Announcements

28 January 2022: A free event on Women in Astronomy is being organised by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) on 11 February 2022 at 19:00 in honour of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This year, the event is hosted online by the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. The MPE actively promotes equal opportunities for women and girls in science. The aim is to promote the share of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), where they are still underrepresented. On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Katja Poppenhäger, professor of astrophysics in Potsdam, will give an online talk with the title "What do planets in other solar systems look like?". Thousands of planets have been discovered in other solar systems in recent years. A real "second earth" has not been included so far, but we have found exotic worlds that do not exist in our own ...

12 November 2021: From 8 to 22 August this year, AstroCamp 2021 took place at the Centre for Environmental Education and Interpretation in the Corno de Bico Protected Landscape in northern Portugal. AstroCamp is an astronomy-focused academic programme for secondary school students which aims to bring together students with different backgrounds and life experiences, but with one common passion: astronomy. Fifteen students aged between 15 and 18 took part in the camp — five boys and ten girls, from Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Brazil, Germany and Poland. Over the course of two weeks, the astronomy enthusiasts took courses on relativity and on the physics of stars, galaxies and the Universe as a whole, observed the dark night skies using both the naked eye and telescopes, and connected online with astronomers and physicists from different countries. They also completed a computational project, working with data from some of the world’s best telescopes. Social activities such ...

22 October 2021: During the first week of November, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre invites its visitors to Art and Science Under the Dome — an exciting programme for children and adults alike combining art and science in a display brimming with creativity and cosmic wonder. Featuring an entertaining series of short movies, including a daytime programme suitable for children and evening fulldome science stories and images, as well as an exhibition where art meets astronomy, the programme is part of the Hi!A-Festival, an event dedicated to art and science taking place all over the Bavarian region in Germany. Children can enjoy learning how the astronauts do their job from the short movie Cosmix, join an animated space traveler making friends with inhabitants of an unknown planet in the short Cosmonaute and will journey along in a fantastical trip through vibrant and eclectic worlds full of incredible wonder, together with the ...

11 October 2021: Today, 11 October 2021, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre starts shining bright like a supernova also on Instagram, generating enthusiasm and passion for astronomy on this long overdue medium. Make sure to follow us at @eso_supernova to #ExperienceTheUniverse and you may win some goodies. Read on to learn more. With this Instagram account we aim to share with a wider audience bits and pieces from our astronomical exhibition #TheLivingUniverse and provide followers with a glimpse into the immersive visual journeys from our state-of-the art planetarium. Our Instagram followers can expect to learn interesting facts about astronomy, to participate in fun quizzes, to discover the hottest and coolest astronomy news and to never again miss an astro-event in the sky or in our programme! For the first week of our Instagram activity, our followers can enter a special giveaway, with a chance to win some ESO goodie bags containing ...

19 September 2021: ESO in Garching near Munich and DSI at the University of Stuttgart have joined forces to host a two-day virtual teacher training on infrared astronomy. Experts from DSI and ESO will present the fields of research, unique capabilities and technical challenges of airborne (SOFIA) and ground-based (ESO) observatories. A live stream to SOFIA in Palmdale, USA and a virtual tour of the ESO telescopes on Cerro Paranal, Chile are planned. Besides sharing current results from astronomy research and engineering, a workshop will demonstrate how real SOFIA data can be evaluated in the classroom. At the end of the training, an outlook into the future will be given: the Extremely Large Telescope of ESO and the development study of a balloon telescope for infrared astronomy will be introduced. In order to ensure a stimulating and rewarding training, the number of participants is limited to 40. In case of high demand, the ...

10 September 2021: Your visit to the ESO Supernova will become easier starting this Friday, as we reduce some restrictions and extend booking capability for a longer time period, following the latest guidance from the government. Below, a summary of the latest changes: It is no longer necessary to wear an FFP2 mask, but a surgical mask is required. Distancing will only be required in the planetarium It is now possible to buy as many tickets in one group as you wish. Guided tours in the exhibition are again possible. Although minimum distancing has been removed, we ask all our visitors to be considerate of others and keep distance when possible, to ensure everyone feels as comfortable and as safe as possible during their visit. Visitors of the ESO Supernova still need to respect the 3G rules and we ask that you ensure you have the necessary documentation ready as you enter the ...

10 September 2021: Featuring awe-inspiring images for each month, your astronomical companion for the next year — the 2022 ESO Calendar — is now available for purchase from the ESO online shop and in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. The calendar’s cover features an image of the star-forming region of Sharpless 29, taken with the OmegaCAM on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope at Cerro Paranal in Chile. Inside, the calendar includes a selection of some of the most spectacular images of the cosmos, as well as photographs of ESO’s telescopes against the backdrop of the striking Chilean landscapes. The month of February is represented by an image of the fantastic planetary nebula NGC 2899, a shell of gas expanding from a giant star at the end of its life — glowing over the background stars. A golden-bathed sunset above one of the 1.8-metre-diameter Auxiliary Telescopes at Paranal Observatory is the chosen image ...

10 September 2021: The latest issue of the free digital magazine Science in School is available. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials, science education projects, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books, and many other useful resources. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and others involved in European science education. Just in time for the new school year, this issue presents the following Highlights: an overview of ESA’s various interdisciplinary school projects, an introduction to accelerator science via ‘Star Wars’, how organ-on-chip technology can replace animal use in medical research, background information on the coming shortage of chemical elements crucial to our technological society, and how x-ray free-electron lasers help in unlocking the secrets of photosynthesis. Teaching activities provide suggestions for colourful experiments about pH chemistry and neutralisation reactions, classroom activities for teaching about freshwater on Earth, ...

30 July 2021: While guided tours are temporarily suspended, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre has created a new, virtually guided experience, to facilitate the self-exploration and deeper understanding of The Living Universe exhibition. The virtual tours of the exhibition are based on short and entertaining YouTube videos that provide context and up-to-date information on the themes of the exhibition. Designed with both a young and adult audience in mind and presented by one of the ESO Supernova team, the short films explain topics such as dark matter, black holes, stars and many others. Visitors will be able to access the video commentary on their mobile device, by using the QR codes placed in the relevant locations of the exhibitions. The videos are in German, with subtitles in both English and German. Look out for the posters around the exhibition. We would recommend you bring some headphones with you so you can ...

25 June 2021: The latest issue of the free digital magazine Science in School is available. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials, science education projects, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books, and many other useful resources. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and others involved in European science education. The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in printed form. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials, science education projects, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and others involved in European science education. The Highlights provide a wealth of ideas for the next school year: an innovative approach to ...

24 June 2021: ESO and the Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP) are delighted to announce that Aida Peix, a 16 year old student from Spain, is the winner of the summer AstroCamp 2021 prize offered by ESO. The camp received about 50 valid applications from Europe and the Americas, most of these applications being from ESO member states. The ESO bursary covers the camp fee, including full-board accommodation, camp activities, internal travel to and from Porto airport, and insurance. With this bursary, ESO is delighted to provide Aida with assistance to participate in this potentially career-defining event. Furthermore, all participants will receive an ESO goodie bag with, among others, posters, pens and an ESO cap. The ESO-supported summer AstroCamp is an academic programme devoted to astronomy and physics, organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP). The camp will take place from 8 to 22 August. ...

21 June 2021: On 28 June, we invite you to take part in the Space Safety Festival, a digital event organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), focusing on the space risks we face and the work being done to keep us safe. The festival will run from 18:00 to 20:00 CEST and you can meet and ask experts about asteroids, the Sun, space debris, cyber-threats, and much more. During the event, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre will host a session discussing how the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is helping to keep our planet safe. Rosita Kokotanekova, ESO Research Fellow, and Remco van den Burg, ESO Astronomer and ELT team member, will talk about comets and asteroids, and about how ESO’s telescopes, including the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), can help us find out more about these objects and thereby keep our planet safe. Tania Johnston, Head of ESO Supernova will ...

14 April 2021: The latest issue of the free digital magazine Science in School is available. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials, science education projects, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books, and many other useful resources. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and others involved in European science education. The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in printed form. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials, science education projects, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and others involved in European science education. Highlights of this issue focus on the COVID-19 pandemic: learn about how COVID-19 tests work and ...

1 April 2021: The IAU has released the proceedings of the inaugural AstroEdu Conference, which was held from 16 to 18 September 2019 at the ESO Supernova in Garching, Munich, Germany. Comprising 21 complete papers and 101 abstracts from 81 authors, the proceedings record the rich variety of topics that were presented and discussed during the conference. These topics span a range of endeavours around the world that foster student engagement in learning through astronomy. The conference brought together astronomers, astronomy education researchers and education practitioners to communicate, discuss and tackle common issues. The three key themes covered theoretical research as well as practical research into issues that are often encountered when attempting to apply research results to real-world situations. The conference also provided an opportunity for the community to discuss the changes seen in astronomy education as a result of the IAU Strategic Plan 2010–2020, and to discuss how to meet the ...

30 March 2021: On 22 April 2021, ESO will participate in Germany’s Girls’ Day activities, in which technology companies, universities and research organisations open their doors virtually to female school students to give them an insight into scientific and technological professions — encouraging more of them to choose careers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Places for the event are limited. To register, please visit the Girls’ Day website. The ESO Girls’ Day will introduce the work of ESO and highlight many of our daily activities, such as astrophysical research, mechanical and optomechanical design and integration, operations, and much more. The programme includes introductory talks as well as virtual workshops on astronomy and a look into the engineering laboratories of ESO. The students will learn how astronomical instruments are built, tested and operated. They will also learn how data are collected and used in astronomical research to answer the big questions ...

19 February 2021: “Beyond the Sun” is a recent addition to the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre programme, focused on the delights and mysteries of exoplanet hunting. An official guidebook in German, intended as a fun learning resource, is now available for download at this link. The resource is also available in English, Spanish and French. The didactic guide is a perfect complement to the film and integrates the most important concepts and ideas that are developed in the film. Entertainment, scientific supervision and clarity are the foundations of this guide. The 47-page-material can be used by educators to guide young learners towards a deeper understanding of concepts presented in the show, such as the different types of planets, the Doppler effect, comets and exoplanets. The content is presented by the two main characters of the show — Celeste and Moon. In the film, Celeste is a little girl who is visited ...

1 February 2021: Whilst the ESO Supernova remains closed to the public and guided tours are not possible in our beautiful building, we are introducing live virtual tours of our exhibition. The first of these tours will take place on Thursday 4 February at 18:00 CET. Join our presenter Tobi Beuchert, as he guides you through our exhibition "The Living Universe", explaining the history of the Solar System. The tour will be in German and can be watched here https://youtu.be/bxF-IKMB9k0 A second tour will take place on Friday 12 February at 18:00 CET (again in German), in which Tobi will introduce the ESO telescopes and how we use these to further our understanding of the Universe. This second tour can be watched here https://youtu.be/K8vBZZPsLFM Additionally, keep your eyes open for more short planetarium clips which will be published on our Facebook pages in English and German and on our YouTube channel. The next ...

29 January 2021: The latest issue of the free digital magazine Science in School is available. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials, science education projects, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books, and many other useful resources. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and others involved in European science education. Highlights of this issue include: an article investigating what fossil teeth can tell us about early animals; insights into bacteria that can sense the Earth’s magnetic field; and exploring a planet where it rains iron. There is also an article on what research scientists have been doing to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Teaching activities include: planning and designing a lunar lander; puzzles to explore microbial genomes; and a series of experiments on the states of matter. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight ...

28 January 2021: On the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) is organising its annual free event "Women in Astronomy" on 11 February 2021 at 19:00, this year hosted online by the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. The MPE actively promotes equal opportunities for women and girls in science. The aim is to promote the share of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), where they are still underrepresented. This year, the event will feature a presentation from Dr. Suzanna Randall, astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), about her participation in the Astronautin campaign. Ever since she was a child, Suzanna Randall was fascinated by space with its endless expanses. She wanted to find out everything about it and even to fly there herself! So, as a young adult, she decided to study astrophysics. She now works ...

22 December 2020: While the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre remains closed due to the ongoing pandemic, our staff has developed a series of online and virtual content to allow us to keep in virtual contact with our visitors — videos on popular astronomical themes, live virtual tours of our exhibition and online planetarium short clips. On our Facebook pages in English and German, you can discover a series of messages under the hashtag #ThematicWeek, taking our visitors on a week-by-week tour of our exhibition, the Living Universe. For this series, our staff developed several short videos, which can now be watched on our YouTube channel as well. Designed with both a young and adult audience in mind, the short films explain concepts such as astronomical scales, the formation of star systems and the properties of planets in our Solar System. We have recently tested live virtual tours of our exhibition as ...