ESO Top News

Watching a Cannibal Galaxy Dine

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 20 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 44/09 - Photo Release: A new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO.s 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT), allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented detail - a smaller spiral galaxy, currently twisted and warped. This amazing image also shows thousands of star clusters, strewn like glittering gems, churning inside Centaurus A.

Ticking Stellar Time Bomb Identified

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 17 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 43/09 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope and its ability to obtain images as sharp as if taken from space, astronomers have made the first time-lapse movie of a rather unusual shell ejected by a "vampire star", which in November 2000 underwent an outburst after gulping down part of its companion's matter. This enabled astronomers to determine the distance and intrinsic brightness of the outbursting object. It appears that this double star system is a prime candidate to be one of the long-sought progenitors of the exploding stars known as Type Ia supernovae, critical for studies of dark energy.

Exoplanets Clue to Sun's Curious Chemistry

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 11 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 42/09 - Science Release: A ground-breaking census of 500 stars, 70 of which are known to host planets, has successfully linked the long-standing "lithium mystery" observed in the Sun to the presence of planetary systems. Using ESO's successful HARPS spectrograph, a team of astronomers has found that Sun-like stars that host planets have destroyed their lithium much more efficiently than "planet-free" stars. This finding does not only shed light on the lack of lithium in our star, but also provides astronomers with a very efficient way of finding stars with planetary systems.

Shedding Light on the Cosmic Skeleton

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 03 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 41/09 - Science Release: Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world, is the first observation of such a prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further insight into the cosmic web and how it formed.

Opening up a Colourful Cosmic Jewel Box

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 29 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 40/09 - Photo Release: The combination of images taken by three exceptional telescopes, the ESO Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal , the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO.s La Silla observatory and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, has allowed the stunning Jewel Box star cluster to be seen in a whole new light.

32 New Exoplanets Found

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 19 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 39/09 - Science Release: Today, at an international ESO/CAUP exoplanet conference in Porto, the team who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, better known as HARPS, the spectrograph for ESO's 3.6-metre telescope, reports on the incredible discovery of some 32 new exoplanets, cementing HARPS's position as the world's foremost exoplanet hunter. This result also increases the number of known low-mass planets by an impressive 30%. Over the past five years HARPS has spotted more than 75 of the roughly 400 or so exoplanets now known.

The Milky Way's Tiny but Tough Galactic Neighbour

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 14 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 38/09 - Photo Release: Today ESO announces the release of a stunning new image of one of our nearest galactic neighbours, Barnard's Galaxy, also known as NGC 6822. The galaxy contains regions of rich star formation and curious nebulae, such as the bubble clearly visible in the upper left of this remarkable vista. Astronomers classify NGC 6822 as an irregular dwarf galaxy because of its odd shape and relatively diminutive size by galactic standards. The strange shapes of these cosmic misfits help researchers understand how galaxies interact, evolve and occasionally "cannibalise" each other, leaving behind radiant, star-filled scraps.

The GalileoMobile starts its South American voyage

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 05 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 37/09 - Organisational Release: Today marks the beginning of the GalileoMobile Project, a two-month expedition to bring the wonder and excitement of astronomy to young people in Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Supported by ESO and partners, a group of astronomers and educators will travel through a region of the Andes Mountains aboard the GalileoMobile, offering astronomical activities, such as workshops for students and star parties for the general public. Professional filmmakers on the trip will produce a multilingual documentary capturing the thrill of discovery through science, culture and travel.

The Trilogy is Complete - GigaGalaxy Zoom Phase 3

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 28 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 36/09 - Photo Release: The third image of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project has just been released online, completing this eye-opening dive into our galactic home in outstanding fashion. The latest image follows on from views, released over the last two weeks, of the sky as seen with the unaided eye and through an amateur telescope. This third instalment provides another breathtaking vista of an astronomical object, this time a 370-million-pixel view of the Lagoon Nebula of the quality and depth needed by professional astronomers in their quest to understand our Universe.

ALMA telescope reaches new heights

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 23 Sep 2009 13:00:00 +0200

ESO 35/09 - Organisational Release: The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) astronomical observatory has taken another step forward - and upwards. One of its state-of-the-art antennas was carried for the first time to the 5000m plateau of Chajnantor, in the Chilean Andes, on the back of a custom-built giant transporter. The antenna, which weighs about 100 tons and has a diameter of 12 metres, was transported up to the high-altitude Array Operations Site, where the extremely dry and rarefied air is ideal for ALMA.s observations of the Universe.

Zooming to the centre of the Milky Way - GigaGalaxy Zoom phase 2

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 21 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 34/09 - Photo Release: The second of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project has just been released online. It is a new and wonderful 340-million-pixel vista of the central parts of our home galaxy as seen from ESO's Paranal Observatory with an amateur telescope.

First Solid Evidence for a Rocky Exoplanet

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 16 Sep 2009 10:00:00 +0200

ESO 33/09 - Science Release: The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. Combined with CoRoT-7b's known radius, which is less than twice that of our terrestrial home, this tells us that the exoplanet's density is quite similar to the Earth's, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system.

ESO unveils an amazing, interactive, 360-degree panoramic view of the entire night sky

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 14 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0200

ESO 32/09 - Photo Release: The first of three images of ESO's GigaGalaxy Zoom project - a new magnificent 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO's observing sites in Chile - has just been released online. The project allows stargazers to explore and experience the Universe as it is seen with the unaided eye from the darkest and best viewing locations in the world.

NGC 4945: The Milky Way's not-so-distant Cousin

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 02 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 31/09 - Photo Release: ESO has released a striking new image of a nearby galaxy that many astronomers think closely resembles our own Milky Way. Though the galaxy is seen edge-on, observations of NGC 4945 suggest that this hive of stars is a spiral galaxy much like our own, with swirling, luminous arms and a bar-shaped central region. These resemblances aside, NGC 4945 has a brighter centre that likely harbours a supermassive black hole, which is devouring reams of matter and blasting energy out into space.

Trifid Triple Treat

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 26 Aug 2009 10:00:00 +0200

ESO 30/09 - Photo Release: Today ESO has released a new image of the Trifid Nebula, showing just why it is a firm favourite of astronomers, amateur and professional alike. This massive star factory is so named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, and is a rare combination of three nebula types, revealing the fury of freshly formed stars and presaging more star birth.

A Look into the Hellish Cradles of Suns and Solar Systems

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 19 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 29/09 - Photo Release: New images released today by ESO delve into the heart of a cosmic cloud, called RCW 38, crowded with budding stars and planetary systems. There, young, titanic stars bombard fledgling suns and planets with powerful winds and blazing light, helped in their devastating task by short-lived, massive stars that explode as supernovae. In some cases, this energetic onslaught cooks away the matter that may eventually form new solar systems. Scientists think that our own Solar System emerged from such a dramatic environment.

Double Engine for a Nebula

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 05 Aug 2009 08:00:00 +0200

ESO 28/09 - Photo Release: ESO has just released a stunning new image of a field of stars towards the constellation of Carina (the Keel). This striking view is ablaze with a flurry of stars of all colours and brightnesses, some of which are seen against a backdrop of clouds of dust and gas. One unusual star in the middle, HD 87643, has been extensively studied with several ESO telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Surrounded by a complex, extended nebula that is the result of previous violent ejections, the star has been shown to have a companion. Interactions in this double system, surrounded by a dusty disc, may be the engine fuelling the starâs remarkable nebula.

Sharpest views of Betelgeuse reveal how supergiant stars lose mass

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 29 Jul 2009 08:00:00 +0200

ESO 27/09 - Science Release: Using different state-of-the-art techniques on ESO's Very Large Telescope, two independent teams of astronomers have obtained the sharpest ever views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse. They show that the star has a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System and a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface. These discoveries provide important clues to help explain how these mammoths shed material at such a tremendous rate.

An Eagle of Cosmic Proportions

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 16 Jul 2009 13:55:00 +0200

ESO 26/09 - Photo Release: Today ESO has released a new and stunning image of the sky around the Eagle Nebula, a stellar nursery where infant star clusters carve out monster columns of dust and gas.

New portrait of Omega Nebula's glistening watercolours

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 07 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 25/09 - Photo Release: The Omega Nebula, a stellar nursery where infant stars illuminate and sculpt a vast pastel fantasy of dust and gas, is revealed in all its glory by a new ESO image.

Astronomer's new guide to the galaxy: largest map of cold dust revealed

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 01 Jul 2009 13:00:00 +0200

ESO 24/09 - Photo Release: Astronomers have unveiled an unprecedented new atlas of the inner regions of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, peppered with thousands of previously undiscovered dense knots of cold cosmic dust - the potential birthplaces of new stars. Made using observations from the APEX telescope in Chile, this survey is the largest map of cold dust so far, and will prove an invaluable map for observations made with the forthcoming ALMA telescope, as well as the recently launched ESA Herschel space telescope.

Milky Way's super-efficient particle accelerators caught in the act

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 25 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0200

ESO 23/09 - Science Release: Thanks to a unique "ballistic study" that combines data from ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have now solved a long-standing mystery of the Milky Way.s particle accelerators. They show in a paper published today on Science Express that cosmic rays from our galaxy are very efficiently accelerated in the remnants of exploded stars.

World's fastest and most sensitive astronomical camera

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 18 Jun 2009 16:00:00 +0200

ESO 22/09 - Organisation Release: The next generation of instruments for ground-based telescopes took a leap forward with the development of a new ultra-fast camera that can take 1500 finely exposed images per second even under the smallest illumination. The first 240x240 pixel images with the world's fastest high precision faint light camera were obtained through a collaborative effort between ESO and three French laboratories from the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (CNRS/INSU). Cameras such as this are key components of the next generation of adaptive optics instruments of Europe's ground-based astronomy flagship facility, the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Stellar family in crowded, violent neighbourhood proves to be surprisingly normal

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 04 Jun 2009 10:00:00 +0200

ESO 21/09 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have obtained one of the sharpest views ever of the Arches Cluster - an extraordinary dense cluster of young stars near the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Despite the extreme conditions astronomers were surprised to find the same proportions of low- and high-mass young stars in the cluster as are found in more tranquil locations in our Milky Way.

Most Efficient Spectrograph to Shoot the Southern Skies

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 25 May 2009 14:00:00 +0200

ESO 20/09 - Organisational Release: ESO's Very Large Telescope - Europe's flagship facility for ground-based astronomy - has been equipped with the first of its second generation instruments: X-shooter. It can record the entire spectrum of a celestial object in one shot - from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared - with high sensitivity. This unique new instrument will be particularly useful for the study of distant exploding objects called gamma-ray bursts.

Giant Galaxy Messier 87 finally sized up

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 20 May 2009 15:00:00 +0200

ESO 19/09 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have succeeded in measuring the size of giant galaxy Messier 87 and were surprised to find that its outer parts have been stripped away by still unknown effects. The galaxy also appears to be on a collision course with another giant galaxy in this very dynamic cluster.

First two ALMA antennas successfully linked

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 06 May 2009 17:05:00 +0200

ESO 18/09 - Organisational Release: Scientists and engineers working on the world's largest ground-based astronomical project, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have achieved another milestone - the successful linking of two ALMA astronomical antennas, synchronised with a precision of one millionth of a millionth of a second - to observe the planet Mars. ALMA is under construction by an international partnership in the Chilean Andes.

The Most Distant Object Yet Discovered in the Universe

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 28 Apr 2009 14:50:00 +0200

ESO 17/09 - Science Release: ESO's Very Large Telescope has shown that a faint gamma-ray burst detected last Thursday is the signature of the explosion of the earliest, most distant known object in the Universe (a redshift of 8.2). The explosion apparently took place more than 13 billion years ago, only about 600 million years after the Big Bang.

Solar wind tans young asteroids

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 22 Apr 2009 16:50:00 +0200

ESO 16/09 - Science Release: A new study published in Nature this week reveals that asteroid surfaces age and redden much faster than previously thought - in less than a million years, the blink of an eye for an asteroid. This study has finally confirmed that the solar wind is the most likely cause of very rapid space weathering in asteroids. This fundamental result will help astronomers relate the appearance of an asteroid to its actual history and identify any after effects of a catastrophic impact with another asteroid.

Lightest exoplanet yet discovered

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 21 Apr 2009 11:05:00 +0200

ESO 15/09 - Science Release: Well-known exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor today announced the discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, "e", in the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our Earth. The team also refined the orbit of the planet Gliese 581 d, first discovered in 2007, placing it well within the habitable zone, where liquid water oceans could exist. These amazing discoveries are the outcome of more than four years of observations using the most successful low-mass-exoplanet hunter in the world, the HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6-metre ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile.

Two Galaxies for a Unique Event

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 04 Apr 2009 06:45:00 +0200

ESO 14/09 - Photo Release: To celebrate the 100 Hours of Astronomy, ESO is sharing two stunning images of unusual galaxies, both belonging to the Sculptor group of galaxies. The images, obtained at two of ESO.s observatories at La Silla and Paranal in Chile, illustrate the beauty of astronomy.

ESO takes the public on an astronomical journey "Around the World in 80 Telescopes"

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 30 Mar 2009 17:30:00 +0200

ESO 13/09 - Organisation Release: A live 24-hour free public video webcast, "Around the World in 80 Telescopes", will take place from 3 April 09:00 UT/GMT to 4 April 09:00 UT/GMT, chasing day and night around the globe to let viewers "visit" some of the most advanced astronomical telescopes on and off the planet. The webcast, organised by ESO for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), is the first time that so many large observatories have been linked together for a public event.

ESO's First Observatory Celebrates 40th Anniversary

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 24 Mar 2009 11:00:00 +0100

ESO 12/09 - Organisation Release: ESO's La Silla Observatory, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and became the largest astronomical observatory of its time, leading Europe to the frontline of astronomical research, is still one of the most scientifically productive in ground-based astronomy.

A Curious Pair of Galaxies

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 16 Mar 2009 14:45:00 +0100

ESO 11/09 - Press Photo: The ESO Very Large Telescope has taken the best image ever of a strange and chaotic duo of interwoven galaxies. The images also contain some surprises - interlopers both far and near.

Hubble and ESO's VLT provide unique 3D views of remote galaxies

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 10 Mar 2009 14:20:00 +0100

ESO 10/09 - Science Release: Astronomers have obtained exceptional 3D views of distant galaxies, seen when the Universe was half its current age, by combining the twin strengths of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's acute eye, and the capacity of ESO's Very Large Telescope to probe the motions of gas in tiny objects. By looking at this unique "history book" of our Universe, at an epoch when the Sun and the Earth did not yet exist, scientists hope to solve the puzzle of how galaxies formed in the remote past.

New Inspiring Planetarium Show Introduces ALMA to the Public

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 09 Mar 2009 13:40:00 +0100

ESO 09/09 - Organisation Release: As part of a wide range of education and public outreach activities for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), ESO, together with the Association of French Language Planetariums (APLF), has produced a 30-minute planetarium show, In Search of our Cosmic Origins. It is centred on the global ground-based astronomical Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project and represents a unique chance for planetariums to be associated with the IYA2009.

The lower atmosphere of Pluto revealed

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 02 Mar 2009 16:30:00 +0100

ESO 08/09 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have gained valuable new insights about the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto. The scientists found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also discovered that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a frigid minus 180 degrees Celsius. These properties of Pluto's atmosphere may be due to the presence of pure methane patches or of a methane-rich layer covering the dwarf planet's surface.

Into the Eye of the Helix

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 25 Feb 2009 11:00:00 +0100

ESO 07/09 - Press Photo: A deep new image of the magnificent Helix planetary nebula has been obtained using the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory. The image shows a rich background of distant galaxies, usually not seen in other images of this object.

Hundred metre virtual telescope captures unique detailed colour image

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 18 Feb 2009 14:00:00 +0100

ESO 06/09 - Organisational Release: A team of French astronomers has captured one of the sharpest colour images ever made. They observed the star T Leporis, which appears, on the sky, as small as a two-storey house on the Moon [1]. The image was taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), emulating a virtual telescope about 100 metres across and reveals a spherical molecular shell around an aged star.

Strong Winds over the Keel

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 11 Feb 2009 16:30:00 +0100

ESO 05/09 - Photo Release: The latest ESO image reveals amazing detail in the intricate structures of one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), where strong winds and powerful radiation from an armada of massive stars are creating havoc in the large cloud of dust and gas from which the stars were born.

Powerful New Technique to Measure Asteroids' Sizes and Shapes

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 04 Feb 2009 09:40:00 +0100

ESO 04/09 - Science Release: A team of French and Italian astronomers have devised a new method for measuring the size and shape of asteroids that are too small or too far away for traditional techniques, increasing the number of asteroids that can be measured by a factor of several hundred. This method takes advantage of the unique capabilities of ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).

Black hole outflows from Centaurus A detected with APEX

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 28 Jan 2009 09:40:00 +0100

ESO 03/09 - Press Photo: Astronomers have a new insight into the active galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128), as the jets and lobes emanating from the central black hole have been imaged at submillimetre wavelengths for the first time. The new data, from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile, which is operated by ESO, have been combined with visible and X-ray wavelengths to produce this striking new image.

Frantic activity revealed in dusty stellar factories

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 19 Jan 2009 15:50:00 +0100

ESO 02/09 - Science Release: Thanks to the Very Large Telescope's acute and powerful near-infrared eye, astronomers have uncovered a host of new young, massive and dusty stellar nurseries in nearby galaxy NGC 253. The centre of this galaxy appears to harbour a twin of our own Milky Way's supermassive black hole.

ESO Highlights in 2008

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 05 Jan 2009 18:00:00 +0100

ESO 01/09 - Organisational Release: As is now the tradition, the European Southern Observatory looks back at the exciting moments of last year. 2008 was in several aspects an exceptionally good year. Over the year, ESO's telescopes provided data for more than 650 scientific publications in refereed journals, making ESO the most productive ground-based observatory in the world.

ALMA observatory equipped with its first antenna

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 18 Dec 2008 23:01:00 +0100

ESO 49/08 - Instrument Release: High in the Atacama region in northern Chile, one of the world's most advanced telescopes has just passed a major milestone. The first of many state-of-the-art antennas has just been handed over to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project.

A Sparkling Spray of Stars

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 16 Dec 2008 09:41:00 +0100

ESO 48/08 - Photo Release: The festive season has arrived for astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in the form of this dramatic new image. It shows the swirling gas around the region known as NGC 2264 — an area of sky that includes the sparkling blue baubles of the Christmas Tree star cluster.

Astronomers Dissect a Supermassive Black Hole with Natural Magnifying Glasses

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 12 Dec 2008 15:51:00 +0100

ESO 47/08 - Science release: Combining a double natural "magnifying glass" with the power of ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have scrutinised the inner parts of the disc around a supermassive black hole 10 billion light-years away. They were able to study the disc with a level of detail a thousand times better than that of the best telescopes in the world, providing the first observational confirmation of the prevalent theoretical models of such discs.

Unprecedented 16-Year Long Study Tracks Stars Orbiting Milky Way Black Hole

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 09 Dec 2008 23:51:00 +0100

ESO 46/08 - Science release: In a 16-year long study, using several of ESO's flagship telescopes, a team of German astronomers has produced the most detailed view ever of the surroundings of the monster lurking at our Galaxy's heart — a supermassive black hole. The research has unravelled the hidden secrets of this tumultuous region by mapping the orbits of almost 30 stars, a five-fold increase over previous studies. One of the stars has now completed a full orbit around the black hole.

Students Discover Unique Planet

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 04 Dec 2008 10:30:00 +0100

ESO 45/08 - Science release: Three undergraduate students, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, have discovered an extrasolar planet. The extraordinary find, which turned up during their research project, is about five times as massive as Jupiter. This is also the first planet discovered orbiting a fast-rotating hot star.

Omega Centauri - the glittering giant of the southern skies

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 02 Nov 2008 14:40:00 +0100

ESO 44/08 - Photo release: Omega Centauri is one of the finest jewels of the southern hemisphere night sky, as ESO's latest stunning image beautifully illustrates. Containing millions of stars, this globular cluster is located roughly 17 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus.

Europe Unveils 20-Year Plan for Brilliant Future in Astronomy

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 25 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 43/08 - Organisational release: Astronomy is enjoying a golden age of fundamental, exciting discoveries. Europe is at the forefront, thanks to 50 years of progress in cooperation. To remain ahead over the next two to three decades, Europe must prioritise and coordinate the investment of its financial and human resources even more closely. The ASTRONET network, backed by the entire European scientific community, supported by the European Commission, and coordinated by the CNRS, today presents its Roadmap for a brilliant future for European astronomy. ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope is ranked as one of two top-priority large ground-based projects.

Beta Pictoris planet finally imaged?

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 21 Nov 2008 10:20:00 +0100

ESO 42/08 - Science release: A team of French astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered an object located very close to the star Beta Pictoris, and which apparently lies inside its disc. With a projected distance from the star of only 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, this object is most likely the giant planet suspected from the peculiar shape of the disc and the previously observed infall of comets onto the star. It would then be the first image of a planet that is as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun.

Astronomers detect matter torn apart by black hole

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 18 Nov 2008 15:40:00 +0100

ESO 41/08 - Science release: Astronomers have used two different telescopes simultaneously to study the violent flares from the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. They have detected outbursts from this region, known as Sagittarius A*, which reveal material being stretched out as it orbits in the intense gravity close to the central black hole.

APEX reveals glowing stellar nurseries

information@eso.org (ESO education and Public Outreach Department) — 11 Nov 2008 11:40:00 +0100

ESO 40/08 - Photo release: Illustrating the power of submillimetre-wavelength astronomy, an APEX image reveals how an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps that are the birthplaces of new stars. Submillimetre light is the key to revealing some of the coldest material in the Universe, such as these cold, dense clouds.

A Pool of Distant Galaxies

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Nov 2008 15:30:00 +0100

ESO 39/08 - Photo release: Anyone who has wondered what it might be like to dive into a pool of millions of distant galaxies of different shapes and colours, will enjoy the latest image released by ESO. Obtained in part with the Very Large Telescope, the image is the deepest ground-based U-band image of the Universe ever obtained. It contains more than 27 million pixels and is the result of 55 hours of observations with the VIMOS instrument.

Blockbuster starring ESO Paranal opens tomorrow

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Oct 2008 00:01:00 +0100

ESO 38/08 - Organisational release: The 22nd James Bond adventure is due for release tomorrow, 31 October 2008, in the UK and a week later in the rest of the world. A key location in the movie is the Residencia, the hotel for astronomers and staff at ESO's Paranal Observatory.

A claret-coloured cloud with a massive heart

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Oct 2008 16:30:00 +0200

ESO 37/08 - Press Photo: A new image released by ESO shows the amazing intricacies of a vast stellar nursery, which goes by the name of Gum 29. In the centre, a small cluster of stars - called Westerlund 2 - has been found to be the home of one of the most massive double star systems known to astronomers.

Violent flickering in Black Holes

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Oct 2008 15:00:00 +0200

ESO 36/08 - Science Release: Unique observations of the flickering light from the surroundings of two black holes provide new insights into the colossal energy that flows at their hearts. By mapping out how well the variations in visible light match those in X-rays on very short timescales, astronomers have shown that magnetic fields must play a crucial role in the way black holes swallow matter.

Infant stars at feeding time

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Oct 2008 15:00:00 +0200

ESO 35/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer to conduct the first high resolution survey that combines spectroscopy and interferometry on intermediate-mass infant stars. They obtained a very precise view of the processes acting in the discs that feed stars as they form. These mechanisms include material infalling onto the star as well as gas being ejected, probably as a wind from the disc.

Born from the Wind

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 8 Oct 2008 08:30:00 +0200

ESO 34/08 - Press Photo: Telescopes on the ground and in space have teamed up to compose a colourful image that offers a fresh look at the history of the star-studded region NGC 346. This new, ethereal portrait, in which different wavelengths of light swirl together like watercolours, reveals new information about how stars form.

Sharpening Up Jupiter

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 2 Oct 2008 13:30:00 +0200

ESO 33/08 - Press Photo: A record two-hour observation of Jupiter using a superior technique to remove atmospheric blur has produced the sharpest whole-planet picture ever taken from the ground. The series of 265 snapshots obtained with the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator prototype instrument mounted on ESO's Very Large Telescope reveal changes in Jupiter's smog-like haze, probably in response to a planet-wide upheaval more than a year ago.

The Wild, Hidden Cousin of SN 1987A

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 25 Sep 2008 13:30:00 +0200

ESO 32/08 - Science Release: Over a decade after it exploded, one of the nearest supernovae in the last 25 years has been identified. This result was made possible by combining data from the vast online archives from many of the world's premier telescopes.

The Hibernating Stellar Magnet

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Sep 2008 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 31/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have discovered a most bizarre celestial object that emitted 40 visible-light flashes before disappearing again. It is most likely to be a missing link in the family of neutron stars, the first case of an object with an amazingly powerful magnetic field that showed some brief, strong visible-light activity.

Pinning down the Milky Way's spin

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Sep 2008 17:40:00 +0200

ESO 30/08 - Science Release: New, very precise measurements have shown that the rotation of the Milky Way is simpler than previously thought. A remarkable result from the most successful ESO instrument HARPS, shows that a much debated, apparent 'fall' of neighbourhood Cepheid stars towards our Sun stems from an intrinsic property of the Cepheids themselves.

Future Looks Bright for Interferometry

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 18 Sep 2008 21:00:00 +0200

ESO 29/08 - Instrument Release: The PRIMA instrument of the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) recently saw "first light" at its new home atop Cerro Paranal in Chile. When fully operational, PRIMA will boost the capabilities of the VLTI to see sources much fainter than any previous interferometers, and enable astrometric precision unmatched by any other existing astronomical facility. PRIMA will be a unique tool for the detection of exoplanets.

The Double Firing Burst

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Sep 2008 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 28/08 - Science Release: Astronomers from around the world combined data from ground- and space-based telescopes to paint a detailed portrait of the brightest explosion ever seen. The observations reveal that the jets of the gamma-ray burst called GRB 080319B were aimed almost directly at the Earth.

Mind the Gap

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 8 Sep 2008 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 27/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have been able to study planet-forming discs around young Sun-like stars in unsurpassed detail, clearly revealing the motion and distribution of the gas in the inner parts of the disc. This result, which possibly implies the presence of giant planets, relies on the use of a very clever method enabled by ESO's Very Large Telescope.

A Fine-Tooth Comb to Measure the Accelerating Universe

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 4 Sep 2008 20:00:00 +0200

ESO 26/08 - Instrument Release: Astronomical instruments needed to answer crucial questions, such as the search for Earth-like planets or the way the Universe expands, have come a step closer with the first demonstration at the telescope of a new calibration system for precise spectrographs. The method uses a Nobel Prize-winning technology called a 'laser frequency comb', and is published in this week's issue of Science.

The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 2 Sep 2008 10:00:00 +0200

ESO 25/08 - Press Photo: ESO's Wide Field Imager has captured the intricate swirls of the spiral galaxy Messier 83, a smaller look-alike of our own Milky Way. Shining with the light of billions of stars and the ruby red glow of hydrogen gas, it is a beautiful example of a barred spiral galaxy, whose shape has led to it being nicknamed the Southern Pinwheel.

How Do Galaxies Grow?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 26 Aug 2008 11:00:00 +0200

ESO 24/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have caught multiple massive galaxies in the act of merging about 4 billion years ago. This discovery, made possible by combining the power of the best ground- and space-based telescopes, uniquely supports the favoured theory of how galaxies form.

The Quiet Explosion

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0200

ESO 23/08 - Science Release: A European-led team of astronomers are providing hints that a recent supernova may not be as normal as initially thought. Instead, the star that exploded is now understood to have collapsed into a black hole, producing a weak jet, typical of much more violent events, the so-called gamma-ray bursts. This discovery represents a crucial milestone in the understanding of the most violent phenomena observed in the Universe.

Watching a 'New Star' Make the Universe Dusty

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Jul 2008 13:00:00 +0200

ESO 22/08 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, and its remarkable acuity, astronomers were able for the first time to witness the appearance of a shell of dusty gas around a star that just erupted, and follow its evolution for more than 100 days. This provides the astronomers with a new way to estimate the distance of this object and obtain invaluable information on the operating mode of stellar vampires, dense stars that suck material from a companion.

Accretion Discs Show Their True Colours

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 21/08 - Science Release: Quasars are the brilliant cores of remote galaxies, at the hearts of which lie supermassive black holes that can generate enough power to outshine the Sun a trillion times. These mighty power sources are fuelled by interstellar gas, thought to be sucked into the hole from a surrounding 'accretion disc', and new observations verify a long-standing prediction about the intensely luminous radiation emitted by these accretion discs.

Austria to join ESO on 1 July 2008

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Jun 2008 16:30:00 +0200

ESO 20/08 - Organisation Release: At a ceremony in Vienna, the Austrian Minister for Science and Research, Johannes Hahn and the ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, signed the formal Accession Agreement between Austria and ESO, paving the way for Austria to join ESO as its 14th member state by 1 July this year.

A Trio of Super-Earths

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 16 Jun 2008 09:30:00 +0200

ESO 19/08 - Science Release: Using the HARPS instrument at the ESO La Silla Observatory, European astronomers have found a system of three super-Earths around the star HD 40307. The astronomers also found that one solar-like star out of three harbours short orbit, low-mass planets.

Shaw Prize Goes to Reinhard Genzel

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Jun 2008 16:00:00 +0200

ESO 18/08 - Organisation Release: The Shaw Prize in Astronomy for 2008 is awarded to Professor Reinhard Genzel, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), in recognition of his outstanding contribution in demonstrating that the Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole at its centre, a result largely obtained with the help of ESO's telescopes.

The Little Man and the Cosmic Cauldron

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 May 2008 17:00:00 +0200

ESO 17/08 - Press Photo: On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Very Large Telescope's First Light, ESO is releasing two stunning images of different kinds of nebulae, located towards the Carina constellation. The first one, Eta Carinae, has the shape of a 'little man' and surrounds a star doomed to explode within the next 100 000 years. The second image features a much larger nebula, whose internal turmoil is created by a cluster of young, massive stars.

The Perfect Science Machine

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 May 2008 17:00:00 +0200

ESO 16/08 - Organisation Release: Today marks the 10th anniversary since First Light with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), the most advanced optical telescope in the world. Since then, the VLT has evolved into a unique suite of four 8.2-m Unit Telescopes (UTs) equipped with no fewer than 13 state-of-the-art instruments, and four 1.8-m moveable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs).

The Behemoth Has a Thick Belt

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 May 2008 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 15/08 - Science Release: Talk about a diet! By resolving, for the first time, features of an individual star in a neighbouring galaxy, ESO's VLT has allowed astronomers to determine that it weighs almost half of what was previously thought, thereby solving the mystery of its existence. The behemoth star is found to be surrounded by a massive and thick torus of gas and dust, and is most likely experiencing unstable, violent mass loss.

Stellar students win fantastic prizes

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 May 2008 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 14/08 - Organisation Release: School students and teachers across Europe and around the world are discovering today who has won fantastic prizes in 'Catch a Star', the international astronomical competition run by ESO and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE).

A Molecular Thermometer for the Distant Universe

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 13 May 2008 00:01:00 +0200

ESO 13/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have made use of ESO's Very Large Telescope to detect for the first time in the ultraviolet the carbon monoxide molecule in a galaxy located almost 11 billion light-years away, a feat that had remained elusive for 25 years. This detection allows them to obtain the most precise measurement of the cosmic temperature at such a remote epoch.

Solar Games at Paranal

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 2 May 2008 14:00:00 +0200

ESO 12/08 - Press Photo: Cerro Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, is certainly one of the best astronomical sites on the planet. Stunning images, obtained by ESO staff at Paranal, of the green and blue flashes, as well as of the so-called 'Gegenschein', are real cases in point.

Austria Declares Intent To Join ESO

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Apr 2008 18:00:00 +0200

ESO 11/08 - Organisation Release: At a press conference today at the University of Vienna's Observatory, the Austrian Science Minister Johannes Hahn announced the decision by the Austrian Government to seek membership of ESO from 1 July this year.

Paranal Receives New Mirror

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 17 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 10/08 - Organisation Release: A 4.1-metre diameter primary mirror, a vital part of the world's newest and fastest survey telescope, VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) has been delivered to its new mountaintop home at Cerro Paranal, Chile. The mirror will now be coupled with a small camera for initial testing prior to installing the main camera in June. Full scientific operations are due to start early next year. VISTA will form part of ESO's Very Large Telescope facility.

The Drifting Star

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 15 Apr 2008 09:00:00 +0200

ESO 09/08 - Science Release: By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of our Milky Way.

A Burst to See

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 2 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0100

ESO 08/08 - Science Release: On 19 March, Nature was particularly generous and provided astronomers with the wealth of four gamma-ray bursts on the same day. But that was not all: one of them is the most luminous object ever observed in the Universe. Despite being located in a distant galaxy, billions of light years away, it was so bright that it could have been seen, for a brief while, with the unaided eye.

A Giant of Astronomy and a Quantum of Solace - James Bond filming at Paranal

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 25 Mar 2008 04:01:00 +0100

ESO 007/08 - Organisation Release: Cerro Paranal, the 2600m high mountain in the Chilean Atacama Desert that hosts ESO's Very Large Telescope, will be the stage for scenes in the next James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace".

Seeing through the Dark

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 7 Mar 2008 11:01:00 +0100

ESO 06/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have measured the distribution of mass inside a dark filament in a molecular cloud with an amazing level of detail and to great depth. The measurement is based on a new method that looks at the scattered near-infrared light or 'cloudshine' and was made with ESO's New Technology Telescope. Associated with the forthcoming VISTA telescope, this new technique will allow astronomers to better understand the cradles of newborn stars.

Light echoes whisper the distance to a star

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 11 Feb 2008 01:01:00 +0100

ESO 05/08 - Science Release: Taking advantage of the presence of light echoes, a team of astronomers have used an ESO telescope to measure, at the 1% precision level, the distance of a Cepheid - a class of variable stars that constitutes one of the first steps in the cosmic distance ladder.

New Light on Dark Energy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Jan 2008 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 04/08 - Science Release: Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the distribution and motions of thousands of galaxies in the distant Universe. This opens fascinating perspectives to better understand what drives the acceleration of the cosmic expansion and sheds new light on the mysterious dark energy that is thought to permeate the Universe.

The Growing-up of a Star

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 29 Jan 2008 11:01:00 +0100

ESO 03/08 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers have probed the inner parts of the disc of material surrounding a young stellar object, witnessing how it gains its mass before becoming an adult.

Cosmic Interactions

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Jan 2008 11:01:00 +0100

ESO 02/08 - Press Photo: An image based on data taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope reveals a triplet of galaxies intertwined in a cosmic dance.

ESO PR Highlights in 2007

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 02 Jan 2008 12:01:00 +0100

ESO 01/08 - Organisation Release: Another great year went by for ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere.

Anatomy of a Bird

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Dec 2007 00:01:00 +0100

ESO 55/07 - Press Photo: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered a stunning rare case of a triple merger of galaxies. This system, which astronomers have dubbed 'The Bird' - albeit it also bears resemblance with a cosmic Tinker Bell - is composed of two massive spiral galaxies and a third irregular galaxy.

2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Dec 2007 09:01:00 +0100

ESO 54/07 - Organisation Release: Today, the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations has proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy, with the aim of increasing awareness among the public of the importance of astronomical sciences and of promoting widespread access to new knowledge and experiences of astronomical observation.

Speedy Mic's Photograph

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Dec 2007 12:01:00 +0100

ESO 53/07 - Science Release: Using observations from ESO's VLT, astronomers were able for the first time to reconstruct the site of a flare on a solar-like star located 150 light years away. The study of this young star, nicknamed 'Speedy Mic' because of its fast rotation, will help scientists better understand the youth of our Sun.

Discovering Teenage Galaxies

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Nov 2007 00:01:00 +0100

ESO 52/07 - Science Release: Staring for the equivalent of every night for two weeks at the same little patch of sky with ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has found the extremely faint light from teenage galaxies billions of light years away. These galaxies, which the research team believes are the building blocks of normal galaxies like our Milky Way, had eluded detection for three decades, despite intensive searches.

ESO Helps Antofagasta Region after the Earthquake

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Nov 2007 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 51/07 - Organisation Release: In an act of solidarity with the local community and its authorities, ESO, following the major earthquake, announced a donation of 30 millions Chilean pesos (around 40,000 euros) to Antofagasta's Regional Government to support reconstruction in the Region II.

Close to the Sky

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Nov 2007 14:00:00 +0100

ESO 50/07 - ALMA Release: Today, a new ALMA outreach and educational book was publicly presented to city officials of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, as part of the celebrations of the anniversary of the Andean village.

A Galaxy for Science and Research

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 9 Nov 2007 15:00:00 +0100

ESO 49/07 - Press Photo: During his visit to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal, the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, participated in an observing sequence and took images of a beautiful spiral galaxy.

Commissioner Potočnik at Paranal Observatory

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 29 Oct 2007 15:00:00 +0100

ESO 48/07 - Organisation Release: As part of his first official trip to Brazil and Chile, the European Science and Research Commissioner, Janez Potočnik, visited Europe's flagship for ground-based astronomy, the ESO Paranal Observatory.

Drizzly Mornings on Xanadu

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 11 Oct 2007 20:00:00 +0100

ESO 47/07 - Science Release: Noted for its bizarre hydrocarbon lakes and frozen methane clouds, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, also appears to have widespread drizzles of methane. New near-infrared images from ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii show for the first time a nearly global cloud cover at high elevations and, dreary as it may seem, a widespread and persistent morning drizzle of methane over the western foothills of Titan's major continent, Xanadu.

Catch a Star 2008

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 46/07 - Organisation Release: ESO and the European Association for Astronomy Education have just launched the 2008 edition of 'Catch a Star', their international astronomy competition for school students. Now in its sixth year, the competition offers students the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to ESO's flagship observatory in Chile, as well as many other prizes.

A Colossus Gets its Name

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 5 Oct 2007 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 45/07 - ALMA Release: Today, the first of the two ALMA antenna transporters was given its name at a ceremony on the compounds of the manufacturer, the heavy-vehicle specialist Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik GmbH, in Baden-Wuerttemberg. The colossus, 10 metres wide, 20 metres long and 6 metres high, will be shipped to Chile by the end of the month. The second one will follow in a few weeks.

A Grand Vision for European Astronomy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Sep 2007 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 44/07 - ASTRONET Release: Today, and for the first time, astronomers share their global Science Vision for European Astronomy in the next two decades. This two-year long effort by the ASTRONET network of funding agencies, sponsored by the European Commission and coordinated by INSU-CNRS, underscores Europe's ascension to world leadership in astronomy and its will to maintain that position. It will be followed in just over a year by a prioritised roadmap for the observational facilities needed to implement the Vision. Implementation of these plans will ensure that Europe fully contributes to Mankind's ever deeper understanding of the wonders of our Universe.

Into the Chrysalis

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 Sep 2007 14:00:00 +0200

ESO 43/07 - Science Release: A team of European astronomers has used ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer and its razor-sharp eyes to discover a reservoir of dust trapped in a disc that surrounds an elderly star. The discovery provides additional clues about the shaping of planetary nebulae.

The Frugal Cosmic Ant

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 Sep 2007 14:00:00 +0200

ESO 42/07 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer and its unique ability to see small details, astronomers have uncovered a flat, nearly edge-on disc of silicates in the heart of the magnificent Ant Nebula. The disc seems, however, too 'skinny' to explain how the nebula got its intriguing ant-like shape.

A Warm South Pole? Yes, on Neptune!

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 18 Sep 2007 10:00:00 +0200

ESO 41/07 - Science Release: An international team of astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope has discovered that the south pole of Neptune is much hotter than the rest of the planet. This is consistent with the fact that it is late southern summer and this region has been in sunlight for about 40 years.

Galaxy 'Hunting' Made Easy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Sep 2007 10:30:00 +0200

ESO 40/07 - Science Release: Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered in a single pass about a dozen otherwise invisible galaxies halfway across the Universe. The discovery, based on a technique that exploits a first-class instrument, represents a major breakthrough in the field of galaxy 'hunting'.

Edge-on!

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Aug 2007 08:30:00 +0200

ESO 37/07 - Press Photo: As Uranus coasts through a brief window of time when its rings are edge-on to Earth - a view of the planet we get only once every 42 years - astronomers peering at the rings with ESO's Very Large Telescope and other space or ground-based telescopes are getting an unprecedented view of the fine dust in the system, free from the glare of the bright rocky rings. They may even find a new moon or two.

HAWK-I Takes Off

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Aug 2007 15:30:00 +0200

ESO 36/07 - Instrument Release: Europe's flagship ground-based astronomical facility, the ESO VLT, has been equipped with a new 'eye' to study the Universe. Working in the near-infrared, the new instrument - dubbed HAWK-I - covers about 1/10th the area of the Full Moon in a single exposure. It is uniquely suited to the discovery and study of faint objects, such as distant galaxies or small stars and planets.

First Light for World's Largest 'Thermometer Camera'

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 4 Aug 2007 22:00:00 +0200

ESO 35/07 - Instrument Release: The world's largest bolometer camera for submillimetre astronomy is now in service at the 12-m APEX telescope, located on the 5100m high Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes. LABOCA was specifically designed for the study of extremely cold astronomical objects and, with its large field of view and very high sensitivity, will open new vistas in our knowledge of how stars form and how the first galaxies emerged from the Big Bang.

Star Caught Smoking

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 3 Aug 2007 14:00:00 +0200

ESO 34/07 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, astronomers from France and Brazil have detected a huge cloud of dust around a star. This observation is further evidence for the theory that such stellar puffs are the cause of the repeated extreme dimming of the star.

The Planet, the Galaxy and the Laser

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 2 Aug 2007 13:00:00 +0200

ESO 33/07 - Press Photo: On the night of 21 July, ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky took images of the night sky above Paranal, the 2600m high mountain in the Chilean Atacama Desert home to ESO's Very Large Telescope. The amazing images bear witness to the unique quality of the sky, revealing not only the Milky Way in all its splendour but also the planet Jupiter and the laser beam used at Yepun, one of the 8.2-m telescopes that make up this extraordinary facility.

Birth of a Colossus on Wheels

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Jul 2007 15:00:00 +0200

ESO 32/07 - ALMA Release: The first of two spectacular vehicles for the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) Observatory rolled out of its hangar and passed successfully a series of tests. This vehicle, the ALMA antenna transporter, is a rather exceptional 'lorry' driving on 28 tyres. It is 10m wide, 20m long and 6m high, weighs 130 tons and has as much power as two Formula 1 engines. This colossus will be able to transport a 115-ton antenna and set it down on a concrete pad within millimetres of a prescribed position.

The Gobbling Dwarf that Exploded

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 12 Jul 2007 20:00:00 +0200

ESO 31/07 - Science Release: A unique set of observations, obtained with ESO's VLT, has allowed astronomers to find direct evidence for the material that surrounded a star before it exploded as a Type Ia supernova. This strongly supports the scenario in which the explosion occurred in a system where a white dwarf is fed by a red giant.

GROND Takes Off

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 6 Jul 2007 18:00:00 +0200

ESO 30/07 - Instrument Release: A new instrument has seen First Light at the ESO La Silla Observatory. Equipping the 2.2-m MPI/ESO telescope, GROND takes images simultaneously in seven colours. It will be mostly used to determine distances of gamma-ray bursts.

Star Surface Polluted by Planetary Debris

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 6 Jul 2007 18:00:00 +0200

ESO 29/07 - Science Release: Looking at the chemical composition of stars that host planets, astronomers have found that while dwarf stars often show iron enrichment on their surface, giant stars do not. The astronomers think that the planetary debris falling onto the outer layer of the star produces a detectable effect in a dwarf star, but this pollution is diluted by the giant star and mixed into its interior.

Back on Track

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Jun 2007 16:00:00 +0200

ESO 28/07 - Science Release: Observing the image of a faint object that lies close to a star is a demanding task as the object is generally hidden in the glare of the star. Characterising this object, by taking spectra, is an even harder challenge. Still, thanks to ingenious scientists and a new ESO imaging spectrograph, this is now feasible, paving the way to an eldorado of many new thrilling discoveries.

Free from the Atmosphere

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 13 Jun 2007 08:30:00 +0200

ESO 27/07 - Instrument Release: An artificial, laser-fed star now shines regularly over the sky of Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, one of the world's most advanced large ground-based telescopes. This system provides assistance for the adaptive optics instruments on the VLT and so allows astronomers to obtain images free from the blurring effect of the atmosphere, regardless of the brightness and the location on the sky of the observed target. Now that it is routinely offered by the observatory, the skies seem much sharper to astronomers.

Matter Flashed at Ultra Speed

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 12 Jun 2007 13:30:00 +0200

ESO 26/07 - Science Release: Using a robotic telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, astronomers have for the first time measured the velocity of the explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. The material is travelling at the extraordinary speed of more than 99.999% of the velocity of light, the maximum speed limit in the Universe.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 31 May 2007 13:30:00 +0200

ESO 25/07 - Science Release: Using ESO's VLTI on Cerro Paranal and the VLBA facility operated by NRAO, an international team of astronomers has made what is arguably the most detailed study of the environment of a pulsating red giant star, leading to significant progress in our understanding of the mechanism of how, before dying, evolved stars lose mass and return it to the interstellar medium.

A Brown Dwarf Joins the Jet-Set

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 May 2007 13:00:00 +0200

ESO 24/07 - Science Release: Jets of matter have been discovered around a very low mass 'failed star', mimicking a process seen in young stars. This suggests that these 'brown dwarfs' form in a similar manner to normal stars but also that outflows are driven out by objects as massive as hundreds of millions of solar masses down to Jupiter-sized objects.

A Galactic Fossil

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 May 2007 20:00:00 +0200

ESO 23/07 - Science Release: How old are the oldest stars? Using ESO's VLT, astronomers recently measured the age of a star located in our Galaxy. The star, a real fossil, is found to be 13.2 billion years old, not very far from the 13.7 billion years age of the Universe. The star, HE 1523-0901, was clearly born at the dawn of time.

Astronomers Find First Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 25 Apr 2007 01:00:00 +0200

ESO 22/07 - Science Release: Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water.

ESO Messenger No. 127 is available for download

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Apr 2007 12:55:00 +0200

ESO Messenger No. 127 (March 2007; 80pp). Highlights: X. Barcons: Astronomy in Spain; R. Gilmozzo, J. Spyromilio: The European Extremely Large Telescope; F. Malbet et al.: AMBER Science; C. Franson et al. and J. Danziger, 20 years of SN 1987A; M. Grenon: Nature around the ALMA site.

School students "Catch a Star"!

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 13 Apr 2007 15:00:00 +0100

ESO 21/07 - Organisation News: School students from across Europe and beyond have won prizes in an astronomy competition, including the trip of a lifetime to one of the world's most powerful astronomical observatories, on a mountaintop in Chile. ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, together with the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE), has just announced the winners of the 2007 "Catch a Star!" competition.

Breathing Stars

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 3 Apr 2007 09:00:00 +0100

ESO 20/07 - ALMA Release: The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) astronomical project will not only enlarge our knowledge of the vast Universe beyond the imaginable. It will also help scientists learn more about the human body.

New Adaptive Optics Technique Demonstrated

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Mar 2007 15:00:00 +0100

ESO 19/07 - Instrument Release: On the evening of 25 March 2007, the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) achieved First Light at the Visitor Focus of Melipal, the third Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). MAD allowed the scientists to obtain images corrected for the blurring effect of atmospheric turbulence over the full 2x2 arcminute field of view. This world premiere shows the promises of a crucial technology for Extremely Large Telescopes.

The Impossible Siblings

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 29 Mar 2007 10:00:00 +0100

ESO 18/07 - Press Photo: Combining precise observations obtained by ESO's Very Large Telescope with those gathered by a network of smaller telescopes, astronomers have described in unprecedented detail the double asteroid Antiope, which is shown to be a pair of rubble-pile chunks of material, of about the same size, whirling around one another in a perpetual pas de deux. The two components are egg-shaped despite their very small sizes.

Controlled by Distant Explosions

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Mar 2007 10:00:00 +0100

ESO 17/07 - Press Photo: At 11:08 pm on 17 April 2006, an alarm rang in the Control Room of ESO's Very Large Telescope on Paranal, Chile. Fortunately, it did not announce any catastrophe on the mountain, nor with one of the world's largest telescopes. Instead, it signalled the doom of a massive star, 9.3 billion light-years away, whose final scream of agony - a powerful burst of gamma rays - had been recorded by the Swift satellite only two minutes earlier. The alarm was triggered by the activation of the VLT Rapid Response Mode, a novel system that allows for robotic observations without any human intervention, except for the alignment of the spectrograph slit.

The Purple Rose of Virgo

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 Mar 2007 10:00:00 +0100

ESO 16/07 - Press Photo: Until now NGC 5584 was just one galaxy among many others, located to the West of the Virgo Cluster. Known only as a number in galaxy surveys, its sheer beauty is now revealed in all its glory in a new VLT image. Since 1 March, this purple cosmic rose also holds the brightest stellar explosion of the year, known as SN 2007af.

Fingerprinting the Milky Way

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Mar 2007 15:00:00 +0100

ESO 15/07 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has shown how to use the chemical composition of stars in clusters to shed light on the formation of our Milky Way. This discovery is a fundamental test for the development of a new chemical tagging technique uncovering the birth and growth of our Galactic cradle.

Waking up to science!

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 15 Mar 2007 15:00:00 +0100

ESO 14/07 - EIROforum Release: How is Europe to tackle its shortage of scientists? The EIROforum Science on Stage festival aims to give European teachers some of the answers they need to take up this urgent challenge. This unique event, showcasing the very best of today's science education, will feature science demonstrations, a science teaching fair with some 66 stands, and a Round Table discussion with the participation of the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik.

A Roof for ALMA

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Mar 2007 07:30:00 +0100

ESO 13/07 - ALMA Release: On 10 March, an official ceremony took place on the 2,900m high site of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Operations Support Facility, from where the ALMA antennas will be remotely controlled. The ceremony marked the completion of the structural works, while the building itself will be finished by the end of the year. This will become the operational centre of one of the most important ground-based astronomical facilities on Earth.

Star Family Seen Through Dusty Fog

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 13 Mar 2007 13:00:00 +0100

ESO 12/07 - Science Release: Images made with ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla by a team of German astronomers reveal a rich circular cluster of stars in the inner parts of our Galaxy. Located 30,000 light-years away, this previously unknown closely-packed group of about 100,000 stars is most likely a new globular cluster.

Solar Power at Play

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 7 Mar 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 11/07 - Science Release: For the very first time, astronomers have witnessed the speeding up of an asteroid's rotation, and have shown that it is due to a theoretical effect predicted but never seen before. The international team of scientists used an armada of telescopes to discover that the asteroid's rotation period currently decreases by 1 millisecond every year, as a consequence of the heating of the asteroid's surface by the Sun. Eventually it may spin faster than any known asteroid in the solar system and even break apart.

The Antenna Bride and Bridegroom

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Mar 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 10/07 - ALMA Release: 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.

The Giant that Turned Out to be a Dwarf

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Mar 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 09/07 - Press Photo: 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.

SN1987A's Twentieth Anniversary

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Feb 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 08/07 - Science Release: The unique supernova SN 1987A has been a bonanza for astrophysicists. It provided several observational 'firsts,' like the detection of neutrinos from an exploding star, the observation of the progenitor star on archival photographic plates, the signatures of a non-spherical explosion, the direct observation of the radioactive elements produced during the blast, observation of the formation of dust in the supernova, as well as the detection of circumstellar and interstellar material.

The Celestial Whirligig

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Feb 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 07/07 - PR Photo: 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.

The Sky Through Three Giant Eyes

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Feb 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 06/07 - Instrument Release: 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 and Astrophysics.

The Great Cometary Show

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Jan 2007 17:00:00 +0100

ESO 05/07 - Press Photo: Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, is no more visible for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. It does put an impressive show in the South, however, and observers in Chile, in particular at the Paranal Observatory, were able to capture amazing images, including a display reminiscent of an aurora!

Big Red Eye is Ready

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 18 Jan 2007 18:00:00 +0100

ESO 04/07 - Instrument Release: 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.

Tim de Zeeuw to Become the Next Director General of ESO

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 11 Jan 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 03/07 - Organisation Release: 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.

Little Brother Joins the Large Family

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 8 Jan 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 02/07 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale 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.

ESO PR Highlights in 2006

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 4 Jan 2007 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 01/07 - Press Photo: Last year proved to be another exceptional year for ESO.

Little Brother Joins the Large Family

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Dec 2006 21:00:00 +0100

ESO 51/06 - Press Photo: 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.

Czech Republic to Become Member of ESO

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Dec 2006 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 52/06 - Organisation Release: 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.

Portrait of a Dramatic Stellar Crib

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Dec 2006 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 50/06 - Press Photo: 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.

The Dark Side of Nature: the Crime was Almost Perfect

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Dec 2006 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 49/06 - Science Release: 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.

It Is Too Early To Be Santa's Sleigh, Isn't It?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Dec 2006 08:00:00 +0100

ESO 48/06 - Press Photo: 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.

Magna Carta for Researchers

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Dec 2006 17:00:00 +0100

ESO 47/06 - EIROforum Release: Today, Janez Potocnik, 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.

The Rise of a Giant

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 11 Dec 2006 14:00:00 +0100

ESO 46/06 - News Release: European astronomy received a tremendous boost with the decision from ESO's governing body to proceed with detailed studies for the European Extremely Large Telescope. This study, with a budget of 57 million euro, will make it possible to start, in three years time, the construction of an optical/infrared telescope with a diameter in the 30 to 60-m range that will revolutionise ground-based astronomy.

Do Galaxies Follow Darwinian Evolution?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 6 Dec 2006 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 45/06 - Science Release: 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.

Asymmetric Ashes. Astronomers Study Shape of Stellar Candles

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Nov 2006 19:00:00 +0100

ESO 44/06 - Science Release: Astronomers are reporting remarkable new findings that shed light on a decade-long debate about one kind of supernovae, the explosions that mark a star's final demise: does the star die in a slow burn or with a fast bang? From their observations, the scientists find that the matter ejected by the explosion shows significant peripheral asymmetry but a nearly spherical interior, most likely implying that the explosion finally propagates at supersonic speed.

The Topsy-Turvy Galaxy. VLT Image of Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Nov 2006 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 43/06 - Science Release: The captivating appearance of this image of the starburst galaxy NGC 1313, taken with the FORS instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope, belies its inner turmoil. The dense clustering of bright stars and gas in its arms, a sign of an ongoing boom of star births, shows a mere glimpse of the rough times it has seen. Probing ever deeper into the heart of the galaxy, astronomers have revealed many enigmas that continue to defy our understanding.

Catch a Star! Fifth Edition of Astronomical Competition Launched

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 12 Nov 2006 12:00:00 +0100

ESO 42/06 - Organisation Release: ESO and the European Association for Astronomy Education are launching today the 2007 edition of 'Catch a Star!', their international astronomy competition for school students. Now in its fifth year, the competition offers students the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to ESO's flagship observatory in Chile, as well as many other prizes. Students are invited to 'become astronomers' and embark on a journey to explore the Universe.

Cut from Different Cloth

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 7 Nov 2006 13:00:00 +0100

ESO 41/06 - Science Release: A large survey, made with ESO's VLT, has shed light on our Galaxy's ancestry. After determining the chemical composition of over 2000 stars in the four nearest dwarf galaxies to our own, astronomers have demonstrated fundamental differences in their make-up, casting doubt on the theory that these diminutive galaxies could ever have formed the building blocks of our Milky Way Galaxy.

ELT Selected in ESFRI Roadmap

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0300

ESO 40/06 - Organisation News: In its first Roadmap, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) choose the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), for which ESO is presently developing a Reference Design, as one of the large scale projects to be conducted in astronomy, and the only one in optical astronomy. The aim of the ELT project is to build before the end of the next decade an optical/near-infrared telescope with a diameter in the 30-60m range.

List of prize winners of the Quiz and Passport Game

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Oct 2006 12:00:00 +0200

The list of prize winners of the 2006 Open House Day Quiz and Passport Game is now available.

The Star, the Dwarf and the Planet

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Oct 2006 10:00:00 -0300

ESO 39/06 - Science Release: Astronomers have detected a new faint companion to the star HD 3651, already known to host a planet. This companion, a brown dwarf, is the faintest known companion of an exoplanet host star imaged directly and one of the faintest T dwarfs detected in the Solar neighbourhood so far. The detection yields important information on the conditions under which planets form.

Increasing the Odds of the Sweep

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 04 Oct 2006 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 38/06 - Science Release: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the extrasolar planet status of two of the 16 candidates discovered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. One of the two confirmed exoplanets has a mass a little below 10 Jupiter masses, while the other is less than 3.8 Jupiter masses.

Stellar Vampires Unmasked

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 02 Oct 2006 10:00:00 +0200

ESO 37/06 - Science Release: Astronomers have found possible proofs of stellar vampirism in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, they found that some hot, bright, and apparently young stars in the cluster present less carbon and oxygen than the majority of their sisters. This indicates that these few stars likely formed by taking their material from another star.

Watching How Planets Form

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Sep 2006 20:00:00 +0200

ESO 36/06 - Science Release: With the VISIR instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have mapped the disc around a star more massive than the Sun. The very extended and flared disc most likely contains enough gas and dust to spawn planets. It appears as a precursor of debris discs such as the one around Vega-like stars and thus provides the rare opportunity to witness the conditions prevailing prior to or during planet formation.

To Be or Not to Be: Is It All About Spinning?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Sep 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 35/06 - Science Release: Thanks to the unique possibilities offered by ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), astronomers have solved a 140-year-old mystery concerning active hot stars. They indeed show that the star Alpha Arae is spinning almost on the verge of breaking and that its disc rotates the same way planets do around the Sun.

A "Genetic Study" of the Galaxy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 12 Sep 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 34/06 - Science Release: Looking in detail at the composition of stars with ESO's VLT, astronomers are providing a fresh look at the history of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. They reveal that the central part of our Galaxy formed not only very quickly but also independently of the rest.

ESO Call for Proposals for Period 79 released

visas@eso.org (Visiting Astronomers Department) — 01 Sep 2006 16:02:01 +0200

ESO Call for Proposals for Period 79 has been released. The next deadline (for Period 79, 1 April 2007 - 30 September 2007) is: 29 September 2006 (12:00 noon, CEST).

Long-lasting but Dim Brethren of Cosmic Flashes

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Aug 2006 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 33/06 - Science Release: Astronomers, using ESO's Very Large Telescope, have for the first time made the link between an X-ray flash and a supernova. Such flashes are the little siblings of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and this discovery suggests the existence of a population of events less luminous than 'classical' GRBs, but possibly much more numerous.

Catherine Cesarsky elected President of the IAU

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Aug 2006 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 32/06 - Organisation Release: The General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), meeting in Prague (Czech Republic), has elected the ESO Director General, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky, as President for a three-year period (2006-2009). The IAU is a body of distinguished professional astronomers, founded in 1919 to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. It now has almost 10 000 individual members drawn from all continents. Dr. Cesarsky is the first woman to receive this high distinction. At the same General Assembly, Dr. Ian Corbett, ESO's Deputy Director General, was elected Assistant General Secretary for 2006-2009, with the expectation of becoming General Secretary in 2009-2012.

Far Away Galaxy Under The Microscope

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Aug 2006 19:00:00 +0200

ESO 31/06 - Science Release: SINFONI Discovers Rapidly Forming, Large Proto-Disc Galaxies Three Billion Years After The Big Bang -- An international group of astronomers have discovered large disc galaxies akin to our Milky Way that must have formed on a rapid time scale, only 3 billion years after the Big Bang. In one of these systems, the combination of adaptive optics techniques with the new SINFONI spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) resulted in a record-breaking resolution of a mere 0.15 arcsecond, giving an unprecedented detailed view of the anatomy of such a distant proto-disc galaxy.

Call for LABOCA/APEX Science Verfication

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Aug 2006 12:00:00 +0200

The Large Bolometer Camera for APEX (LABOCA), a 295-element bolometer array operating at 870ym, has successfully passed its pre-shipment review, and will be installed on the APEX 12m telescope on Chajnantor in September 2006. ESO now invites proposals for science verification from the ESO community. Pending successful on-sky commissioning, ESO also proposes to schedule its share of LABOCA observing time on the telescope in October and December 2006 as further Science Verification. All observations will be performed in service mode by the local APEX staff. All proposals should be sent to cdebreuc@eso.org by noon CEST on Monday 4 September 2006.

Stars Too Old to be Trusted?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Aug 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 30/06 - Science Release: A possible Stellar Solution to the Cosmological Lithium Problem -- Analysing a set of stars in a globular cluster with ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers may have found the solution to a critical cosmological and stellar riddle. Until now, an embarrassing question was why the abundance of lithium produced in the Big Bang is a factor 2 to 3 times higher than the value measured in the atmospheres of old stars. The answer, the researchers say, lies in the fact that the abundances of elements measured in a star's atmosphere decrease with time.

The 'Planemo' Twins

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 04 Aug 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 29/06 - Science Release: Astronomers Discover Double Planetary Mass Object -- The cast of exoplanets has an extraordinary new member. Using ESO's telescopes, astronomers have discovered an approximately seven-Jupiter-mass companion to an object that is itself only twice as hefty. Both objects have masses similar to those of extra-solar giant planets, but they are not in orbit around a star - instead they appear to circle each other. The existence of such a double system puts strong constraints on formation theories of free-floating planetary mass objects.

A Sub-Stellar Jonah

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 03 Aug 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 28/06 - Science Release: Brown Dwarf Survives Being Swallowed -- Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered a rather unusual system, in which two planet-size stars, of different colours, orbit each other. One is a rather hot white dwarf, weighing a little bit less than half as much as the Sun. The other is a much cooler, 55 Jupiter-masses brown dwarf.

ESO Electronic Newsletter No.1

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 31 Jul 2006 12:00:00 +0200

As of August 2006, we are introducing an electronic newsletter to keep the community informed about current activities of interest at ESO. These communications will include announcements of calls for proposals, announcements for special observing opportunities such as delta calls or surveys, announcements of opportunities for instrumentation or software developement, and other information of interest to the community. The newsletter will appear roughly every two to three months or whenever important news becomes available. It will not replace the regular ESO publications such as The Messenger or Press Releases.

Island Universes with a Twist

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 26 Jul 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 27/06 - Press Photo: If life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you will get - the Universe, with its immensely large variety of galaxies, must be a real candy store! ESO's Very Large Telescope has taken images of three different "Island Universes", each amazing in their own way, whose curious shapes testify of a troubled past, and for one, of a foreseeable doomed future. With ESO PR Photos 27a-c/06.

Looking Deep with Infrared Eyes

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Jul 2006 12:01:00 +0200

ESO 26/06 - Science Release: Today, British astronomers are releasing the first data from the largest and most sensitive survey of the heavens in infrared light to the ESO user community. The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) has completed the first of seven years of data collection, studying objects that are too faint to see at visible wavelengths, such as very distant or very cool objects. New data on young galaxies is already challenging current thinking on galaxy formation, revealing galaxies that are massive at a much earlier stage of development than expected. These first science results already show how powerful the full survey will be at finding rare objects that hold vital clues to how stars and galaxies in our Universe formed. With ESO PR Photos 26a-b/06.

Towards a European Extremely Large Telescope

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Jul 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 25/06 - Organisation Release: ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, is taking an important step towards the realisation of a new, giant telescope for Europe's astronomers, by creating the ESO Extremely Large Telescope Project Office. It will be headed by Jason Spyromilio, formerly La Silla Paranal Observatory Director.

Sub-millimetre Astronomy in Full Swing on Southern Skies

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 13 Jul 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 24/06 - Instrument Release: The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) 12-m sub-millimetre telescope lives up to the ambitions of the scientists by providing access to the "Cold Universe" with unprecedented sensitivity and image quality. As a demonstration, no less than 26 articles based on early science with APEX are published this week in the research journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Among the many new findings, most in the field of star formation and astrochemistry, are the discovery of a new interstellar molecule, and the detection of light emitted at 0.2 mm from CO molecules, as well as light coming from a charged molecule composed of two forms of Hydrogen.

ESO Council appoints Search Committee for next Director General

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Jul 2006 14:00:00 +0200

The current ESO Director General, Catherine Cesarsky will be leaving her post at the end of August 2007. ESO Council has decided to establish a Search Committee to help in the selection of the next DG. Dr Cesarsky has led ESO during a period of outstanding scientific, technical and organisational success. The Council wishes to build on this record of success by appointing an outstanding DG via an open international search.

Falling onto the dark

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 03 Jul 2006 14:00:00 +0200

ESO Science Release 23/06: ESO's VLT has helped scientists to discover a large primordial 'blob', more than 10 billion light-years away. The most likely scenario to account for its existence and properties is that it represents the early stage in the formation of a galaxy, when gas falls onto a large clump of dark matter.

The Hooked Galaxy

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 22/06 - Press Photo: Life is not easy, even for galaxies. Some indeed get so close to their neighbours that they get rather distorted. But such encounters between galaxies have another effect: they spawn new generations of stars, some of which explode. ESO's VLT has obtained a unique vista of a pair of entangled galaxies, in which a star exploded. With ESO PR Photo 22/06.

Conference: Towards the European ELT

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0200

Conference: Towards the European ELT (Marseille, 27 Nov. - 1 Dec.) now open for registration

ESO and Chile: 10 Years of Productive Scientific Collaboration

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 19 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 21/06 - Organisation News: ESO and the Government of Chile launched today the book "10 Years Exploring the Universe", written by the beneficiaries of the ESO-Chile Joint Committee. This annual fund provides grants for individual Chilean scientists, research infrastructures, scientific congresses, workshops for science teachers and astronomy outreach programmes for the public. With ESO PR Photo 21/06.

The Toucan's Diamond

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 08 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 20/06 - Press Photo: The Southern constellation Tucana (the Toucan) is probably best known as the home of the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. But Tucana also hosts another famous object that shines thousands of lights, like a magnificent, oversized diamond in the sky: the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. More popularly known as 47 Tuc, it is surpassed in size and brightness by only one other globular cluster, Omega Centauri. With ESO PR Photo 20/06.

Do 'Planemos' Have Progeny?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 06 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0200

ESO 19/06 - Science Release: Two new studies, based on observations made with ESO's telescopes, show that objects only a few times more massive than Jupiter are born with discs of dust and gas, the raw material for planet making. This suggests that miniature versions of the solar system may circle objects that are some 100 times less massive than our Sun. With ESO PR Photos 19a-b/06. Appendix: Recent developments on Exoplanets at ESO More

Trio of Neptunes and their Belt

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 17 May 2006 19:00:00 +0200

ESO Science Release 18/06: Using the ultra-precise HARPS spectrograph on ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla (Chile), a team of European astronomers have discovered that a nearby star is host to three Neptune-mass planets. The innermost planet is most probably rocky, while the outermost is the first known Neptune-mass planet to reside in the habitable zone. This unique system is likely further enriched by an asteroid belt. With three roughly equal-mass planets, one being in the habitable zone, and an asteroid belt, this planetary system shares many properties with our own solar system.

Twin Explosions in Gigantic Dusty Potato Crisp

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 11 May 2006 14:40:00 +0200

ESO Press Photo 17/06: ESO's Very Large Telescope, equipped with the multi-mode FORS instrument, took an image of NGC 3190, a galaxy so distorted that astronomers gave it two names. And as if to prove them right, in 2002 it fired off, almost simultaneously, two stellar explosions, a very rare event.

Physics in Universe's Youth

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 08 May 2006 11:00:00 +0200

ESO Science Release 16/06: Using a quasar located 12.3 billion light-years away as a beacon, a team of astronomers detected the presence of molecular hydrogen in the farthest system ever, an otherwise invisible galaxy that we observe when the Universe was less than 1.5 billion years old, that is, about 10% of its present age. The astronomers find that there is about one hydrogen molecule for 250 hydrogen atoms. A similar set of observations for two other quasars, together with the most precise laboratory measurements, allows scientists to infer that the ratio of the proton to electron masses may have changed with time. If confirmed, this would have important consequences on our understanding of physics.

The Comet With a Broken Heart

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 25 Apr 2006 18:00:00 +0200

ESO Press Photo 15/06: On the night of April 23 to 24, ESO's Very Large Telescope observed fragment B of the comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 that had split a few days earlier. To their great surprise, the ESO astronomers discovered that the piece just ejected by fragment B was splitting again! Five other mini-comets are also visible on the image. The comet seems thus doomed to disintegrate but the question remains in how much time.

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Apr 2006 00:00:00 +0000

ESO Press Photo 14/06: An image made of about 300 million pixels is being released by ESO, based on more than 64 hours of observations with the Wide-Field Camera on the 2.2m telescope at La Silla (Chile). The image covers an 'empty' region of the sky five times the size of the full moon, opening an exceptionally clear view towards the most distant part of our universe. It reveals objects that are 100 million times fainter than what the unaided eye can see.

Cosmic Spider is Good Mother

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Apr 2006 14:00:00 +0200

ESO Press Photo 13/06: Hanging above the Large Magellanic Cloud - one of our closest galaxies - in what some describe as a frightening sight, the Tarantula nebula is worth looking at in detail.

Bringing Science out of the Lab into the Classroom

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Mar 2006 12:30:00 +0200

ESO Press Release 12/06: Science is moving more rapidly than ever; one groundbreaking discovery chases the next at an incredible speed. School teachers have trouble keeping up with the pace, and many pupils call science classes "boring". Today, Europe's major research organisations launch Science in School, the first international, multidisciplinary journal for innovative science teaching, to provide a platform for communication between science teachers, practising scientists and other stakeholders in science education.

The Sun's New Exotic Neighbour

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Mar 2006 13:00:00 +0100

ESO Science Release 11/06: At a time when astronomers are peering into the most distant Universe, looking at objects as far as 13 billion light-years away, one may think that our close neighbourhood would be very well known. Not so. Astronomers still find new star-like objects in our immediate vicinity. Using Eso's Very Large Telescope in Chile, an international team of researchers discovered a brown dwarf belonging to the 24th closest stellar system to the Sun. With ESO PR Photos 11a-d/06.

The Cosmic Dance of Distant Galaxies

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 15 Mar 2006 16:00:00 +0100

ESO Science Release 10/06: Studying several tens of distant galaxies, an international team of astronomers found that galaxies had the same amount of dark matter relative to stars 6 billion years ago as they have now. If confirmed, this suggests a much closer interplay between dark and normal matter than previously believed. The scientists also found that as many as 4 out of 10 galaxies are out of balance. These results shed a new light on how galaxies form and evolve since the Universe was only half its current age. With ESO PR Photos 10a-c/06.

ESO Call for Proposals for Period 78 released

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 01 Mar 2006 18:02:01 +0100

ESO Call for Proposals for Period 78 has been released. The next deadline (for Period 78, 1 October 2006 - 1 April 2007) is: 31 March 2006 (12:00 noon, CEST).

Cepheids and their 'Cocoons'

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 28 Feb 2006 10:00:00 +0100

ESO Press Photo 09/06: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at Cerro Paranal, Chile, and the CHARA Interferometer at Mount Wilson, California, a team of French and North American astronomers has discovered envelopes around three Cepheids, including the Pole star. This is the first time that matter is found surrounding members of this important class of rare and very luminous stars whose luminosity varies in a very regular way. Cepheids play a crucial role in cosmology, being one of the first "steps" on the cosmic distance ladder. With ESO PR Photo 09/06.

A Blast to Chase

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Feb 2006 14:00:00 +0100

ESO Press Photo 08/06: ESO's Very Large Telescope took another amazing image, this time of Supernova 2006X inside the Messier 100 spiral galaxy. With ESO PR Photos 08a-b/06.

Man-made Star Shines in the Southern Sky

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Feb 2006 11:00:00 +0100

ESO News Release 07/06: Scientists celebrate another major milestone at Cerro Paranal in Chile, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope array. Thanks to their dedicated efforts, they were able to create the first artificial star in the Southern Hemisphere, allowing astronomers to study the Universe in the finest detail. This artificial laser guide star makes it possible to apply adaptive optics systems, that counteract the blurring effect of the atmosphere, almost anywhere in the sky. With ESO PR Photos 07a-c/06 and video 07/06.

The Invisible Galaxies That Could Not Hide

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 15 Feb 2006 14:00:00 +0100

ESO News Release 06/06: Astronomers, using the unique capabilities offered by the high-resolution spectrograph UVES on ESO's Very Large Telescope, have found a metal-rich hydrogen cloud in the distant universe. The result may help to solve the missing metal problem and provides insight on how galaxies form. With ESO PR Photo 06/06.

Spain to Join ESO

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 13 Feb 2006 17:00:00 +0100

ESO News Release 05/06: Today, during a ceremony in Madrid, an agreement was signed by the Spanish Minister of Education and Science and the ESO Director General affirming their commitment to securing Spanish membership of ESO. With ESO PR Photos 05a-b/06.

UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) - Early Data Release

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Feb 2006 17:20:00 +0100

The UKIDSS EDR was released today, Friday 10 February. UKIDSS is a set of 5 large near-infrared surveys that began in May 2005, and will take 7 years to complete. The EDR is a small fraction (about 1%) of the whole programme, but in scope it is as large as 2MASS (as gauged by the number of photons collected).

How to Steal a Million Stars?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Feb 2006 09:20:00 +0100

ESO Press Release 04/06: VLT Study Reveals Troubled Past of Globular Cluster Messier 12 - Based on observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope, a team of Italian astronomers reports that the stellar cluster Messier 12 must have lost to our Milky Way galaxy close to one million low-mass stars. With ESO PR Photos 04a-b/06.

It's Far, It's Small, It's Cool: It's an Icy Exoplanet!

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 25 Jan 2006 19:00:00 +0100

ESO Press Release 03/06: Distant Planet Brings Astronomers Closer To Home. - Using a network of telescopes scattered across the globe, including the Danish 1.54m telescope at ESO La Silla (Chile), astronomers [1] discovered a new extrasolar planet significantly more Earth-like than any other planet found so far. With ESO PR Photos 03a-b/06 and ESO PR Video ESO PR Video 03a/06.

Measuring the Size of a Small, Frost World

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 04 Jan 2006 19:00:00 +0100

ESO Press Release 02/06: Observing a very rare occultation of a star by Pluto's satellite Charon from three different sites, including Paranal, home of the VLT, astronomers were able to determine with great accuracy the radius and density of the satellite to the farthest planet. With ESO PR Photos 02a-c/06.

ESO signs largest-ever European industrial contract for ground-based astronomy project ALMA

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Dec 2005 14:03:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 31/05: ESO signs largest-ever European industrial contract for ground-based astronomy project ALMA

The Dwarf that Carries a World

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Nov 2005 14:03:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 30/05: The Dwarf that Carries a World

Sharp Vision Reveals Intimacy of Stars

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Nov 2005 14:03:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 29/05: Sharp Vision Reveals Intimacy of Stars

Setting the Stage for Science in Schools

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Nov 2005 14:03:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 28/05: Setting the Stage for Science in Schools

Star on the Run

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 09 Nov 2005 14:03:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 27/05: Star on the Run

Cosmic Portrait of a Perturbed Family

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 04 Nov 2005 14:03:01 +0100

ESO Press Photo 34/05: Cosmic Portrait of a Perturbed Family

Catch a Star! 2005 is launched.

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 17 Oct 2005 14:03:01 +0200

Catch a Star! 2005 is launched. There are three ways to enter the competition and nice prize to win.

Feeding the Monster

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 17 Oct 2005 14:01:01 +0200

ESO Press Photo 33/05: Feeding the Monster

Flashes Shed Light on Cosmic Clashes

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 05 Oct 2005 14:03:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 26/05: Flashes Shed Light on Cosmic Clashes

Proposal Submission for FLASH Instrument now open

visas@eso.org (Visiting Astronomers Department) — 05 Oct 2005 14:03:01 +0200

Delta Call Proposal Submission for FLASH Instrument. Deadline: 14 October 2005)

Open House Day at ESO HQ in Garching on October 22, 2005

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 04 Oct 2005 12:03:01 +0200

On Saturday, October 22, 2005, the ESO Headquarters in Garching near Munich will open its doors for the public from 10:00 - 17:00. As in earlier years, Open House Day is organised together with the other research institutes in the area. As usual, (mostly) German-speaking staff members will provide information about ESO and the ongoing work at this organisation.

ISAAC GOODS Release: Version 1.5

goods@eso.org (ISAAK GOODS) — 30 Sep 2005 12:03:01 +0200

This data release includes 19 fields in H band covering 126.7 arcmin2, as well as three mosaics in the J, H and Ks bands. The data were reduced and prepared for release by the Advanced Data Products group in the Virtual Observatory Systems department.

ESO Messenger No. 121 is available for download

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Sep 2005 12:02:01 +0200

ESO Messenger No. 121 (Sep 2005; 72pp). Highlights: I. Hook et al.: Science with Extremely Large Telescopes; H.-U. Käufl et al.: Deep Impact at ESO Telescopes; W. Gieren et al.: Measuring Improved Distances to Nearby Galaxies: The Araucaria Project; S. Lilly et al.: The zCOSMOS Redshift Survey.

The Colossal Cosmic Eye

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 29 Sep 2005 12:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Photo 31/05: The Colossal Cosmic Eye ESO's VLT Captures Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350.

A Cosmic Baby Boom

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 21 Sep 2005 19:00:00 +0200

ESO Press Release 24/05: A Cosmic Baby-Boom - Large Population of Galaxies Found in the Young Universe with ESO's VLT.

APEX ScienceVerification: Second call for proposals

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Sep 2005 19:00:00 +0200

Following the successful initial Science Verification of the APEX-2A 345-GHz facility receiver on APEX in July and August, ESO proposes to schedule its remaining share of observing time on the telescope in 2005 as a further Science Verification period for this instrument alone.

Black Holes in Search of a Home

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Sep 2005 19:00:00 +0200

ESO Press Photo 23/05: Black Hole in Search of a Home - Astronomers Discover Bright Quasar Without Massive Host Galaxy.

ESO Call for Proposals for Period 77 released

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 01 Sep 2005 12:02:01 +0200

ESO Call for Proposals for Period 77 has been released. The next deadline (for Period 77, 1 April 2006 - 30 September 2006) is: 30 September 2005 (12:00 noon, CEST).

Celestial Blast in Bleak Reticulum

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Aug 2005 08:02:01 +0200

ESO Press Photo 26/05: Celestial Blast in Bleak Reticulum - ESO's multi-mode FORS1 instrument observed supernova SN 2005df in the southern Reticulum constellation.

Open House Day at ESO HQ in Garching on October 22, 2005

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 23 Aug 2005 08:03:01 +0200

Open House Day at ESO HQ in Garching - On Saturday, October 22, 2005, the ESO Headquarters in Garching near Munich will open its doors for the public from 10:00 - 17:00.

Rubble-Pile Minor Planet Sylvia and Her Twins

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 11 Aug 2005 08:02:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 21/05: Rubble-Pile Minor Planet Sylvia and Her Twins - VLT NACO Instrument Helps Discover First Triple Asteroid.

Midsummer's Dream Galaxies

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Aug 2005 08:02:01 +0200

ESO Press Photos 24/05: Midsummer's Dream Galaxies - Images of Two Magnificent Spiral Galaxies from ESO Data Archive.

Moving Closer to the Grand Spiral

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 01 Aug 2005 08:02:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 20/05: VLT Enables Most Accurate Distance Measurement to Spiral Galaxy NGC 300: An international team of astronomers from Chile, Europe and North America [1] is announcing the most accurate distance yet measured to a galaxy beyond our Milky Way's close neighbours. The distance was determined using the brightness variation of a type of stars known as "Cepheid variables".

Comet Tempel 1 Went Back to Sleep

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Jul 2005 18:02:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 19/05: Ten days after part of the Deep Impact spacecraft plunged onto Comet Tempel 1 with the aim to create a crater and expose pristine material from beneath the surface, astronomers are back in the ESO Offices in Santiago, after more than a week of observing at the ESO La Silla Paranal Observatory.

APEX telescope Sees First Light at Chajnantor

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Jul 2005 18:03:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 18/05: New Sub-Millimetre Light in the Desert - APEX telescope Sees First Light at Chajnantor.

Post-Impact Observations at ESO

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 05 Jul 2005 08:02:01 +0200

On the night of July 4, 2005, all ESO telescopes continued their extensive observing campaign of Comet Tempel 1. But this time, they were able to see the effect of the impact on the comet. The astronomers were clearly not disappointed.

Deep Impact at ESO Communication 6: The ESO Campaign - Update

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 03 Jul 2005 18:02:01 +0200

The Deep Impact campaign at ESO has entered its final phase. Last night, July 2, 2005, the team of astronomers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, France, Germany and Italy used all four 8.2m Unit Telescopes of the VLT on Paranal and the three main telescopes on La Silla to simultaneously observe Comet 9P/Tempel 1. They will continue to do so for one week.

Deep Impact at ESO Communication 5: Expectation rises as time of impact on comet approaches

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 01 Jul 2005 16:15:01 +0200

Three days before the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft will collide with Comet 9P/Tempel 1, most astronomers who will use all ESO telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile, have now arrived at their respective duty station and are carefully putting the last hand to the preparation of their observations.

Deep Impact at ESO: All ESO Telescopes Observe Comet Tempel 1

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 01 Jul 2005 12:01:01 +0200

Observers using ESO telescopes will not only make nice and detailed images of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 before and after the impact. They also perform complete spectroscopic analyses, to study the composition of the cometary material.

ESO Messenger No. 120 is available for download

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 01 Jul 2005 12:03:01 +0200

ESO Messenger No. 120 (June 2005; 60pp). Highlights: M. Capaccioli et al.: The VLT Survey Telescope; F. Pont et al.: Transiting Extra-Solar Planets; F. Pepe et al.: On the Track of Very Low-Mass Planets with HARPS; S. Gillessen et al.: First Science with SINFONI.

ESO Press Photos 20/05: Einstein Ring in Distant Universe

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Jun 2005 13:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Photos 20/05: Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, Remi Cabanac and his European colleagues have discovered an amazing cosmic mirage, known to scientists as an Einstein Ring. This cosmic mirage, dubbed FOR J0332-3557, is seen towards the southern constellation Fornax (the Furnace), and is remarkable on at least two counts. First, it is a bright, almost complete Einstein ring. Second, it is the farthest ever found.

Call for Proposals for the APEX Facility Science Verification

rlaing@eso.org (Robert Laing) — 29 Jun 2005 13:00:01 +0200

APEX is a novel 12m submillimeter telescope at an altitude of 5100 m on the Llano de Chajnantor in Chile, operated by a consortium consisting of MPIfR, the European Southern Observatory and the Onsala Space Observatory. Commissioning of the telescope and the first facility instrument, the APEX-2a receiver, is foreseen to be completed by mid of July 2005. APEX invites the interested community to participate in the science verification of the facility, which will likely take place in the second half of July 2005.

The ESO Annual Report 2004 is available for download

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 10 Jun 2005 13:00:01 +0200

On 93 pages (11 MBytes) developments in and around ESO during the year of 2004 are presented.

ESO Press Release 17/05: Ultra-fast Movies of the Sky

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 09 Jun 2005 13:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 17/05: British scientists have opened a new window on the Universe with the recent commissioning of the Visitor Instrument ULTRACAM on the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

ESO Receives Computerworld Award in Science Category

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Jun 2005 13:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 16/05: ESO Receives Computerworld Honors Program 21st Century Achievement Award in Science Category.

Preparing for the Impact

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 May 2005 12:01:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 15/05: ESO Telescopes Take Snapshot of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 in Readiness for Major Observation Campaign.

Dutch Minister of Science Visits ESO Facilities in Chile

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 16 May 2005 12:01:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 14/05: Dutch Minister of Science Visits ESO Facilities in Chile.

Catherine Cesarsky Elected Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Apr 2005 12:01:01 +0200

Today, at the Annual Meeting of the US National Academy of Sciences, ESO's Director General, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky, is officially inducted into this highly prestigious society.

Yes, it is the Image of an Exoplanet

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Apr 2005 12:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 12/05: Astronomers Confirm the First Image of a Planet Outside of Our Solar System.

Thousand Papers and Counting

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 27 Apr 2005 12:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 11/05: Thousand Papers and Counting

The Blob, the Very Rare Massive Star and the Two Populations

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Apr 2005 12:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Photo 12/05: Striking Image of Nebula N214C taken with ESO's NTT at La Silla.

Towards a Europe of Knowledge and Innovation

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 20 Apr 2005 12:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 10/05: Today Europe's seven major intergovernmental research organisations, working together in the EIROforum partnership, presented their comprehensive paper on science policy, "Towards a Europe of Knowledge and Innovation".

Is this a Brown Dwarf or an Exoplanet?

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 07 Apr 2005 20:00:01 +0200

ESO Press Release 09/05: New Young Sub-stellar Companion Imaged with the VLT. - Astronomers observed GQ Lupi on 25 June 2004 with the adaptive optics instrument NACO attached to Yepun, the fourth 8.2-m Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope located on top of Cerro Paranal (Chile). The series of NACO exposures clearly reveal the presence of the tiny companion, located in the close vicinity of the star.

Report of the ESA-ESO working group on Extra-Solar Planets.

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 30 Mar 2005 17:01:01 +0200

Report of the ESA-ESO working group on Extra-Solar Planets is now available for download (94pp, 1 MByte). This Report of the ESA-ESO working group on Extra-Solar Planets, produced by the first joint ESA-ESO working group (Chairman: M. Perryman ESA, Co-chair: O. Hainaut, ESO), summarises the direction of exo-planet research that can be expected over the next 10 years or so, identifies the roles of the major facilities of the two organisations in the field, and concludes with some recommendations which may assist development of the field.

ESO Messenger 119 is now available for download.

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 24 Mar 2005 12:01:01 +0100

ESO Messenger 119 is now available for download (68pp, 8 MBytes). Highlights: Scientific Strategy Planning at ESO; Observing with the ESO VLT Interferometer; VISIR, a Taste of Scientific Potential; Comparison of Science Metrics among Observatories.

Young and Exotic Stellar Zoo - ESO's Telescopes Uncover Super Star Cluster in the Milky Way

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 22 Mar 2005 12:01:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 08/05: Until now, super star clusters were only known to exist very far away, mostly in pairs or groups of interacting galaxies. Now, however, a team of European astronomers have used ESO's telescopes to uncover such a monster object within our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, almost, but not quite, in our own backyard!

A Tale of Two Populations - VLT FLAMES Finds Hints of Helium-Richest Stars Ever Seen

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 15 Mar 2005 17:01:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 07/05: On the basis of stellar spectra totalling more than 200 hours of effective exposure time with the 8.2-m VLT Kueyen telescope at Paranal (Chile), a team of astronomers has made a surprising discovery about the stars in the giant southern globular cluster Omega Centauri.

VLTI First Fringes with Two Auxiliary Telescopes at Paranal

information@eso.org (ESO Public Affairs Department) — 14 Mar 2005 11:15:01 +0100

ESO Press Release 06/05: The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at Paranal Observatory has just seen another extension of its already impressive capabilities by combining interferometrically the light from two relocatable 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes.