ESO Announcements

Halfway There: 33 ALMA Antennas on Chajnantor

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:25:00 +0200

On the Chajnantor plateau in northern Chile, construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the most complex ground-based astronomy observatory in the world, continues apace. On 12 May 2012, another ALMA antenna was carried up to Chajnantor, bringing the total on the plateau to 33. This marks a half-way point for ALMA, as the telescope will have a total of 66 antennas when completed in 2013. The giant antennas, fifty-four of them with 12-metre-diameter dishes, and twelve with 7-metre-diameter dishes, use sensitive receivers to detect millimetre- and submillimetre-wavelength light from the cosmos.

The first of the antennas made the trip up to the 5000-metre-altitude Array Operations Site in September 2009 (see eso0935). Now, as ALMA approaches completion, antennas are arriving at an increasing rate.

The state-of-the-art ALMA antennas, which weigh about 100 tonnes each, need a custom-constructed transporter vehicle to move them between the Operations Support Facility and the higher Array Operations Site. These twin transporters, as well as 25 antennas out of the final total of 66, are among ESO’s many contributions to the project [1]. The transporters — massive machines named Otto and Lore — are 20 metres long, 10 metres wide and 6 metres high, and each has 28 tyres. They are also used to move the antennas between positions on the plateau. The minimum distance between antennas is 15 metres and they can be all positioned within a radius of 150 metres, or spaced up to 16 kilometres apart. This gives ALMA a powerful variable “zoom”.

Although not all the antennas have arrived at Chajnantor, ALMA is already operating and making Early Science observations with a partial array (see eso1137). ALMA is the most powerful telescope for observing the cool Universe — molecular gas and dust as well as the relic radiation of the Big Bang. With ALMA, astronomers are studying the building blocks of stars, planetary systems, galaxies, and life itself.

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

Notes

[1] Twenty-five European ALMA antennas are being provided by ESO through a contract with the European AEM Consortium. ALMA will also have 25 antennas provided by North America, and 16 by East Asia.

Café & Kosmos 15 May 2012

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:30:00 +0200

with Dr. Martin Gorbahn (Excellence Cluster Universe)

While the Standard Model of particle physics explains many details of the building blocks of matter and their interactions, many questions still remain unanswered. Several on-going experiments, including CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, will help to clarify things. With these new tools, we can now study the forces of nature down to a scale of 10^-19 metres, which is about one ten thousandth of the diameter of a proton!

During the next Café & Kosmos, Dr. Martin Gorbahn will discuss what physicists expect to see at that scale.

Please note that the Café & Kosmos events take place in German.

What: Digging down into the quantum world
When: Tuesday, 15 May 2012, 19:00 until approximately 20:30
Where: Vereinsheim, Occamstr. 8, 80802 München, near Münchener Freiheit

Admission is free.

ESOcast 43: Seeing Sharp

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:00:00 +0200

Leading up to ESO’s 50th anniversary in October 2012, we are releasing eight special ESOcasts, each a chapter from the movie Europe to the Stars — ESO’s First 50 Years of Exploring the Southern Sky.

The third special episode of this series — ESOcast 43 overall — presents ESO’s flagship facility: the Very Large Telescope (VLT). In this episode we discover the state-of-the-art technology behind this telescope, which has provided astronomers with an unequalled view of the Universe.

To obtain the sharpest images of the sky, the VLT has to cope with two major effects that distort the images of celestial objects. The first one is mirror deformations due to their large sizes. This problem is corrected using a computer-controlled support system — active optics — that ensures that the mirrors keep their desired shapes under all circumstances. The second effect is produced by Earth’s atmosphere, which makes stars appear blurry, even with the largest telescopes. Adaptive optics is a real-time correction of the distortions produced by the atmosphere using computer-controlled mirrors that deform hundreds of times per second to counteract the atmospheric effects.

As one demonstration of its power the VLT’s sensitive infrared cameras, helped by adaptive optics, have been able to peer through the thick dust clouds that block our view of the Milky Way’s core. The images taken over many years have allowed astronomers to actually watch stars orbiting around the monstrous black hole that lies in the center of our galaxy. It was even possible to detect energetic flares from gas clouds falling into the black hole.

Watch this episode to discover more about why the Very Large Telescope is the planet’s sharpest eye on the sky.

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: the ESOcast is available via iTunes in HD and SD. It’s also available on YouTube, Vimeo and dotSUB and is offered for download in several formats including HD.

ESO 50th Anniversary Events

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:00:00 +0200

Event organisers are invited to join an international series of coordinated public events on 5 October 2012 marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory. The events will celebrate Europe’s quest to explore the southern sky, with unique and exciting activities.

ESO invites venues such as public observatories, planetariums, science centres, museums, art galleries, and other public spaces, as well as organisers working with these venues, to apply to host one of these events.

The centrepiece of the coordinated events will be a live connection to ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile, home of the world’s most advanced visible light astronomical observatory — the Very Large Telescope (VLT). A never-before-seen stunning astronomical image from ESO will also be unveiled.

In addition to the live streaming and never-before-seen image, ESO representatives will visit venues to talk about ESO’s state-of-the-art observatories, and the latest scientific and technological results. Organisers may also add other "local extras" such as additional material, public talks, exhibitions, like Awesome Universe (ESO's 50th anniversary exhibition), or other activities.

A range of merchandise will accompany the event, such as: the ESO anniversary coffee-table book and documentary Europe to the Stars (on DVD and Blu-ray); The Jewel on the Mountaintop, a book detailing ESO’s history, posters, postcards, stickers and more.

Friday 5 October 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of ESO, which took place on 5 October 1962 with the signature by the Founding Members Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden of the ESO Convention.

To find out more, visit the ESO 50th Anniversary event page for organisers at http://www.eso.org/public/events/special-evt/5oct2012/organisers.html

More Information

The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

ESO Travels to the Moon and Back During its 50th Anniversary Year

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0200

On 21 April 2012, amateur radio operator Jan van Muijlwijk pointed the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in the Netherlands at the Moon. Radio waves carrying a digital version of the ESO’s 50th anniversary logo were then transmitted into outer space from Howard Ling’s amateur radio station in England. After the signals bounced off Earth’s natural satellite they were picked up by Jan, less than three seconds later, after a round trip of about 800 000 km. The result can be seen in this image which literally traveled to the Moon and back.

Patrick Barthelow, who works with Echoes of Apollo and is a keen promoter of Moonbounce [1] outreach and STEM [2] education activities was the initiator of this project to mark ESO’s 50th anniversary. Artist Daniela de Paulis is the one who first put forward the idea to Moonbounce images and continues to apply her professional experience in this direction.

We invite you to join the celebrations of our anniversary either by taking part in our activities such as the “AwESOme Universe” anniversary exhibition or by initiating your own as Patrick did. Do not forget to tell us about them so we can share them with everyone.

Notes

[1] Moonbounce or Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) is a radio communications technique which relies on the propagation of radio waves from an Earth-based transmitter directed via reflection from the surface of the Moon back to an Earth-based receiver. The technology used to reflect the images off the Moon is called EME-SSTV (Earth-Moon-Earth Slow-Scan-Television).

[2] Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

More Information

The Dwingeloo telescope no longer is used for astronomical observation by ASTRON. Since 2009 the telescope (built in 1954-1956) has been a national monument.

CAMRAS (CA Muller Radio-Astronomy Station), which consists of volunteers (among them technicians, radio-hams and amateur astronomers) rents the telescope from ASTRON and helps keep the telescope as a functioning monument. The volunteers take care of maintenance, replacement and renovation of antennas, receivers, control, driving mechanism and construction. CAMRAS volunteers use the telescope for radio-communication and astronomical observation, for educational purposes and occasions for the general public, such as Open Monument Day and October, Month of Knowledge.

Awesome Universe — the Cosmos through the Eyes of the European Southern Observatory

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:10:00 +0200

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) invites venues such as public observatories, planetariums, science centres, museums, art galleries, and other public spaces, as well as organisers working with these venues, to join an international public exhibition campaign in 2012–2013 celebrating Europe’s quest to explore the southern sky. "Awesome Universe — the Cosmos through the Eyes of the European Southern Observatory" marks the 50th anniversary of ESO. A number of grants for financial support are available.

The exhibition campaign is aimed at the general public. Visitors will discover 50 visually stunning images, showcasing celestial objects such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters as seen by ESO’s observatories — home to the world’s most advanced ground-based telescopes — as well as beautiful images of the observatories themselves, which are located in some of the most unusual places on Earth. Additional exhibition panels introduce ESO itself, and present the highlights of the observatory's first 50 years. The visual appeal of the images will attract an audience of astronomy fans and also the wider public to venues. The gallery can also form the centrepiece of a broader exhibition, with other local activities and content.

Souvenirs available will include: a beautifully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition; “Europe to the Stars”, the ESO anniversary book and documentary (on DVD and Blu-ray); “The Jewel on the Mountaintop”, a book detailing ESO’s history, ESO posters, postcards, and more.

The exhibitions are a partnership between ESO and local venues or organisers, in particular in the ESO Member States, but also around the world. A limited number of grants to cover part of the expenses are available, and all organisers are invited to join a group production order for the highest-quality exhibition materials at preferential prices. The gallery images, as well as the souvenir material, are available to organisers at cost prices in bulk.

All gallery and exhibition material is also available in electronic form. A reference specification is provided for the gallery images and exhibition panels, with suggested production methods, although organisers may also choose to produce the material as they wish.

The deadline to apply for financial support, or to join the group production order, is 1 June 2012.

To find out more, visit the “Awesome Universe” page for organisers at http://www.eso.org/public/events/special-evt/awesome-universe/organisers.html

More Information

ESOcast 42: Looking Up

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:00:00 +0200

“Looking Up” is the second special episode of this series and ESOcast 42 overall. In it we look at how, over the past fifty years, ESO has helped to unravel some of the mysteries of the Universe in which we live. Astronomers were in need of more powerful tools to observe the sky and ESO provided them. A new generation of revolutionary ground-based telescopes has offered astronomers a front-row seat to study the wonders of the Universe.

From the relative proximity of the planets in our Solar System to very distant galaxies, some of which are seen soon after the Universe was born, almost fourteen billion years ago, ESO’s telescopes and advanced instrumentation are allowing astronomers to peer deeper into space than ever before.

Watch this episode to discover more about ESO’s powerful ground-based telescopes and their impact on astronomical investigation.

More Information

The ESOcast is a video podcast series dedicated to bringing you the latest news and research from ESO — the European Southern Observatory.

Café & Kosmos 10 April 2012

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:10:00 +0200

with Dr Frank Simon (Max Planck Institute for Physics)

The study of the early Universe requires the most modern particle accelerators in order to explore the behaviour of the smallest building blocks of the cosmos. During the next Café & Kosmos, we will take a look at the evolution of the earliest stages of the Universe, and also on the future projects that will influence our understanding of physics.

On 10 April 2012, Dr Frank Simon (Max Planck Institute for Physics) will discuss the moments just after the Big Bang, when the Universe was filled with elementary particles. To understand this period of the cosmos better, new and even more powerful instruments will be required. Future particle accelerators, including global projects like the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider (CLiC), will serve as huge particle microscopes to look deep into the history of the Universe.

Please note that the Café & Kosmos events take place in German.

What: The particle accelerators of the future
When: Tuesday, 10 April 2012, 19:00 until approximately 20:30
Where: Vereinsheim, Occamstr. 8, 80802 München, near Münchener Freiheit

Admission is free.

ESO Invites UK Entries to New European Astronomy Journalism Prize

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:01:00 +0200

A new journalism competition to capture and promote inspirational coverage of European astronomy is launched today (Thursday 29 March) at the UK National Astronomy Meeting 2012 [1]. The prize is the ultimate for any astronomy enthusiast — a trip to the world’s most advanced optical instrument: the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Entries for the European Astronomy Journalism Prize must be about astronomy and related areas of technology, or about the work and lifestyles of astronomers, engineers or others working in the field of astronomy. The entries must reflect European interests and they can be online, written or broadcast.

The competition is being run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society. It is open for entries from Monday 2 April 2012 until Friday 27 July 2012. Works must have appeared in English and in the UK media, between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012 inclusive, to be eligible.

Candidates must submit their work in electronic form to: astronomy.prize@stfc.ac.uk or post it to STFC. For details and a full list of terms and conditions please visit www.eso.org/public/astroprize/ and www.stfc.ac.uk/astroprize.

Notes

[1] Bringing together more than 900 astronomers and space scientists, the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2012) will take place from 27-30 March 2012 in the University Place conference centre at the University of Manchester in the UK. More info can be found here.

More Information

European Southern Observatory
The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

STFC
The Science and Technology Facilities Council is keeping the UK at the forefront of international science and tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society such as meeting our future energy needs, monitoring and understanding climate change, and global security.

The Council has a broad science portfolio and works with the academic and industrial communities to share its expertise in materials science, space and ground-based astronomy technologies, laser science, microelectronics, wafer scale manufacturing, particle and nuclear physics, alternative energy production, radio communications and radar.

STFC operates or hosts world class experimental facilities including:

in the UK; ISIS pulsed neutron source, the Central Laser Facility, and LOFAR. STFC is also the majority shareholder in Diamond Light Source Ltd.
overseas; telescopes on La Palma and Hawaii

It enables UK researchers to access leading international science facilities by funding membership of international bodies including European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

STFC also has an extensive public outreach and engagement programme. It is using its world leading research to inspire and enthuse schools and the general public about the impact and benefits that science can have on society.

STFC is one of seven publicly-funded research councils. It is an independent, non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS: www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organises scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Association of British Science Writers
http://www.absw.org.uk/

ESO Remains World’s Most Productive Ground-based Observatory By Far

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:00:00 +0200

Astronomers used observational data from ESO’s telescopes and instruments to write a total of 783 refereed papers during 2011. This is an all-time high in ESO’s history. ESO remains the most productive ground-based observatory by far. Over the past few years the number of papers using observations from ESO has been almost identical to the number from observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with both rising rapidly after a slight dip in 2009.

The VLT/VLTI alone provided data for 551 papers in 2011, an increase of about 8% since 2010. The total number of papers using VLT/VLTI data is now well above 4000. Papers that use data taken from the ESO archives have been accounting for a steady fraction of 12% during recent years, with a strong increase in 2011.

Remarkably, even if the contribution from ESO’s flagship VLT/VLTI telescopes is excluded from the total, the remaining telescopes on Paranal and at La Silla generate similar numbers of papers each year to the next most productive ground-based observatory, the W. M. Keck Observatory

Taking a closer look at the different instruments on the VLT reveals some interesting patterns. The most productive VLT instruments in terms of papers remain FORS2 and UVES. Newer instruments such as HAWK-I and X-shooter have rapidly rising numbers. The most productive instrument at La Silla is the HARPS planet-hunting spectrograph.

These numbers are extracted from the ESO Telescope Bibliography (telbib, http://telbib.eso.org), a database of refereed publications that use ESO data [1]. Telbib connects published articles with the observing programmes that generated the data. It is maintained by the ESO librarians. A detailed description of the telbib database can be found at http://telbib.eso.org/help.html.

Interactive graphs of selected statistics are available at http://telbib.eso.org/telbibstats/. These graphs display the entire contents of the telbib database for publications from the year 1996 to the present. They can be used to explore the development of science papers using data from ESO instruments, the use of archival data as well as the average number of authors and ESO programmes per paper.

Taking a longer view, over the period starting in 1996, almost 12 000 individual authors from nearly 90 countries have published more than 8500 scientific papers based on ESO data.

Notes

[1] Journals that are routinely screened for ESO-related keywords are: A&A, A&ARv, AJ, ApJ, ApJS, AN, ARA&A, EM&P, Icarus, MNRAS, Nature, NewA, NewAR, PASJ, PASP, P&SS and Science.