Announcements

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 ...

18 December 2020: During this time of enforced closure, we would like to get to know our visitors better, to help us understand their experiences of the ESO Supernova and to help us to continue to improve our offers. As such, we would be very grateful if you could take 5 minutes of your time to complete this short survey. Any information you provide in this form will only be used internally for evaluation and improvement purposes. By better understanding who our fans and visitors are, what they do when they visit us, we can ensure we are always providing the best experiences at the ESO Supernova. As 2020 draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and for your patience and understanding during this challenging year. We wish you and your loved ones a relaxing and enjoyable festive season and look ...

9 October 2020: Following the feedback from our weekend visitors, who have commented that the current opening hours don’t allow them enough time to easily explore our interactive exhibition, we are pleased to announce that we have been able to modify our weekend opening hours, whilst still ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone. From 31 October, on Saturdays and Sundays, the ESO Supernova will no longer close for one hour and our visitors can stay in the building from 12:00 until 17:00, uninterrupted. We will still be offering 2 planetarium shows per day and, with the change to the opening hours, are happy to be able to provide our visitors with more time to enjoy our exhibition before or after a show. Opening hours Wednesdays to Fridays remain unchanged, namely we are open from 09:00-12:30 and from 13:30-17:00. All other COVID-19 measures remain the same, and we encourage people to book ...

30 September 2020: The 2021 edition of one of our most popular products, the ESO Calendar, is now available and can be purchased from the online ESOshop and in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. The calendar’s cover features a spectacular starscape around the relatively unknown central object, Gum 15, a nebula in which stars are being born. The image also features one of the closest supernova remnants to Earth, which exploded between 11 000 and 12 300 years ago and is located 800 light-years away from our cosmic home. For the month of March, the bright band of the Milky Way arcs above the ALMA antennas on the Chajnantor plateau. One of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth, the Orion Nebula, is the chosen image for July and the massive 3-tonne blank for the Extremely Large Telescope’s (ELT) secondary mirror is the star of September. Finally, in December the viewer will ...

21 July 2020: ESO and the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) are delighted to announce that Finnish student Meri Teeriaho is the winner of the summer AstroCamp 2020 prize offered by ESO. The camp received about 50 applications from 12 countries, most of these applications being from ESO member states. 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 9 to 23 August 2020. This year, the camp is organised under special circumstances due to the global context. A total of sixteen students will participate in the camp, with those living abroad participating remotely and those living in Portugal attending the camp in person, at the Centre for Environmental Education and Interpretation of the Corno de Bico Protected Landscape, under special safety conditions agreed with the local ...

24 April 2020: On 28 April 2020, we celebrate two years since the ESO Supernova opened its doors to the public. Our anniversary comes at a time when the centre is closed due to the current global context, but we would still like to mark the event by organising an online drawing competition. Our visitors are what makes the ESO Supernova shine and, in a time when we cannot welcome you here, we would love to discover what memories you have from your experiences with us. We invite you to colour in! If you wish to switch roles and be the ones presenting the ESO Supernova to us, then sign up for the competition! To participate, Like and Follow our Facebook Page, then download this .pdf file, print it and colour the outline of our building and also draw your impressions from your visit in the empty space. Next, post a photo of ...

31 March 2020: Applications for the ESO-supported Summer AstroCamp 2020 will open on 1 April 2020. AstroCamp is an academic programme in the field of astronomy and physics, organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP), that aims to stimulate curiosity and critical thinking. The camp takes place from 9 to 23 August 2020 in a tranquil setting, away from the stresses of urban centres. The programme is intended for secondary school students from 42 different countries, including all ESO member countries, as well as Canada and the United States, in one of their final three years of education before university. The public presentation about AstroCamp 2020 took place on 22 February. The presentation video is available here. Students of all backgrounds will come together and take two courses consisting of daily lessons, assignments, and a final exam. Some further highlights include: Observing the dark night skies with the ...

4 February 2020: 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 include: an article summarising the methods planet hunters use to search for planets beyond the Sun; an exploration of several theories of how life has emerged; and a presentation of the World’s fastest camera for soft X-rays in the News from EIROs section. Teaching activities include: an exciting experiment, not just for hobby detectives, in which latent fingerprints are made visible; an activity to grow plants as they would in outer space or on distant ...

16 January 2020: On Friday 21 February 2020, at 19:00, you are invited to the public talk Black Holes - The Darkest Secret of Gravity. Why does time stop at black holes? What happens to matter that falls into a black hole? Where are cosmic black holes and what are their characteristics? Find out the answers from Andreas Müller, astrophysicist and editor-in-chief of "Sterne und Weltraum". To attend the event, you should book your ticket online. Black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the Universe. There are different types of black holes: 2019 was the year in which the first image of a supermassive black hole was published. We are more familiar with stellar black holes, created when a massive star collapses at the end of its life. A black hole combines so much mass in so little space, that even light can not escape it. Recently astronomers and gravitational wave ...

17 December 2019: 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 2020 at 19:00 at the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. This year, the event will feature a presentation from Prof. Dr. Eva Grebel, Director of the Astronomical Computing Institute, Centre for Astronomy, University of Heidelberg on the topic of Galactic Archeology. The public talk will be delivered in the German language only. Before and after the lecture, the astronomy exhibition at the ESO Supernova will also be open to visitors, offering you the opportunity to talk to female scientists who are researching various topics in the field of astronomy. If you would like to attend, tickets are free, but you need to book a seat in advance at this link. The lecture will reveal various ways ...

11 November 2019: On 29 November 2019, Ark Noir returns to the ESO Supernova with a live concert. After a successful session in April 2019, the band is ready for another performance in the immersive environment of the planetarium. The 360-degree tilted dome will be a gateway to the Universe, during a journey like no other, on electronically-inspired beats and instrumental improvisation. Drawing inspiration from Jazz, Hip-Hop, Dub, Beatmusic and Techno, the band creates a fresh and undogmatic sound, their signature. Performing for you will be: Sax & EWI – Moritz StahlKeyboards – Sam HyltonGuitare – Tilman BrandlE-Bass – Robin JermerDrums – Marco Dufner Opening act: Delusional Circuits (Niklas Bühler) and Polygonia, two musicians who never stop exploring new possibilities within sound while developing their own creations. They use various methods to synthesise cosmic atmospheric landscapes, which take you on a vivid trip through a world of emotional depths. During the concerts, there ...

4 November 2019: On Sunday 8 December at 19.00 and 21.00, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre invites you to come on a unique audiovisual journey through the real and virtual Universe with two performances of the concert Fragmented Future by tonelabs. Musicians Ali and Max, alias tonelabs, live in Munich and produce music which is not just a sequence of sounds, but also an attitude to life. Combining animations and videos from around the world, Fragmented Future is a musical journey that invites you to discover new dimensions. Just like candies in a candy box, each track has its own unique atmosphere, colour and mood, inviting you to experience the Universe from a new and fresh perspective. Tickets for the hour-long audiovisual show cost 20 euros. To reserve your seat and learn more about the concerts, follow this link. The ESO Supernova is hosting a range of shows, exhibitions and alternative ...