Announcements 2024

18 December 2024: The ESO–Government of Chile Joint Committee has announced the results for the 2024 period, with a total of 625 million Chilean pesos to be distributed. The funds will be invested primarily in initiatives dedicated to the development of scientific and technological research, fostering cooperation in the field of astronomy, and supporting astronomy dissemination and education projects in Chile. This year, the Joint Committee received 80 eligible applications, of which 20 were selected as winners across six thematic areas. Of these proposals, 35% will support scientific research, while 20% will be allocated to projects for the dissemination and education of astronomical science in Chile. An example is the support for Chilean students to travel to the 2025 Latin American Astronomy and Astronautics Olympiad, an international inter-school competition that annually brings together students and teachers from 11 Latin American countries. Furthermore, the Joint Committee will continue funding projects aimed at preserving Chile’s ...

17 December 2024: ESO has joined several new spaces where we wish to continue engaging with audiences that are interested in astronomy. Follow our BlueSky account where we will share our most important content, as well as news interesting for our scientific community. Join our Instagram Broadcast channel to discover our most fascinating content, especially if you are a content creator yourself. Sign up to our LinkedIn Newsletter, especially addressed to professionals in the astronomy field. Follow us on Mastodon to engage with us on our most important discoveries, news about our telescopes and other items of interest for our community of scientists, engineers and other professionals. Our Threads channel is back on to connect with users who prefer this space. Join our WhatsApp Broadcast channel to stay up to date with our most important news. These changes represent adaptations to our audiences’ interests and to ways that the platforms offer us to ...

16 December 2024: Twenty years after its decommissioning, the ESO 1.52-m telescope hosted at our La Silla Observatory in Chile, has been given new life. Its brand-new PLATO Spec instrument, a high-resolution spectrograph developed by a consortium led by the Czech Academy of Sciences, has now seen first light. The 50-year-old telescope was refurbished in 2022 and, with this new instrument, it’s now ready to make new cutting-edge astronomical discoveries. PLATO Spec, which will conduct observations in visible light, has been designed to screen stars with potential exoplanets — planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. The instrument will help find the most promising stars hosting exoplanet candidates by detecting changes in the host star’s light, as it wobbles due to the planet’s gravitational pull. It is so precise that it will be able to detect changes on a star’s velocity down to just 3 m/s, which is equivalent to a person running ...

28 November 2024: On Tuesday, November 26, at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) offices in Santiago, ambassadors from its Member States gathered to discuss the importance of protecting the dark skies of northern Chile. This region hosts the world’s leading international astronomical projects of recent decades. The ambassadors were welcomed by ESO's management team, which was led by Xavier Barcons, Director General; Andreas Kaufer, Director of Operations; Thomas Klein, Director of ESO’s La Silla - Paranal Observatory; and Luis Chavarría and Itziar de Gregorio, ESO’s Representative and Deputy Representative in Chile, respectively. The meeting took place in the context of implementing Chile’s new lighting regulation, which became effective last October. This new regulatory framework aims to control artificial light emissions and prevent light pollution nationwide. Additionally, it includes special rules for 29 municipalities declared as Areas of Scientific Value for Astronomical Observation by Chile’s Ministry of Science. The La Silla, Paranal, and ALMA ...

15 November 2024: Today, Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Italy, visited the ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany, together with Armando Varricchio, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy to Germany. They were joined by Sergio Maffettone, Consul General of Italy in Munich, and a small delegation. The visitors had the opportunity to learn more about ESO, its cutting-edge science and technology, and the role Italy plays in its projects. Roberto Ragazzoni, President of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and ESO Council Member, was also present. The visitors were welcomed by Adrian Russell, ESO Director of Programmes, Laura Comendador Frutos, Head of the Executive Office of the Director General at ESO, Roberto Tamai, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) Programme Manager, and Michele Cirasuolo, ESO Instrumentation Manager. The ELT project is one of the ESO activities where the involvement from Italian ...

14 November 2024: The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is just a few years away from completion, which means ESO is already looking to the future, towards its next innovative ground-based project. What breakthroughs in astronomy will scientists make in the 2040s, and beyond, and what facility is best suited to make them? Today, ESO is launching the Expanding Horizons website to encourage the astronomy community to discuss the scientific promises a future flagship facility could fulfil and to inform about a call for proposals, to launch in 2026, for ESO’s next transformational ground-based facility. The new ESO programme should address scientific challenges that cannot be tackled with ESO’s facilities, both current telescopes and those under construction or planned. The goal of reaching out to the community is to encourage inclusive and original input, outside-of-the box thinking, and to collect a broad range of ideas. ESO guarantees a transparent and fair assessment for all ...

25 October 2024: After years of work, and thousands of edge sensors and actuators later, the last batches of these high-tech pieces for the main mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) have been completed. With a diameter of 39 metres, this mirror (M1) is the largest ever made for an optical telescope; too large to be made of a single piece, it consists instead of 798 individual segments. Each hexagonal segment will have multiple sensors attached to its edges, and will be mounted on three position actuators. The edge sensors, around 4500 pairs, and actuators, about 2400, are critical to precisely adjust the position of all segments and make them work as a single unit. To achieve a mirror shape with a perfect, smooth curvature, the edge sensors will measure potential misalignments, which are then corrected by the ultra-precise actuators. The sensors for the ELT are the most accurate to ever be ...

30 September 2024: Today, at a ceremony near Munich, staff from ESO and German company TOPTICA celebrated the completion of the last laser source of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Lasers for the GRAVITY+ upgrade to ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) have also been completed. The ELT will be equipped with six powerful lasers [1] that will excite sodium atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere, creating artificial stars. These ‘stars’ are used to measure the blurring caused by the atmosphere so that the ELT’s adaptive mirrors can correct for it. By employing sophisticated "adaptive-optics" systems, the telescope and its instruments can obtain sharper images than any other ground-based telescope. TOPTICA, in partnership with the Canadian company MPB Communications Inc. (MPBC), has just completed production of a series of 9 laser sources, which generate the laser light. Six of these will be used on the ELT and three on GRAVITY+, an extensive upgrade being ...

25 September 2024: On Thursday 3 October 2024, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will open its doors during the Open House Day of the Garching Research Campus in the north of Munich, Germany. This will be an exciting opportunity to visit ESO and other renowned research institutes for a behind the scenes experience, all for free. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre will also offer planetarium shows and other activities. From 10:00 to 17:00 CEST, the ESO headquarters in Garching bei München will open its doors to everyone who is curious about space and astronomy. Discover the science and technology behind ESO’s state-of-the-art telescopes, meet the people working on and with them, and find out how instruments are prototyped and tested. ESO astronomers and engineers are at the premises all day to answer your questions. ESO will even provide a live connection to Chile, where the organisation’s telescopes are hosted. In short: ...

10 September 2024: The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the largest and most sensitive telescopes of its kind in the world, recently received a visit from United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres, who had the opportunity to learn about how ALMA's high-tech systems capture and combine signals from the cosmos. ALMA represents partnership between Europe (European Southern Observatory), North America (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) and East Asia (National Astronomy Observatory of Japan), along with the Republic of Chile. These nations worked together to create a scientific instrument that none of them could build on their own. Chile has been called an astronomy paradise, and that’s why ALMA was constructed on the Chajnantor Plateau in the country’s Atacama Desert, one of the highest and driest places on Earth. This position provides a clear view of the southern sky, while atmospheric conditions at the Plateau are ideal for ALMA’s millimeter and submillimeter observations. ...

4 September 2024: The unique five-mirror design of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has been driving innovation in optics and engineering throughout its inception, and today is no exception: the cell of the ELT’s fifth mirror, M5, has been completed. M5 is the largest tip-tilt mirror in the world, and its impressive support cell will be able to steer the light gathered by the telescope up to 10 times per second to stabilise the images collected by the ELT. The M5 cell is a support mechanism that will be fixed to the ELT, uniting the M5 mirror to the larger ELT framework. It was designed, constructed, and tested by the Spanish company Sener at their facilities near Barcelona, Spain; Sener are also responsible for the corresponding control system and auxiliary equipment. ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons and ESO’s ELT Programme Manager Roberto Tamai visited the company's premises today to celebrate the provisional acceptance ...

3 September 2024: The Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations (MICADO), the powerful high-resolution camera for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), has passed its final design review, marking an important milestone on its road to operation later this decade. Once complete, MICADO will offer astronomers the ability to take images of the Universe at an unprecedented depth. The purpose of this last part of the multi-stage final design review (FDR) was to provide a wrap-up of the design process that has been going on for several years. While manufacturing usually begins only after the FDR is passed, the green light for manufacturing many of its components and sub-systems was already given previously, to enable the MICADO project to continue progressing towards ELT’s first light. To complete the design review, members of the consortium worked with ESO staff to clarify the remaining open issues about the instrument design. The passing of this milestone will ...

30 August 2024: The third edition of the Big Science Business Forum, a biannual event bringing together over 1000 participants from industry and academia to discuss the future prospects of the Big Science Market, is taking place in Trieste, Italy, from 1 to 4 October 2024. The programme for the event is now online. The congress has a focus on high technology and innovation, and aims to be the main meeting point between research infrastructures and industry in Europe. It provides an excellent occasion for companies from across the continent to get fully informed about Big Science projects and associated business opportunities. ESO, a leading Big Science organisation, is one of the organisers of the Big Science Business Forum. In this year’s edition (BSBF2024), several speakers from ESO will deliver presentations, including a keynote address from ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons. ESO will also be present at the BSBF2024 exhibition. We invite all ...

14 August 2024: The ESO Annual Report 2023 is now available online. The 2023 report has been comprehensively redesigned and restructured, presenting ESO’s activities from the past year in a new, engaging and more visual way. Among the highlights are: The progress made in the construction programme of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which passed the 50% completion milestone during the past year. A selection of the fascinating scientific results published during 2023 using observations from ESO facilities. Highlights of how ESO has contributed to and engaged with our communities and society, including a celebration of 60 years of ESO in our Host State Chile. News from the La Silla Paranal Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), including forthcoming instruments and upgrades. Updates on the technology development and R&D activities that keep ESO facilities at the forefront of astronomy. A “What is ESO?” introduction and “ESO’s year in numbers” at the ...

28 June 2024: Today, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has taken another step towards timely completion. At ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, Germany, and with remote participation from the UK, the organisation signed a contract with Glyndwr Innovations Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wrexham University) in Wales, UK, for the production of the ELT’s M5 commissioning mirror. In case of delays in producing M5, this commissioning mirror will be used as the fifth mirror of the ELT’s innovative five-mirror design when the telescope sees first light. The M5 mirror is a crucial part of the ELT’s adaptive-optics system design: it will adjust its position up to 10 times per second without bending to allow the telescope to obtain the sharpest possible images. Like the rest of the ELT, M5 is pushing technology to its limits: at 2.7 by 2.2 metres, it is the largest tip-tilt mirror ever produced. It is made from silicon carbide, ...

13 June 2024: Yesterday, Chilean President Gabriel Boric visited the ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. President Boric was accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Aisén Etcheverry, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation; Nicolás Grau, Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism; Luis Cordero, Minister of Justice and Human Rights; and Juan Carlos Muñoz, Minister of Transport and Telecommunications. In total, the visiting delegation numbered over 60 people. The visitors were hosted by ESO Director General, Xavier Barcons, and ESO’s top-level management. The visit provided an opportunity for ESO and Chile to review the close relationship developed over 60 years of collaboration and discuss ways of strengthening it. ESO develops its telescopes and instruments in Europe, in strong collaboration with industry and R&D institutions, and operates them at unique observing sites in the Chilean Atacama Desert, which has generated unique opportunities for Chilean academia, companies and society. Following a welcome by the ...

10 June 2024: The Joint Committee ESO-Government of Chile has opened applications for its national financing fund for the period 2024, which will award over 550 million Chilean pesos. The skies in the northern part of the country offer some of the best conditions in the world for astronomical observation. This is why, for over 60 years, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has designed, built, and operated observatories in the north of Chile. La Silla, Paranal, ALMA and the future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) are part of ESO’s infrastructure, making it the foremost organisation for ground-based astronomical observation. To enhance scientific and technological development through astronomy, since 1995 ESO and the Government of Chile have funded projects that foster astronomical research, training of highly skilled personnel, the development of technologies, and science education and outreach. ESO provides and manages this annual fund as part of the scientific cooperation programme with its host country, ...

5 June 2024: Today, ESO has signed an agreement with an international consortium of institutions for the design and construction of ANDES, the ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph. The ANDES instrument will be installed on ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). It will be used to search for signs of life in exoplanets and look for the very first stars, as well as to test variations of the fundamental constants of physics and measure the acceleration of the Universe’s expansion. The agreement was signed by ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons, and by Roberto Ragazzoni, the President of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the institution leading the ANDES consortium. Also attending the signing ceremony were Sergio Maffettone, Consul General of Italy in Munich, and INAF’s Alessandro Marconi, ANDES Principal Investigator, in addition to other representatives from ESO, INAF, the ANDES consortium and the Consulate of Italy in Munich. The signing took place at the ...

21 May 2024: Update The ESO and ALMA Science Archives are back online. Starting on Friday 17 May, several of ESO’s network and communication services were shut down to allow for an important software upgrade to be deployed. The upgrade is being done in response to a cyber security incident. In addition to the shutdown, mitigating this threat included limiting communications regarding the incident to avoid compromising ESO’s cyber security response plan. As of Tuesday 21 May, email services have been restored and the ESO website is back online. Other services, such as the ESO and ALMA Science Archives, are expected to be restored in the coming days. ESO’s IT team is working together with a cyber security consultant on detecting and clearing malicious software from all ESO’s machines, as well as on investigating the attack and its consequences. Should any of our stakeholders be found to be affected, they will be informed ...

15 May 2024: M5, the fifth mirror on the light path of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), has reached an important milestone: its blank, the shaped piece of material that is later polished to become the mirror, has just been finalised. The ELT will be equipped with five mirrors in total, and M5 is the smallest of them — but building its blank was no small feat. The French company Mersen Boostec manufactured this remarkable piece in their facilities near Tarbes, in France’s southwest. M5 is a flat, elliptical mirror measuring 2.7 by 2.2 metres, constructed from six segments brazed together. It might not seem much in comparison to the ELT’s enormous 39-metre primary mirror, but in reality, it is the largest tip-tilt mirror in the world. Together with M4, M5 is a crucial component of the ELT’s adaptive optics system: their unique synergy will allow the ELT to take extremely sharp images, ...