Announcements 2013

31 December 2013: In February 2011 we opened a Flickr Group, called “Your ESO Pictures” to encourage people to share their photos that revealed interesting aspects of ESO. Visitors to our sites often say that it is a life changing experience and we were curious to know what impresses them most. The initiative proved to be very popular, recently passing the 1000 photos milestone, for which we would like to thank all our Flickr friends! Many of the photos shared with us became Pictures of the Week on the ESO homepage, as we wanted to recognise people’s excellent work, while some of the contributors were invited to join our network of Photo Ambassadors. We invite you to discover 1000 views on ESO and contribute your own to Your ESO Pictures. As a new idea for the Flickr we also encourage pictures that show “ESO from the inside” — either from staff or visitors. ...

19 December 2013: A new ESO brochure, entitled Reaching New Heights in Astronomy, has been published and is available as a PDF for download (in 12 languages initially, including English). Printed copies can be ordered from the ESO shop, or collected directly from ESO Headquarters. This 28-page publication describes the ESO sites in Chile and ESO’s state-of-the-art technology. It also highlights some of ESO’s biggest discoveries over more than half a century of pushing the boundaries of astronomical science. Accompanying the text are full colour photos depicting the ESO sites against the backdrop of the beautiful Atacama Desert, along with many spectacular images of astronomical discoveries. This new brochure is a complete update of the older Universe of Discoveries brochure. Bulk discounts are available in the ESO shop.

18 December 2013: 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: The ESO Public Surveys — Milestones and Completion Overview Summaries of the progress of the individual ESO Public Surveys Paranal Instrumentation Programme 2013-2020: Development Plan Characterising Exoplanet Atmospheres with High Resolution Spectroscopy VLTI/MIDI Large Programme on AGN Download The Messenger in PDF format or visit The Messenger website to subscribe and receive a free printed copy.

10 December 2013: At a ceremony at ESO’s Vitacura offices in Santiago on 9 December 2013 the ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, and Jorge Letelier Lynch from the Chilean company ICAFAL Ingeniería y Construcción S.A., signed a contract for the construction of a road to the summit of Cerro Armazones, the levelling of the top of the mountain and additional civil works. The ceremony was also attended by representatives of the ESO project team. Cerro Armazones will be the site of the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The 3000-metre peak is located twenty kilometres from ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The work specified in the contract will begin in March 2014 and is expected to take 16 months. It includes the laying and maintenance of a paved road, the construction of the summit platform and the construction of a service trench to the summit. These civil ...

6 December 2013: The ESO Council, at its meeting this week in Garching, has approved the appointment of Roberto Tamai as Programme Manager for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), effective 1 February 2014. Roberto replaces Alistair McPherson who has very successfully steered the E-ELT project through its early stages. Alistair is returning to the United Kingdom as Deputy Director General/Head of Project for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), based at Jodrell Bank near Manchester. Roberto comes from Naples and was educated in Italy and at Berkeley, Calfornia. He started his career working on the ESA Hypersonic Plasma Wind Tunnel Project and subsequently has had a distinguished career at ESO, both in Chile and in Garching. In 1999 he moved to Paranal as a mechanical engineer and became the Head of the Engineering of Paranal Observatory, and then Deputy Director of the La Silla Paranal Observatory. In 2008 he moved back to Garching ...

6 December 2013: The ESO Council, at its meeting this week in Garching, has approved the appointment of Rob Ivison as the next ESO Director for Science. Ivison will take up his post on 31 March 2014. Ivison is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Astronomy, based at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, and holds an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. He has a strong and broad track record in astronomy, with expertise covering optical, infrared, submillimetre, and radio wavelengths. His research interests range from the formation and evolution of galaxies, to mass loss in cataclysmic variable stars and the generation of cosmic dust in supernovae. He has previously worked at the University of Toronto, Caltech, University College London, and was a Project Scientist at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. Rob has played a central role in many important cosmological and extragalactic research programmes, ...

28 November 2013: ESO is pleased to announce a new collaboration with the German television station Bayerischer Rundfunk. The most recent installment in their long-running evening television series Space Night features many images and video segments provided by ESO. The programme, which has been running for almost 20 years, features images and video sequences of both the cosmos and the Earth seen from space. The spectacular visuals come from ESO, ESA and NASA and are set to relaxing electronic chillout music that has been created by fans of the show under the creative commons licensing scheme. This year’s Space Night runs almost every night as part of the Bayerischer Rundfunk BR-Alpha evening show, and can also be viewed online at the Space Night website.

28 November 2013: Media representatives are invited to attend the inauguration of the new ESO Headquarters extension buildings on 4 December 2013 at 18:00 CET, in Garching bei München, Bavaria, Germany. As the only international scientific organisation in Bavaria, ESO plays an important role in sustaining Bavaria’s position as a leading international research region. The new office and conference building together with the technical building have a total area of 13 200 square metres, which more than doubles ESO’s Headquarters total area. The new buildings will strengthen ESO’s presence on the Garching research campus, allowing the organisation to further expand its economic and scientific contribution to the region. ESO provides 450 high-tech jobs in Bavaria, and will use the additional office space to bring all of its staff together, along with the students who are enrolled in the ESO Fellowship Programme (a significant fraction of whom come from German universities). The new technical ...

26 November 2013: A photo project, developed by ESO Photo Ambassador, Serge Brunier, with ESO in 2009, has given birth to a new 360-degree fulldome planetarium show produced by Point Du Jour/TOTAVISION Le Plus–Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque/RSA Cosmos. The show called Le Navigateur du Ciel (The Navigator of Outer Space), is 30 minutes long and is available in French and English. In recognition of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, ESO commissioned the famous French astrophotographer Serge Brunier to take on the challenging task of creating a photo of the entire sky as seen from both the southern and the northern hemispheres. The resulting photo has almost 1 billion pixels and is one of the best and most natural all-sky images taken so far. To accomplish such a stunning feat, Serge Brunier had to travel to the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert, crossing it from south to north, and to the ...

21 November 2013: On 3 December 2013 at 11:00 CET, ESO will host a press conference in Garching bei München, Germany, to announce plans to build an exhibition centre and planetarium at the ESO Headquarters in Bavaria. The new building for the popularisation of astronomy is being funded through a donation from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, a German foundation that supports the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. The new centre will be supported by operational funding from ESO and is designed to inspire people to look up at the stars, and teach people about the importance of astronomy and its effects on our day-to-day lives. The project is based on an idea that originated out of cooperation between ESO and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies — the research institute of the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. The construction work is scheduled to begin in 2014. Public interest in astronomy and space science has ...

15 November 2013: At a ceremony held yesterday at the La Moneda Palace, Sebastián Piñera, the President of Chile, received the first atomic clock used by ESO in Chile from Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General. This gift, a timepiece that was originally installed at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in 1975, was in gratitude for fifty years of successful collaboration between ESO and the host country. In return the President gave the Director General a fine volume describing the rich history of the La Moneda Palace. The Rohde & Schwarz atomic clock was the first of its kind in Chile and, for many years, the time signal of this clock was very important beyond La Silla. It served as an accurate time reference that was synchronised with the national source of time of Chile, located at the Cerro Calán Observatory in Santiago. This was done by means of a “transporter of time”, that ...

11 November 2013: With Dr Nadine Neumayer, ESO Exactly 50 years ago, the discovery of quasars revolutionised astronomy. Black holes turned from a theoretical idea into reality. Today, black holes seem to be ubiquitous at the centres of massive galaxies. They can remain dormant, as in our galaxy, the Milky Way, or they can be actively accreting and “swallowing” the matter, gas and stars, surrounding them and in the process becoming bright, active galactic nuclei, of which quasars are the most extreme example. Surprisingly, astronomers have found a very tight relationship between the mass of the central black hole, and the mass of its host galaxy. They believe that the reason for this tight relationship is the common origin and evolution of these two objects. Dr Nadine Neumayer, from ESO, will discuss with the guests of Café & Kosmos when and how black holes get to the centre of galaxies in the first ...

8 November 2013: Universe Awareness (UNAWE) has released a new Space Scoop App for Android users, offering access to the latest astronomy news — whenever it happens, wherever you are! Space Scoop is an astronomy news service for children aged eight and above that aims at sharing exciting new astronomical discoveries with them. ESO was among the first astronomy institutions that joined up with this service and had its press releases translated into “kids language”. The Space Scoop Android app is designed to share the most exciting new astronomical discoveries with children in the hope of inspiring them to develop an interest in science and technology. The concept design and development was lead by UNAWE Romania's project manager, Cătălina Movileanu, and her team in partnership with company TAGonSoft. Almost 200 child-friendly news articles are already available in 22 languages, and up to two new stories will be added each week. ESO’s online press ...

7 November 2013: The registrations for the first ESO astronomy camp for secondary school students have closed with 170 applications from 23 countries submitted and the winners of the 12 bursaries offered by ESO and the national partners have been selected. The camp, organised by Sterrenlab in collaboration with ESO and its science outreach network, will take place from 26–31 December 2013 at the Astronomical Observatory of the Aosta Valley, located in Saint-Barthelemy, Nus, Italy. The camp will accommodate around 50 secondary school students aged between 16 and 18 from the ESO Member States and ESO science outreach network countries. From these, nine were selected to receive a bursary that covers the complete cost of the camp including transport, and three to receive partial grants. ESO was initially going to offer only one bursary, but the many entries from Brazil and Poland and their excellent quality convinced the ESO organisers to grant exceptionally ...

24 October 2013: On Tuesday, 29 October 2013, Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque from the European Space Agency (ESA) will be an honoured guest during the meeting Science and Art — 50 Years of ESO in Chile. This event will serve as a kick-off for several cultural events with which the ESO and the Chilean embassies of ESO’s Member States will celebrate ESO’s 50th Anniversary in Chile and its key contributions to world astronomy (see ESO Top 10 Astronomical Discoveries). The event with Pedro Duque, who has travelled into space twice, will be held at the Centro Cultural de España, at 19:30, and is being organised by the Spanish Embassy. Pedro Duque will also have a public discussion with Enrique Rivera, President of Chilean Video Corporation and Director of the Biannual Celebration of Media Arts. “During these 50 years the Government of Chile and ESO have managed to build a scientific and cultural bridge ...

18 October 2013: On 19 October, between 11:00 and 18:00 the Headquarters of the European Southern Observatory in Garching bei München, Germany, will open its doors to curious visitors. Most of the research institutes that are located on Garching research campus will also take part in Open House Day. At ESO, visitors can participate in several exciting activities: Connect live with ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence, located on the Chajnantor Plateau, Chile, at 5000 metres above sea level. Make a live connection also to ESO’s Very Large Telescope on the Paranal platform, the most advanced visible-light telescope in the world. Watch interesting documentaries such as Europe to the Stars — ESO’s first 50 years of exploring the southern sky, ALMA — in search of our cosmic origins. Listen to talks from ESO astronomers, with topics ranging from life on other planets to black holes. Learn how astronomers observe in the infrared ...

17 October 2013: In this episode of Chile Chill we take a closer look at the telescopes and instruments of ESO's first observatory at La Silla in northern Chile. Undisturbed by narration, and set to instrumental music by John Stanford (nigelstanford.com), this Chile Chill takes you on a relaxing journey beneath the pristine Chilean skies, and through the stark but beautiful wilderness of the surrounding desert. This episode shows the graceful dance of ESO's telescopes, in time-lapse video, as they follow the heavens along their celestial path. Also, high resolution images from ESO's telescopes zoom deep into the cosmos, showing detail imperceivable to the human eye. The video is available to watch here. More Information The ESOcast is a video podcast series dedicated to bringing you the latest news and research from ESO — the European Southern Observatory. Subscribe to our video podcast now to keep up with the latest news from ESO: ...

14 October 2013: In early October 2013, the Atacama Desert became the site of a Mars simulation for a week, as a team of scientists and engineers visited the area to test out their prototype Mars rover. The test site is located close to ESO's Paranal Observatory and was selected due to its harsh climate and its physical resemblance to the red planet. Additionally, the Atacama Desert is known for its virtually sterile soil, largely due to the lack of moisture in the region: this makes the area particularly suitable for simulating the lifeless Martian environment. The recent trials in Chile have featured a rover named Bridget (provided by Astrium, Stevenage in the UK), which is part of the SAFER field trials (Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover). ESA's 2018 ExoMars mission is acting as the reference mission for the trial. The project aims to give the science team first-hand experience of ...

11 October 2013: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in print. The European journal, dedicated to the interests of science teachers and educators, offers numerous science articles and activities to help inspire and encourage school-aged students. Some of the highlights of this issue include the cover story, which looks at the phenomenon of zoonotic infections, an article on how scientists can use cosmic rays to investigate the inner workings of volcanoes, and a look at how medieval herbal medicine is influencing current research. Teaching activities include; how to model a black hole, a phylogenetics demonstration in the classroom, and an extremely hands-on demonstration of how a heart pumps using a pig heart, a knife and some water! 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 ...

10 October 2013: If you are still not looking for a theatre location nearby to watch the 3D production Hidden Universe, we invite you to take a look at this trailer to see what you are missing out. Recorded last October at several locations, including Paranal in Chile, the site of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, and at the site of the ALMA Observatory, the film combines live action scenes with 3D versions of celestial objects, offering an immersive cosmic experience. You will witness the stunning magnificence of the Universe and the equally amazing tools that astronomers use to reveal its secrets in the cinematic medium that does it best. To check the most up-to-date list of theatre locations where the movie is available, go here.