European Southern Observatory

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La Silla Chajnantor Armazones

The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere ( European Organisation for Astronomical Research in English in the Southern Hemisphere ) or the short form European Southern Observatory (English European Southern Observatory, ESO) is a European research institute, which operates telescopes in Chile.

Discoveries

The many observational facilities of ESO helped astronomy to numerous discoveries and produced several astronomical catalogs.

Among others, the most distant gamma-ray burst to date have been at ESO observatories and found evidence for the existence of a black hole in the center of our Milky Way.

The increase in the rate of expansion of the universe could be shown based on observations of distant supernovae with the telescopes at La Silla.

The VLT could for the first time to analyze carbon monoxide molecules in a galaxy at a distance of about eleven billion light years. This allowed obtaining the most precise measurement results of the temperature for such a remote epoch.

Likewise with the VLT could determine the largest measured age of a star in our Milky Way, astronomers. With its 13.2 billion years the star was born in one of the earliest phases of star formation in the universe.

2004 was using the Very Large Telescope ( VLT, Eng. Extremely large telescope ), the first image of an extrasolar planet ( 2M1207 b ) will be included. Since then, could be tracked with the HARPS spectrograph many more extrasolar planets.

After a total of over 1,000 observation nights at La Silla, which extended over 15 years to the movement patterns of more than 14,000 solar-type stars in the vicinity of the sun could be determined. It was thus demonstrated that our home galaxy, a more turbulent and chaotischeres life underwent as was previously thought.

Locations

In Chile's Atacama Desert prevail excellent climatic conditions for astronomical observations, in particular a dry atmosphere and low air currents. For this reason, the ESO, the location of their facilities chose here:

The La Silla Observatory in the 2400 m high mountain La Silla,
The Paranal Observatory on the 2635 m high Cerro Paranal,
And the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX ) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array ( ALMA) on the plateau of Llano de Chajnantor
And the future E -ELT on the 3060 m high Cerro Armazones will arise.

The headquarters of the ESO with management and development is located in Garching near Munich.

Installed telescopes and instruments

The probably most well-known ESO telescope is the Very Large Telescope ( VLT) at the Paranal Observatory, which consists of four "Unit Telescopes " with primary mirror diameter of 8.2 m. Four other auxiliary telescopes with a mirror diameter of 1.8 m were specially developed for interferometry. They thus form an important part of the VLTI (VLT interferometer ), with the several telescopes can be linked together in order to achieve even better monitoring results.

There are also at La Silla Observatory three telescopes with primary mirror diameters from 1 m to 3.6 m. Here is, for example, the Swiss Geneva -1 ,2- m telescope, which is purely used to search for exoplanets.

On the 5000m high level of Llano de Chajnantor Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) is currently installed.

Future telescopes and instruments

Currently being built on the Llano de Chajnantor, along with other organizations from the U.S. and Japan, the microwave interferometer ALMA.

For the future, the ESO is already planning on a 30 -m to 60 -m telescope with the working title of European Extremely Large Telescope (E -ELT ). The favored design variant is based on a 39 -m mirror with adaptive optics, compared with the telescopes of the VLT is to offer a hundred times sensitivity. On April 26, 2010, the Cerro Armazones, a mountain with 3060 m height, as the site for the E-ELT has been fixed. Cerro Armazones located in the Chilean Atacama Desert, about 130 km south of the town of Antofagasta and 20 km away from Cerro Paranal, home of the Very Large Telescope ( VLT). On 9 December 2011, the starting signal was given for the construction of the telescope in Chile's Atacama desert, although not all 15 Member States of the European Southern Observatory had the additional financing needs of the device is assured. The costs are estimated in late 2011 to 1.1 billion euros.

Previously, an even larger telescope project named Overwhelmingly Large Telescope ( OWL) was investigated. The plans for the OWL however, had been postponed due to the complexity and high costs in favor of the E -ELT provisional.

History

The organization was founded in 1962 to provide European astronomers watching opportunities at the southern sky. In 1980, the ESO of her then- headquarters in Geneva in Garching near Munich. The present building is a gift of the Federal Republic of Germany. How about CERN, ESO is an international institution is not subject of national jurisdiction, but has a quasi- diplomatic status. There are also stations in Chile, an office complex in Santiago, which corresponds in size and construction of an astronomical institute, and two small regional offices in Antofagasta and La Serena. Then there are the observatories described above. 2010 was implemented by the EVALSO project the connection via fiber optic cable.

Member States

The ESO has 15 Member States. The host nation of the observatories, Chile is not a member, but local astronomers also have privileged access to the observation time. Astronomers other nations observing time granted only if they prove to have no other adequate opportunity to observe.

On 29 December 2010 the formal declaration of accession of Brazil to ESO was signed. Brazil is thus 15 and the first non-European ESO member. The formal ratification of the accession, however, is still outstanding.

Technical Organisation

Observation time can be applied twice a year for about the next observation semester. Depending on the telescope is two to five times as much time requested, and in fact, can be forgiven. The proposals are weighted by an advisory body of scientific quality. The data that have been observed for a given observation project, only the head of the project available ( proprietary period ) during the first twelve months after the observation date. After this period, all the raw data, which were obtained with ESO telescopes, freely accessible on the scientific archive for everyone.

The internal staff of the ESO receive a tax-exempt income that qualified personnel from the Member States to facilitate abroad, especially a long-term activity. Employees generally receive a limited three-year contract, which may be renewed if they have performed. About the conversion into a permanent contract decide. For scientists, the ESO offers special year contracts, which are only designed for temporary employees.

In addition, the ESO also employs external employees that are subject to regular taxation in the host country Germany.

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