European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: ESO Organisation Release eso1613

The most powerful laser guide star system in the world sees first light at the Paranal Observatory.
Image credits: ESO/F. Kamphues.

On 26 April 2016 ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile hosted an event to mark the first light for the four powerful lasers that form a crucial part of the adaptive optics systems on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Attendees were treated to a spectacular display of cutting-edge laser technology against the majestic skies of Paranal. These are the most powerful laser guide stars ever used for astronomy and the event marks the first use of multiple laser guide stars at ESO.

Credits: ESO Photo Release eso1606

A spectacular new image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX telescope in Chile has mapped the full area of the Galactic Plane visible from the southern hemisphere for the first time at submillimetre wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves — and in finer detail than recent space-based surveys. The pioneering 12-metre APEX telescope allows astronomers to study the cold Universe: gas and dust only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. (learn more)

Source: ESO Announcement ann 16007

Artist’s impression of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).
Image credits: ESO/L. Calçada.

At an extraordinary meeting in Garching bei München, Germany on 3 February 2016, ESO’s Finance Committee authorised ESO to enter into final discussions with the winning bidder of the tender process for the design, manufacture, transport, construction, on-site assembly and verification of the Dome and Main Structure of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

The discussion between ESO and the ACe Consortium, consisting of Astaldi, Cimolai and the nominated sub-contractorEIE Group will start soon, with the aim of contract signature in May 2016.

This major milestone for the project is the culmination of the extensive and intense work of many people. This contract will be the largest ever approved by ESO and the largest ever placed for a ground-based telescope.

When the contract is signed, ESO will issue a press release with more details, along with extensive information about the design of the dome and telescope structure. No further information about the contract will be available before then. (read more)

Source: ESO Outreach

Proxima Centauri as seen by Hubble.Image credits: ESA/Hubble.

Last Friday, ESO launched the Pale Red Dot project — a unique outreach campaign that will allow the general public to follow scientists from around the globe as they search for an Earth-like exoplanet around the closest star to us, Proxima Centauri. The observing campaign will run from January to April 2016 and will be accompanied by blog posts and social media updates. No one knows what the outcome will be. In the months following the observations, the scientists will analyse the data and submit the results to a peer-reviewed journal.

You can read more about the campaign here: https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann16002/
Blog updates are available here: http://www.palereddot.org/
You can also follow the campaign on Twitter @Pale_Red_Dot and interact with scientists using the hashtag #PaleRedDot

Source: ESO Organisation Release eso1543

Image credit: ESO/Sascha Krause

A new instrument attached to the 12-metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope at 5000 metres above sea level in the Chilean Andes is opening up a previously unexplored window on the Universe. The Swedish–ESO PI receiver for APEX (SEPIA) will detect the faint signals from water and other molecules within the Milky Way, other nearby galaxies and the early Universe. (read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1535

The Prawn Nebula in close-up.
Image credits: ESO.

Dominating this image is part of the gigantic nebula Gum 56, illuminated by the hot bright young stars that were born within it. For millions of years stars have been created out of the gas in this nebula, material which is later returned to the stellar nursery when the aging stars either expel their material gently into space or eject it more dramatically as supernova explosions. This image was taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile as part of ESO’s Cosmic Gems programme.(learn more)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) in collaboration with the science education event organiser Sterrenlab are organising the third ESO Astronomy Camp on the topic of the Solar System and Extrasolar Planets, dedicated to school students aged between 16-18.

Invite your students to sign up for the camp until 4 October and enjoy the extraordinary experience of exploring the Universe! Lectures, hands-on activities, nighttime observations, social activities, winter sports, and excursions will all be part of the schedule.

The camp will take place from 26 December 2015 until 1 January 2016 at the Astronomical Observatory of the Aosta Valley, located in Saint-Barthelemy, Nus, Italy. The registration fee of 500 euros covers full board accommodation, supervision by professional staff, all astronomical and leisure activities, materials, excursions, internal transport, and insurance. Bus transport between the observatory and the airport of Milan Malpensa will be provided.

In addition a series of bursaries are offered by the following institutions:

• The European Southern Observatory
• Institute of Astronomy of Leuven: Belgium
• Stellar Astrophysics Centre at Aarhus University: Denmark
• German Astronomical Society: Germany
• Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica: Italy
• Polish Astronomical Society: Poland
• Ciência Viva: Portugal
• Center for the Promotion of Science: Serbia
• Spanish Astronomical Society: Spain
• Swedish Astronomical Society: Sweden
• University of Geneva: Switzerland
• Eyuboglu High School: Turkey
• Royal Astronomical Society: United Kingdom

More information can be found at:
ESO's website: http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann15038/
The camp website: http://www.sterrenlab.com/camps/eso-astronomy-camp-2015/

Source: ESO Organisation Release eso1528

Image credits: Kilo-Degree Survey Collaboration/A. Tudorica & C. Heymans/ESO.

The first results have been released from a major new dark matter survey of the southern skies using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The VST KiDS survey will allow astronomers to make precise measurements of dark matter, the structure of galaxy halos, and the evolution of galaxies and clusters. The first KiDS results show how the characteristics of the observed galaxies are determined by the invisible vast clumps of dark matter surrounding them.(learn more)

Source: Photo Release eso1503

VLT image of the cometary globule CG4.
Image credits:ESO

Like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, the cometary globule CG4 glows menacingly in this new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Although it appears to be big and bright in this picture, this is actually a faint nebula, which makes it very hard for amateur astronomers to spot. The exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery.(read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1501

The Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the
La Silla Observatory in Chile snapped this image of the dark nebula LDN 483.
Image credit: ESO

Some of the stars appear to be missing in this intriguing new ESO image. But the black gap in this glitteringly beautiful starfield is not really a gap, but rather a region of space clogged with gas and dust. This dark cloud is called LDN 483 — for Lynds Dark Nebula 483. Such clouds are the birthplaces of future stars. The Wide Field Imager, an instrument mounted on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile, captured this image of LDN 483 and its surroundings. (learn more)

Source: ESO

Artist’s impression of the discs around the young stars HK Tauri A and .
Image credits: R. Hurt (NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found wildly misaligned planet-forming gas discs around the two young stars in the binary system HK Tauri. These new ALMA observations provide the clearest picture ever of protoplanetary discs in a double star. The new result also helps to explain why so many exoplanets — unlike the planets in the Solar System — came to have strange, eccentric or inclined orbits. The results were published in the journal Nature on 31 July 2014. (learn more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1422

The star cluster NGC 329.
Image credits:ESO/G. Beccari

In this striking new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile young stars huddle together against a backdrop of clouds of glowing gas and lanes of dust. The star cluster, known as NGC 3293, would have been just a cloud of gas and dust itself about ten million years ago, but as stars began to form it became the bright group of stars we see here. Clusters like this are celestial laboratories that allow astronomers to learn more about how stars evolve. (learn more)

Source: ESO-eso1407

MUSE views the strange galaxy NGC 4650A.
Image credits: ESO/MUSE consortium/R. Bacon/L. Calçada.

A new innovative instrument called MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) has been successfully installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. MUSE has observed distant galaxies, bright stars and other test targets during the first period of very successful observations. (read more)

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1347

The star cluster NGC 3572 and its dramatic surroundings.
Image credits: ESO/G. Beccari.

Astronomers at ESO have captured the best image so far of the curious clouds around the star cluster NGC 3572. This new image shows how these clouds of gas and dust have been sculpted into whimsical bubbles, arcs and the odd features known as elephant trunks by the stellar winds flowing from this gathering of hot young stars. The brightest of these cluster stars are much heavier than the Sun and will end their short lives as supernova explosions. (read more)

Source: ESO

The Astronomical Observatory of the Aosta Valley

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) and its Science Outreach Network is collaborating with the science communication event organiser Sterrenlab to arrange the first ESO Astronomy Camp. The camp will take place from 26-31 December 2013 at the Astronomical Observatory of the Aosta Valley, located in Saint-Barthelemy, Nus, Italy. Several partners, including ESO, are providing for a total of, so far, five bursaries that will be awarded to the winning applicants.(read more @ESO)

Source: ESO Science Release eso1339

Artist's impression of the central bulge of the Milky Way.
Image credits: ESO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Kornmesser/R. Hurt.

Two groups of astronomers have used data from ESO telescopes to make the best three-dimensional map yet of the central parts of the Milky Way. They have found that the inner regions take on a peanut-like, or X-shaped, appearance from some angles. This odd shape was mapped by using public data from ESO’s VISTA survey telescope along with measurements of the motions of hundreds of very faint stars in the central bulge.(read more)

Source: ESO Science Release eso1324

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows the newly discovered planet HD95086 b.
Image credits: ESO/J. Rameau.

A team of astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope has imaged a faint object moving near a bright star. With an estimated mass of four to five times that of Jupiter, it would be the least massive planet to be directly observed outside the Solar System. The discovery is an important contribution to our understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary systems. (read more)

Credit: ESO Photo Release eso1321

This dramatic new image of cosmic clouds in the constellation of Orion reveals what seems to be a fiery ribbon in the sky. This orange glow represents faint light coming from grains of cold interstellar dust, at wavelengths too long for human eyes to see. It was observed by the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in Chile. (read more)

Source: ESO eso1306

The glowing cloud Sharpless 2-296, part of the Seagull Nebul.
Image credit: ESO.

This new image from ESO shows a section of a cloud of dust and glowing gas called the Seagull Nebula. These wispy red clouds form part of the “wings” of the celestial bird and this picture reveals an intriguing mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving between bright stars. This new view was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.(read more)

Source: ESO eso1304

Setting the Dark on Fire.
Image credits: ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/T. Stanke et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2.

A new image from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile shows a beautiful view of clouds of cosmic dust in the region of Orion. While these dense interstellar clouds seem dark and obscured in visible-light observations, APEX’s LABOCA camera can detect the heat glow of the dust and reveal the hiding places where new stars are being formed. But one of these dark clouds is not what it seems.(read more)