Announcements

25 October 2016: High up in the Atacama Desert in Chile, ESO’s Paranal Observatory has welcomed a very special guest. Former President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, visited the Paranal facilities, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT), on 21 and 22 October 2016. Prior to that, on 20 October, Ms. Halonen paid a visit to the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO), after delivering a talk at CEPAL (the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) on the global situation of women in the 21st Century. During her visit to the JAO she met women scientists and engineers working at ALMA and ESO and was given a presentation about the ALMA residence, which is nearing completion and is based on a design by Finnish architects. Finland became the eleventh member state of the European Southern Observatory in 2004, during Ms. Halonen’s presidency. Since then, ESO has benefitted from the frontline scientific expertise for which the ...

20 October 2016: A very rare gravitational lensing event, set to occur in 2028, has been predicted by a team of French astronomers led by Pierre Kervella of the CNRS/Universidad de Chile. It will provide an ideal opportunity to look for evidence of a planet around a nearby star. Using both new and archive data obtained with a range of ESO telescopes [1], the team has predicted the trajectories of the fast-moving stellar duo known as the Alpha Centauri A and B, with negligible error. That has allowed them to predict every close alignment until 2050 between the Alpha Centauri pair and the stars which lie close to them on the sky — but which are in fact a great deal further away in space [2]. Whilst it is satisfying to see into the future with such impressive accuracy, that is not the real prize in these results; they provide a unique opportunity ...

20 October 2016: New high-definition cameras have been installed at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). They will provide improved 24/7 interactive views of these two flagship observatories in Chile and will complement ESO’s suite of existing live webcam views.. The new cameras provide a live 360-degree view of the activities at the observatories throughout the year and can be used interactively to explore the site in all directions in exquisite detail. In addition, there are several high-resolution “points of interest”, which include a dedicated feed of the Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile — the site of the new European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) — to document the construction of the world’s largest optical telescope, scheduled for completion in 2024. Also shown are the operations of the smaller Auxiliary Telescopes at Paranal, and, on very clear days, the Llullaillaco volcano can be seen, at a distance ...

17 October 2016: For the first time, starlight from one of the Unit Telescopes (UT) that make up ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has been successfully channelled 60 metres along a tunnel leading to a new focus in the underground laboratory beneath the VLT platform. When the system is fully operational, light from all four UTs will be brought to this “convergence point”, where the ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) high resolution spectrograph will be placed in 2017, collecting and analysing the combined light from the individual telescopes. In this way, the UTs, each of which has a diameter of 8 metres, will together equal the light collecting power of a telescope with a diameter of 16 metres. It will also be possible to use ESPRESSO with just one of the UTs, whenever all four are not needed. To get the light from the telescope to the new ...

17 October 2016: In May 2014 Olivier Chesneau, one of the most active and prolific members of the optical interferometry community, passed away at the age of 41. To honour his work in this field, his home institute, the Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France and ESO established a prize in his memory. The prize is awarded biennially — the first time was in 2015 — for the best thesis completed by a PhD student in the past two calendar years in the field of high angular resolution optical astronomy at a European institution. This includes adaptive optics, optical interferometry and similar techniques. Nominations for the prize must be received by 15 January 2017 at https://olivier-chesneau.oca.eu, where full details about the prize rules are available. The result will be announced in March 2017. The winner of the prize will be invited to give a prize lecture during ...

17 October 2016: ESO, the world’s most productive ground-based observatory, will open its doors to the public on Saturday 22 October 2016 between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST. The event will be held at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the world of ESO first hand by taking part in many different activities. The programme of activities for the day is now available. Our Open House Day is part of the Tag der offenen Tür that is taking place across the Garching research campus, as well as at several other local institutes. If you need help to find your way during the Open House Day, look for our members of staff, who are wearing name badges. As ESO is an international organisation, we have staff speaking several languages. Media representatives who wish to attend the event are asked to confirm their participation by contacting osandu@partner.eso.org. List ...

11 October 2016: Nine years ago, ESO uploaded its first video to YouTube, about the discovery of the first Earth-like world in the habitable zone of a distant star. It seems fitting then that a recent set of videos about the groundbreaking discovery of another Earth-like world, this time around our closest stellar neighbour Proxima Centauri, have helped boost the ESO channel’s view count to five million. Since 2007, nearly 500 videos have been uploaded to the channel, all sharing incredible astronomical news, discoveries and observations with the world, helping to spread knowledge about our Universe and inspire people. 87 ESOcasts, hundreds of interviews and observations, and countless stunning artists’ renderings have contributed to this milestone. The team at ESO would like to thank all their friends and supporters for watching, discussing and sharing the channel’s videos. We will continue to provide high-quality content for the channel and hope you will continue to ...

10 October 2016: Evans & Sutherland (E&S) has signed a three-year partnership agreement with ESO as a Constellation Partner in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. Having developed advanced computer graphical technologies for over forty years, E&S was the world’s first computer graphics company, and now specialises in a world-leading digital planetarium system, Digistar. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cooperation between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). The building is a donation from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), a German foundation, and ESO runs the facility. Through their collaboration with ESO, E&S will be providing this cutting-edge planetarium technology for use in the forthcoming ESO Supernova, and will be the first to receive daily astronomy news and data directly from research carried out in observatories around the world through the Data2Dome project. Data2Dome, which ESO is spearheading with support from the ...

29 September 2016: The winners have been announced of the 28th European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Between 15 and 20 September 2016, close to 140 young scientists aged between 14 and 21 presented a total of 80 projects from 37 countries to a panel of international judges at the Tour & Taxis Sheds in Brussels, Belgium. The three first prizes of €7000 each were awarded to: Ane Espeseth and Torstein Vik from Norway for their Mathematics project on “Motivic Symbols and Classical Multiplicative Functions”; Valerio Pagliarino from Italy for his Computing project “LaserWAN: laser broadband internet connection”; and River Grace from the USA for his Biology project “Shining a Light on the Blind: Evolutionary Regression and Adaptive Progression in the Micro-vertebrate Ramphotyphlops braminus, a Model for Understanding Brain Organization and Complex Neurological Disorders”. The second prizes went to teams from Germany and Canada and the third prizes were awarded to projects ...

28 September 2016: On Saturday 22 October 2016 the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will open its doors to the public between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST at its headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. This event is one of the Open House Day activities taking place across the whole Garching research campus, where several other institutes will also open their doors to the public. ESO can be found at location number 39 on this map of the campus. Some of the highlights of the 2016 programme are: See the ESO Headquarters buildings — join guided tours through the innovatively styled office building and technical building. Learn how ESO creates artificial stars, see what mirror prototypes for the European Extremely Large Telescope look like, and more. Find out more about the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, currently under construction — planned to open in 2017, it will be the largest tilted planetarium in Germany, ...

23 September 2016: ESO and Enel Green Power are proud to announce the entry into service of the La Silla solar photovoltaic plant in northern Chile. To mark the event, an inauguration ceremony was held at the La Silla Gymnasium, overlooking the new La Silla plant. The ceremony was opened by ESO’s Representative in Chile, Fernando Comerón, followed by Enel’s Head of Renewable Energies Latin America, Salvatore Bernabei. His excellency Máximo Pacheco Matte, the Chilean Minister of Energy, gave the closing address. ESO’s Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, underlined the importance of this facility to ESO: “This new plant will contribute significantly to ESO’s determined efforts to maximise the sustainable use of resources at its facilities. It seems particularly fitting that an astronomical observatory should take its power directly from the light of the Sun, and I am delighted to thank all involved for bringing this project to completion.” Named after ESO’s La ...

21 September 2016: 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: Gender Systematics in Telescope Time Allocation at ESO SEPIA — A New Instrument for the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) Telescope Connecting the Dots: MUSE Unveils the Destructive Effect of Massive Stars Ultra-deep K-band Imaging of the Hubble Frontier Fields Report on the ESO/MPA/MPE/Excellence Cluster/LMU and TUM Munich Joint Conference “Discs in Galaxies” Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy. The printed version will be distributed from 1 October 2016. This product is also available in the ESOshop.

16 September 2016: Media representatives are invited to attend a ceremony at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile on 23 September 2016 to mark the inauguration of the La Silla solar photovoltaic plant. The plant will supply power to ESO’s observatory facilities at La Silla. The event will start at 14:00 local time and is expected to finish around 16:00 — it will be held in the La Silla Gymnasium, which will provide a fine view of the plant itself. The plant has been built by Enel Green Power (EGP) [1] His Excellency Máximo Pacheco Matte, the Chilean Minister of Energy, will deliver the inaugural address. Salvatore Bernabei, Head of Renewable Energies Latin America of EGP will also speak at the event. ESO will be represented by Andreas Kaufer, Director of La Silla-Paranal Observatory, Roberto Tamai, E-ELT Project Manager, Fernando Comerón, ESO Representative in Chile and Ivo Saviane, La Silla Observatory Site ...

16 September 2016: The winners of Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 were announced at an award ceremony at the Royal Observatory Greenwich on 15 September 2016. The winning photographs will be exhibited at the Observatory’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September 2016 until 28 June 2017. ESO joined the 2016 competition as a partner, by contributing a judge from its education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD). The overall winner of the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 competition is Chinese photographer Yu Jun who takes home a prize of £10 000. His winning photograph depicts the phenomenon of Baily’s Beads of the total solar eclipse on 9 March 2016 from Luwuk, Indonesia, captured in a matter of mere minutes. The winners of all the categories are: Our Sun Yu Jun (China) with Baily’s Beads (Winner and Overall Winner) Catalin Beldea and Alson Wong (Romania; USA) with Sun Flower Corona (Runner Up) ...

13 September 2016: 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 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: Galaxies: genesis and evolution; Self-healing aircraft wings: a dream or a possibility?; What stars are made of; and Measuring the explosiveness of a volcanic eruption. 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. Numerous articles, as well as their translated versions in many European languages, can be found online. If you would like to ...

12 September 2016: Seven ESO staff are amongst the group of individuals awarded third place in the prestigious Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis. The group receiving the award includes staff from the companies Toptica and MPB Communications, in addition to those from ESO. These researchers and developers worked together on the Laser Source of the Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF), now operating on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). An important part of the laser technology involved was initially developed at ESO and then brought to industrial engineering levels by Toptica and MPB. The advancement and acknowledgement of outstanding development and scientific work on the application or generation of laser light is one of the objectives of the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung. Since 2000 this prize, which the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung awards every two years, has recognised scientists and technicians who make exceptional advances in the field of laser technology. The ESO staff, both former and ...

9 September 2016: The design for the new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Residencia, currently under construction in the harsh environment of Chile’s Atacama desert, features in the 15th International Architecture Exhibition. The world renowned International Architecture Exhibition has been held every two years since 1980 in the historic city of Venice, Italy, and has celebrated some of the most fascinating and groundbreaking architecture from around the world. This year’s event is running between 28 May and 27 November 2016 and features designs on the theme of “Reporting From The Front”, showcasing architecture that overcomes the odds to provide a better place to live for all. The ALMA Residencia was designed by Finnish Architects Kouvu and Partanen. Once completed, it will host astronomers, engineers and support staff from all over the world, providing an oasis in the desert that will encourage both deep thinking and relaxation in the harsh but breathtaking environment. More ...

1 September 2016: As the construction of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre here in Garching continues apace, ready for its opening in late 2017, ESO continues to make an unprecedented range of high-quality materials available for use in planetariums, produced by world-renowned astrophotographers, artists, technicians and musicians. Both the mission and vision of the ESO Supernova emphasise the creation of connections and learning experiences for both scientists and the general public; in keeping with this, and with ESO’s ethos in general, all of these planetarium products are available for free. Quality comes before quantity, but thanks to the dedicated work of both our team and the planetarium community at large, we are able to offer both. The full range of free material for planetariums is available on the ESO Supernova website. This comprises: Almost 400 fulldome clips in ESO’s and ESA/Hubble’s archives. These include more than 100 Ultrafast Time-lapse videos by ...

24 August 2016: On 24 August 2016 at 13:00 CEST, ESO will host a press conference at its Headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. ESO’s Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, will open the event, and after the initial presentations, journalists will have the opportunity to ask questions. The press conference will also be broadcast over the internet, and journalists who have registered will receive login details and information about how to ask questions of the participants. To participate in the conference, bona fide members of the media must first register by completing this online form. Please indicate whether you wish to come in person to the press conference or if you will participate online only. By registering for the conference, journalists agree to honour an embargo, details of which will be provided after registration, and undertake not to publish or discuss the material presented before that time. Slots for individual interviews can be ...

24 August 2016: This is the ESOcast that no viewer will want to miss. We discuss the result of the quest to find a planet around the closest star to the Solar System. The Pale Red Dot campaign aimed to find a planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbour, Proxima Centauri. Incredibly, the quest succeeded and the team did indeed find a planet. Even more excitingly, the planet, Proxima b, falls within the habitable zone of its host star. The newly discovered Proxima b is by far the closest potential abode for alien life. In this ESOcast, the results of this groundbreaking research are explained in detail, providing insights into the following points: The extensive verification process the team went through to ensure this result was accurate. The factors for and against the possibility of life on Proxima b. The nature of a “habitable zone” around a star. The discovery of Proxima b is ...