The year 2012 marks the 50th
anniversary of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the
foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in the world. The
anniversary year is an opportunity to look back at ESO's history,
celebrate its scientific and technological achievements and look
forward to its next ambitious programmes. ESO is planning several
exciting activities during the year.
On 5 October 1962, representatives from six European countries -
Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and United
Kingdom - signed the ESO Convention in Paris. Their signatures
represented a formal commitment to establish the European
Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere,
today commonly referred to as the European Southern
Observatory.
"ESO's 50th anniversary comes in the middle of the most
exciting period for European and international ground-based
astronomy. ESO has come a long way since it was established in
1962. Fifty years later, ESO is now a leader in the astronomical
research community as the most productive astronomical observatory
in the world," says Tim de Zeeuw, ESO's Director General.
ESO's first observatory was built on La Silla, a 2400 metre-high
mountain, 600 kilometres north of Santiago de Chile. The La Silla
Observatory is equipped with several optical telescopes with mirror
diameters of up to 3.6 metres. The ESO 3.6-metre telescope is now
home to the world's foremost exoplanet hunter, HARPS.
The second site established by ESO was the Paranal Observatory,
home of the Very Large Telescope array (VLT). Scientific operations
began in 1999 and today the VLT is the flagship facility of
European astronomy and with the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) the only
regularly operated large interferometric telescope in the world.
Also on Paranal, the VISTA telescope works in the infrared and is
the world's largest survey telescope, while the VLT Survey
Telescope (VST) is the largest telescope designed to survey the
skies exclusively in visible light.
The most important 50 moments from the history of ESO are
available here.
On the Chajnantor plateau in Northern Chile, together with North
American and East Asian partners, ESO is building a revolutionary
astronomical telescope - ALMA, the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array, the largest astronomical project in
existence. ALMA will be a single telescope composed of 66
high-precision antennas that will study the building blocks of
stars, planetary systems, galaxies and life itself. ALMA's
construction will be completed in 2013, but early scientific
observations with a partial array began in 2011.
ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class optical/near-infrared
telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope or E-ELT, which
will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky". With the start of
operations planned for early in the next decade, the E-ELT will
tackle the biggest scientific challenges of our time.
Events and public initiatives
planned for this anniversary 2012:
From 3-7 September
2012, ESO's Headquarters will host a scientific symposium
to cover topics such as exoplanets, the Solar System, star
formation and stellar evolution, cosmology and more.
On the day of the
anniversary, 5 October 2012, ESO aims to organise
coordinated public events in the 15 Member States. Organised with
the help of ESO's Science Outreach Network and Outreach Partner
Organisations, the events will be an excellent way to put the
public at national venues directly in touch with ESO's astronomy
community and its breathtaking observatory sites in Chile.
On 11 October 2012,
ESO's Director General, Professor Tim de Zeeuw, and the Council
President, Professor Xavier Barcons, will welcome Ministers from
the Member States and the host country Chile, the ESO Council,
representatives of ESO committees, past ESO Director Generals,
renowned astronomers and other people who have played key roles for
ESO at a gala anniversary event to take place in Munich.
More info is available here.