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The European Southern Observatory (ESO, whose official name is the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator....
), is an intergovernmental research organization for astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
, composed and supported by fourteen countries from Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. Created in 1962, to provide state-of-the-art facilities and access to the Southern Sky to European astronomers, it is famous for building and operating some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescope
Telescope

A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century....
s in the world, such as the New Technology Telescope
New Technology Telescope

The New Technology Telescope, or NTT is a 3.6m telescope located at La Silla Observatory, Chile.It saw first light in 1989 and is owned by European Southern Observatory....
 (NTT), the telescope that pioneered active optics
Active optics

Active optics is a relatively new technology for reflecting telescopes developed in the 1980s, which has more recently enabled the construction of a generation of telescopes with 8 metre primary mirrors....
 technology, and the VLT
Very Large Telescope

The Very Large Telescope is a system of four separate optical telescopes organized in an array formation, built and operated by the European Southern Observatory at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635 m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile....
 (Very Large Telescope), consisting of four 8-meter class telescopes and four 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes.

Its numerous observing facilities have made many astronomical discoveries, and produced several astronomical catalogues.






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The European Southern Observatory (ESO, whose official name is the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half ball'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator....
), is an intergovernmental research organization for astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
, composed and supported by fourteen countries from Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. Created in 1962, to provide state-of-the-art facilities and access to the Southern Sky to European astronomers, it is famous for building and operating some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescope
Telescope

A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century....
s in the world, such as the New Technology Telescope
New Technology Telescope

The New Technology Telescope, or NTT is a 3.6m telescope located at La Silla Observatory, Chile.It saw first light in 1989 and is owned by European Southern Observatory....
 (NTT), the telescope that pioneered active optics
Active optics

Active optics is a relatively new technology for reflecting telescopes developed in the 1980s, which has more recently enabled the construction of a generation of telescopes with 8 metre primary mirrors....
 technology, and the VLT
Very Large Telescope

The Very Large Telescope is a system of four separate optical telescopes organized in an array formation, built and operated by the European Southern Observatory at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635 m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile....
 (Very Large Telescope), consisting of four 8-meter class telescopes and four 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes.

Its numerous observing facilities have made many astronomical discoveries, and produced several astronomical catalogues. Among the more recent discoveries is the discovery of the farthest gamma-ray burst and the evidence for a black hole
Black hole

In general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including electromagnetic radiation , can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon....
 at the centre of our Galaxy, the Milky Way
Milky Way

The Milky Way, sometimes called simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies....
. In 2004, the VLT allowed astronomers to obtain the first picture of an extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond the Solar System, orbiting a star other than the Sun. As of February 2009, 342 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia....
, 2M1207b
2M1207b

2M1207b is a planetary mass object planetary orbit the brown dwarf 2M1207, in the constellation Centaurus, approximately 170 light-years from Earth....
, orbiting a brown dwarf
Brown dwarf

Brown dwarfs are sub-star objects with a mass below that necessary to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, as do stars on the main sequence, but which have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth....
 173 light-years away. The HARPS spectrograph led to the discoveries of many other extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond the Solar System, orbiting a star other than the Sun. As of February 2009, 342 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia....
, including a 5 earth mass planet around a red dwarf, Gliese 581c. The VLT has also discovered the candidate farthest galaxy ever seen by humans, Abell 1835 IR1916.

Facilities

All its observation facilities are located in Chile
Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
 (because of the need to study the Southern skies and the unique atmospheric conditions of the Atacama Desert
Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km strip of land on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains....
, ideal for astronomy), while the headquarters are located in Garching
Garching bei München

Garching bei M?nchen or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments....
 near Munich
Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. ESO operates three major observatories
Observatory

An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial and/or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed....
 in Chile's Atacama desert
Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km strip of land on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains....
, one of the driest place on Earth:

  • La Silla Observatory
    La Silla Observatory

    La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. Nine of these telescopes were built by the European Southern Observatory organisation, and several of the others are partly maintained by ESO....
  • Paranal Observatory
    Paranal Observatory

    Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on Cerro Paranal at 2,635 mts. altitude and operated by the European Southern Observatory....
    , which hosts the Very Large Telescope
    Very Large Telescope

    The Very Large Telescope is a system of four separate optical telescopes organized in an array formation, built and operated by the European Southern Observatory at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635 m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile....
  • Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
    Llano de Chajnantor Observatory

    Llano de Chajnantor Observatory is an astronomical observatory located at 5104 m altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert, 50 kilometers to the east of San Pedro de Atacama....
    , which hosts the APEX (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment
    Atacama Pathfinder Experiment

    The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment is a radio telescope located at 5,100 meters above sea level, at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama desert, in northern Chile, 50 kilometers to the east of San Pedro de Atacama....
    ) submillimetre telescope
    Submillimetre astronomy

    Submillimetre astronomy or submillimeter astronomy is the branch of observational astronomy that is conducted at terahertz radiation of the electromagnetic spectrum....
     and where ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, is currently under construction in a collaboration between East Asia (Japan
    Japan

    Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
     and Taiwan
    Taiwan

    Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
    ), Europe (ESO), North America (USA and Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
    ), and Chile
    Chile

    Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
    .


One of the most ambitious ESO projects is the European Extremely Large Telescope, a 42-m telescope based on an innovative 5-mirror design, following the concept of an Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
Overwhelmingly Large Telescope

The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope is a conceptual design by the European Southern Observatory organization for an extremely large telescope, which was intended to have a single aperture of 100 meters in diameter, but was later scaled down to a 60 meter diameter telescope....
 (OWL). If built, the E-ELT will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope
Telescope

A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century....
 in the world. ESO has started in early 2006 the design phase of this telescope with the aim to be able to start construction in 2010. The E-ELT would then be ready by 2017.

La Silla


La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory

La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. Nine of these telescopes were built by the European Southern Observatory organisation, and several of the others are partly maintained by ESO....
 hosts eighteen telescopes, albeit most are now closed. Three are still operated by ESO for use by the astronomical community:

MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope


This telescope is on permanent loan from the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Its instrumentation includes a spectroscope and a wide-field CCD
Charge-coupled device

A charge-coupled device is an analog signal shift register that enables the transportation of analog signals through successive stages , controlled by a clock signal....
 (WFI) imager capable of mapping substantial portions of the sky in a single exposure. In 2007, a third instrument was added, GROND, that takes images simultaneously in seven colours. It will be mostly used to determine distances of gamma-ray bursts .

ESO 3.6m Telescope
ESO 3.6m Telescope

The ESO 3.6 m Telescope is, as the name suggests, a 3.6 m telescope run by the European Southern Observatory. Located in La Silla Observatory, Chile it was commissioned in 1977 but also received an overhaul in 1999....
 

This conventionally designed horseshoe mount
Telescope

A telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century....
 telescope, was mostly used for infrared
Infrared

Infrared radiation is electromagnetic radiation whose wavelength is longer than that of visible light , but shorter than that of terahertz radiation and microwaves ....
 spectroscopy
Spectroscopy

Spectroscopy was originally the study of the interaction between radiation and matter as a function of wavelength . In fact, historically, spectroscopy referred to the use of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g....
. It now hosts the HARPS spectrograph, which is devoted to measuring velocities with extreme precision. Values as small as a few cm/s have been obtained. It is thus used especially for the search of extra-solar planets and for asteroseismology. HARPS was used in the discovery of Gliese 581c and Gliese 581d.

New Technology Telescope
New Technology Telescope

The New Technology Telescope, or NTT is a 3.6m telescope located at La Silla Observatory, Chile.It saw first light in 1989 and is owned by European Southern Observatory....
 (NTT)

Although the NTT is almost the same size as the 3.6 m telescope, the use of active optics
Active optics

Active optics is a relatively new technology for reflecting telescopes developed in the 1980s, which has more recently enabled the construction of a generation of telescopes with 8 metre primary mirrors....
 makes it a higher resolution instrument. The NTT is indeed the first large telescope to be equipped with active optics, a technology developed at ESO, and nowadays used on all major telescopes. The NTT had also, at the time of building, innovative thermal control systems to minimise the telescope and dome seeing.

Other telescopes


Other telescopes present on the La Silla site include three ESO reflectors, two Danish
Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
 ones, one Dutch
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 refractor, the Swiss
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 Leonard Euler Telescope (1.2m), all in the range from 0.5 to 1.5 meter, and the Swedish
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 SEST, 15-m submillimeter radio telescope. All but the Euler telescope are now decommissioned.

Paranal


The Very Large Telescope
Very Large Telescope

The Very Large Telescope is a system of four separate optical telescopes organized in an array formation, built and operated by the European Southern Observatory at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635 m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile....
 (VLT) is the main facility at Paranal. It is composed of four near-identical 8.2-m Unit Telescopes, each hosting two or three instruments, making it certainly the most versatile astronomical facility. The telescopes are named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun. The telescopes can also combine their light, in groups of two or three, as an Interferometer. This is the VLTI (Very Large Telescope Interferometer). Four 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) have been added to the VLTI to make it available when the Unit Telescopes are being used for other projects. These ATs were installed between 2004 and 2007. The first of the Unit Telescopes had its First Light in May 1998 and was offered to the astronomical community on 1 April 1999. The other telescopes followed suit in 1999 and 2000, and the VLT is thus fully operational. Statistics show that in 2007, almost 500 refereed scientific papers were published based on VLT data.

The site also houses the 2.5-m VLT Survey Telescope
VLT Survey Telescope

The VLT Survey Telescope program is a cooperation between the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte and the European Southern Observatory that began in 1997....
 (VST) and the 4-m VISTA
VISTA (telescope)

VISTA is the Visible & Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, a 4.1m telescope which is being built at Paranal Observatory in Chile. It is expected that it will be operational at the beginning of 2009....
 (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) with wide fields of view for surveying large areas of sky uniformly, in the visible and infrared, respectively. First Light for VISTA is foreseen in 2008.

In March 2008, Paranal was the location for the filming of several scenes in the 22nd James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

Llano de Chajnantor


  • Cosmic Background Imager
    Cosmic Background Imager

    The Cosmic Background Imager is a 13-element interferometer perched at an elevation of 5,080 metres at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Chilean Andes....
     (CBI)
  • Atacama Pathfinder Experiment
    Atacama Pathfinder Experiment

    The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment is a radio telescope located at 5,100 meters above sea level, at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama desert, in northern Chile, 50 kilometers to the east of San Pedro de Atacama....
     (APEX)
  • Atacama Large Millimeter Array
    Atacama Large Millimeter Array

    The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is an international astronomy project that consists of an astronomical interferometer formed from an array of radio telescopes, located at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama desert in northern Chile....
     (ALMA)


Member states

Member country Joined
1962
1 January 2007
1967
1962
1 July 2004
1962
24 May 1982
1962
27 June 2000
1 July 2006
1962
1981
8 July 2002
1 July 2008


The Irish Astronomical Association is currently lobbying the Irish Government for membership.

 ESO General Directors
Otto Heckmann
Otto Heckmann

Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann was a German astronomer.He directed the Hamburg Observatory from 1941 to 1962, after which he became the first director of the European Southern Observatory....
 1962–1969
Adriaan Blaauw
Adriaan Blaauw

Adriaan Blaauw is a Dutch astronomer.Blaauw studied in Leiden University and University of Groningen. In the 1950s he worked a few years at the Yerkes Observatory....
 1970–1974
Lodewijk Woltjer 1975–1987
Harry van der Laan
Harry van der Laan

Harry van der Laan is a retired football striker from the Netherlands, who made his professional debut in the 1988-1989 season for ADO Den Haag....
 1988–1992
Riccardo Giacconi
Riccardo Giacconi

Riccardo Giacconi is an Italy/ United States Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist....
 (Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize , established in the 1895 will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel; it was first awarded in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize in 1901....
 winner)		 1993–1999
Catherine Cesarsky
Catherine Cesarsky

Catherine Jeanne Cesarsky is an astronomer and known for her successful research activities in several central areas of modern astrophysics....
 1999-2007
Tim de Zeeuw from 2007


See also

  • European Extremely Large Telescope
  • European Northern Observatory
    European Northern Observatory

    The European Northern Observatory is the name by which the Instituto de Astrof?sica de Canarias and its observatories, the Observatorio del Teide, on Tenerife, and the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, on La Palma, are collectively known....


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