolve. The scientists have for the first time charted remote parts of the Universe, showing that the distribution of galaxies has considerably evolved with time, depending on the galaxies' immediate surroundings. This surprising discovery poses new challenges for theories of the formation and evolution of galaxies.

30 de Noviembre de 2006: Científicos arrojan nueva luz sobre un debate de una década. Es conocido que al morir algunas estrellas dan lugar a la explosión de una supernova. Lo que no está claro es si la estrella se quema lentamente o revienta muy rápido. De las observaciones se desprende que la materia expulsada presenta asimetrías importantes en la periferia, mientras que en el centro hay una esfera casi perfecta, lo cual sugiere que la explosión se propagaría a velocidades supersónicas.