European
Southern
Observatory
ESO Science Newsletter May 2022
13 May 2022

This newsletter is a summary of recent ESO Science Announcement items. Follow the links or visit ESO Science Announcements to read more.



Science Announcements


Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for Data Collections in the ESO Science Archive

09 May 2022:

In order to increase the visibility and legacy value of data collections in the ESO Science Archive, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) have been created for them. DOIs provide permanent and unique links to text, web pages and other digital resources, in this case astronomical data. They are an important component towards ESO's ambition of supporting Open Data principles and making data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). With time it is planned to extend the creation of DOIs to contributed datasets, e.g., to reflect the exact list of files used in a paper.

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Director's Discretionary Time on OmegaCAM/VST in P109

09 May 2022:

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is offered to the ESO community until the end of Period 109. ESO will accept Director's Discretionary Time proposals for OmegaCAM only until 15 August for observations to be conducted before end of September 2022.

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Applications for ESO Studentships – First Annual Call

06 May 2022:

The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for PhD students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories. ESO's studentship positions are open to students enrolled in a university PhD programme in astronomy or related fields. Students accepted into the programme work on their doctoral project under the formal supervision of their home university supervisor, but they come to ESO to work and study under the co-supervision of an ESO staff astronomer for a period of between one and two years.

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Introducing the 2022 ESO Fellows

06 May 2022:

The Offices for Science and the Astronomy Faculty are very pleased to present the 2022 ESO Fellows. Here is an introduction to the Fellows due to start in Germany and Chile later this year.

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Fizeau Exchange Visitors Programme in Optical Interferometry

06 May 2022:

The Fizeau exchange visitors programme in optical interferometry, funded by OPTICON/H2020, aims at funding travel and accommodation for visits of researchers to an institute of their choice, within the European Community, to perform collaborative work and training on one of the active topics of the European Interferometry Initiative. The visits will typically last for one month, and strengthen the network of astronomers engaged in technical, scientific and training work on optical/infrared interferometry, including with VLTI. Researchers willing to visit the VLTI Expertise Centres are strongly encouraged to use this programme to fund the exchange. Fellowships can be awarded for missions to be carried out between August 2022 and January 2023, and the deadline for applications is May 15, 2022.

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ESO Science Data Products Standard Version 8 Published

11 Apr 2022:

Phase 3 denotes the process of preparation, validation and ingestion of science data products (SDPs) in the ESO science archive facility, and subsequent data publication to the scientific community. SDPs are data products with instrument and atmospheric signatures removed, calibrated in physical units, with noise properties (like limiting magnitude or signal-to-noise ratio) quantified and documented. Version 8 of the ESO Science Data Products standard is now published.

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Fifth and Final Data Release of the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey Now Available

04 Apr 2022:

VIDEO (under programme ID 179.A-2006, PI: Jarvis) is a deep near-infrared survey which targets ~12 square degrees over the ELAIS-S1, XMM-LSS, and E-CDFS extragalactic fields. VIDEO belongs to the suite of the first cycle Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) public surveys conducted at ESO and now completed.

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Upcoming ESO or ESO-related workshops
 

"Solar System Science with the ELTs" will focus on ESO’s ELT unique capabilities to address the open questions in the diverse subfields of Solar System science. A special emphasis will be put on how the ELT, alongside with the GMT and TMT will fit in the rich landscape of ground- and space-based telescopes, in particular with the current and future ESA missions. The conference will consist of two parts. In the first, technical session scheduled for April 28, 2022, ELT instrument experts will present the capabilities of the instruments for Solar System observations. The speakers will be encouraged to use the conference materials to develop further their ideas of the specific contribution of the ELTs to their field of research. These ideas, alongside with talks reviewing the state of the art knowledge in the different subfields of planetary science, will then be presented during the main part of the conference taking place from June 13-15, 2022.

Technologies associated with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data science, deep learning, and neural networks  are already embedded in our daily lives. Also astronomical research is deeply impacted by the advances of AI technologies. The large amount and complexity of data produced by modern astronomical facilities require AI based technologies to allow efficient processing, and novel, synoptical, analysis and discovery methods. They add value to both engineering, observatory  operations and science, with the final goal to enhance data exploitation. Building on the success of the previous series of similar events, this ESO/ESA workshop aims to facilitate the exchange of current developments and applications of AI enabled technologies in science operations for space- and ground-based astronomical facilities. The entire scientific operations workflow starting from proposal and observation preparation, scheduling and execution of observing programs, data analysis and archiving will be examined.