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Time capsule buried at ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope

16 Ottobre 2023

Last week, a time capsule commemorating ESO staff, science, technology and cooperation between ESO and Chile was buried in a ceremony at the construction site of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), on Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

The capsule was sealed at the first stone ceremony in 2017, when construction on the soon-to-be “world’s biggest eye on the sky” began. Serving as a symbolic message to future generations, it contains mementos from Chilean authorities, including a plaque from the then President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria, about opening the skies of the country to the questions of an entire planet, as well as drawings from Chilean children featuring the Universe, ESO telescopes and northern Chile landscapes. The capsule also includes a mosaic of photographs of ESO staff and a copy of a book describing the future scientific goals of the telescope [1]. Covering it is an engraved hexagon made of Zerodur®, a one-fifth-scale model of one of the ELT’s primary mirror segments.

Last week, ESO Council members and staff visited the ELT site to bury the capsule in the wall of the ELT dome in an event led by ESO Council President Linda Tacconi (Germany) and Vice-President Mirjam Lieshout-Vijverberg (The Netherlands). In a separate event a few days later, a second group of Council members led by Rafael Bachiller (Spain) and Jan Buriánek (Czechia) installed a commemorative plaque on the wall where the capsule is buried.

Recently, construction of the ELT passed 50% completion, well on the way to beginning scientific operations later this decade. This milestone happens in the year ESO and Chile are commemorating their 60-year partnership, which has enabled the establishment of unique observatories in the Atacama Desert and the development of a strong scientific community.

As the largest optical and infrared telescope in the world, the ELT will shift our understanding of the Universe. Its scientific goals range from the Solar System to the edge of the observable universe, including exoplanets, black holes, and the first stars and galaxies. It will search for answers to some of the biggest open questions in astronomy: is there life elsewhere in the Universe? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy? Are the laws of nature universal? It may also answer yet unknown questions — who knows what the ELT will have discovered by the time the capsule is opened?

Notes

[1] The exact contents of the ELT time capsule are:

An engraved glass plaque from the then president of Chile Michelle Bachelet Jeria with the quote “Abriendo el cielo de Chile a las preguntas de todo un planeta”
A commemorative pen from the Chilean Government (Gobierno Regional, Región de Antofagasta)
Six drawings from school children from Antofagasta and Taltal, picturing northern Chile landscapes, astronomical objects and ESO telescopes
Two collages of photos of ESO staff
A photo book about the Atacama Desert
A book on the science with the ELT: An Expanded View of the Universe