Announcements

19 July 2023: It is with great pleasure that ESO and the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) announce that German student, Anna-Lena Gschrey, has won the summer AstroCamp 2023 prize offered by ESO. Anna-Lena stood out among tens of other applicants from around the world in a highly competitive selection process. The ESO prize covers all expenses related to the camp, such as the camp fee, comprehensive accommodation with meals, internal transportation to and from Porto airport, and insurance. By granting this prize, ESO is thrilled to support Anna-Lena in joining an initiative that holds the power to inspire the younger generation and ignite their passion for pursuing careers in science and astronomy. Additionally, every participant will be presented with an ESO goodie bag, which includes items like posters, pens, and an ESO cap. Coordinated by CAUP with support from ESO, the summer AstroCamp is a yearly educational initiative. ...

30 June 2023: Starting this August discover our new awe-inspiring fulldome film 5000 Eyes: Mapping the Universe with DESI that will take you in search for the key to one of the most enigmatic secrets of the Universe. DESI, short for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, is a ground-breaking scientific endeavour that involves a remarkable assembly of 5000 tiny robots functioning independently. Installed on the Mayall telescope atop Kitt Peak in Southern Arizona, these robots possess the extraordinary ability to simultaneously capture the light emanating from thousands of galaxies at once. Their collective efforts culminate in the creation of a detailed map of our nearby universe. This map will serve as an invaluable resource, empowering astronomers to delve into the profound influence of dark energy – the mysterious cosmic force permeating the vastness of space – on the expansion of our very own Universe. With 5000 Eyes: Mapping the Universe with DESI you ...

2 June 2023: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online. 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 third issue of 2023 presents the following Highlights: Find some articles related to the World Ocean Day on 8th June to spark a discussion or explore the issues through hands-on experiments. A lot of resources for STEM teaching, from the effect of oceans on the climate to ocean acidification, are provided. Learn about cultivated meat to gain more clarity in the sometimes confused (deliberately or inadvertently) discussion about it. Get a recap of some of the key concepts of fusion, such as ...

20 November 2022: 2023 is just around the corner and we have got you covered with the 2023 ESO Calendar — packed full of stunning astronomical images and views of some of the most advanced telescopes on Earth. The calendar is available for purchase at 9,50 euro, from the ESO online shop and in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. The calendar’s cover features an image of The Cone Nebula, part of the star-forming region NGC 2264, about 2500 light-years away. Its pillar-like appearance is a perfect example of the shapes that can develop in giant clouds of cold molecular gas and dust, where new stars are created. This dramatic new view of the nebula was captured with the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and released on the occasion of ESO’s 60th anniversary. The calendar has lunar phases indicated for each month. It ...

15 September 2022: Starting this October, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre has included another show in its regular programme. The "Distant Worlds - Alien Life?" planetarium film explores one of the most enduring questions of humankind — are we alone? This question, as old as humanity, still haunts us today and guides our search for extraterrestrial life. But what kind of signs are we looking for and why? Tickets can be bought online at this link. Join us on a fantastic search for clues in the cosmos. Maybe we'll find something right on our doorstep, in our solar system? Land a spacecraft on Mars, where life may have once originated in the distant past. Explore Jupiter's moon Europa, beneath whose thick ice sheet lies a mighty ocean! Come along, beyond the bounds of our own neighbourhood to look at the planets of other suns. What would life be like on those ...

29 March 2022: What is South Africa’s place in international astronomy? How is the country using its facilities to take astronomy to the wide public? And what mysteries are their astronomers helping to unravel? Embark on a journey through South African astronomy with Rising Star. The South African produced planetarium film ‘Rising Star’ is now available on ESO archive, in 4K and 8K. Rising Star: A South African Astronomy Journey takes the audience on an astronomical journey through the development and future of astronomy research in South Africa. In addition, it highlights the many remarkable facilities hosted in the country along with some of their latest results, including unrestricted views of the Southern African Large Telescope and the most powerful radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, MeerKAT. “As the first of its kind to be produced in Africa, Rising Star hopes to stimulate the production of many more locally produced planetarium films from ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

29 May 2019: Today, students from the Oskar von Miller Technical College, Meran, Italy visited the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, bringing the total number of student visitors since the centre's inauguration to over 10 000. To mark this milestone, each student was given a gift as a memento of their visit, and the accompanying teacher received the ESO publication "The Jewel on the Mountaintop" for the school’s library. The ESO Supernova reached this milestone after just over one year of sharing astronomy and space with the public through its engaging education programme, exhibitions, public talks, and planetarium shows. Over the last 13 months, school groups from 11 different countries, among them eight ESO member states, joined the education programme. The centre places a particular emphasis on education and encourages visits from school classes, for which special activities and workshops can be arranged. Teacher training sessions at the ESO Supernova are also ...

1 November 2018: Following a thorough assessment, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB — Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen) has awarded the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre the gold certificate for sustainability. This award recognises the ways in which the ESO Supernova adheres to high standards of sustainability. The council assessed the building in six different categories: environmental, economic, sociocultural and functional, technology, processes and location. The award takes into account not only the conservation of energy and use of sustainable materials, but also features such as the comfort of those who visit and work in the centre. The DGNB concluded that the ESO Supernova is so committed to sustainability that it meets the requirements for a gold certificate. Visitors to the centre can see the plaque acknowledging the ESO Supernova’s gold standard by the front entrance. More Information The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor ...

31 October 2018: The ESO Supernova is proud to announce a new show in its line-up. The Planets — Expedition into the Solar System, jointly created by 19 planetariums in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including the ESO Supernova, explores the planets of our Solar System close-up. The music for the new show was written by the composer Frank Wolff. The Planets — Expedition into the Solar System will be shown in the ESO Supernova planetarium from 30 November 2018. In recent years, space probes from different space agencies have explored other Solar System planets, such as Mars and Jupiter, so we already know what astronauts could experience there. But human explorers have not yet actually visited any of these worlds and it will be a long time before anybody has the chance to do so. In the new planetarium show The Planets — Expedition into the Solar System you will travel out and ...

8 June 2017: We are proud to announce a brand new addition to ESO’s collection of free high-quality planetarium materials produced by world-renowned astrophotographers, artists, technicians and musicians. Out There — The Quest for Extrasolar Worlds tells the story of how human curiosity has driven us to look outwards for millennia, to discover and explore new and distant worlds and to find the unfamiliar and extraordinary forms of life that could exist in the mysterious realms of the Universe. The show is a production by The Swiss Museum of Transport Planetarium, directed and produced by Marc Horat, in cooperation with National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS and ESO. The show lasts 30 minutes and is suitable for family audiences. Out There — The Quest for Extrasolar Worlds will transport viewers from this world to entirely new and foreign ones. The show features the primitive science fiction of early civilisations, to the future ...

10 October 2016: Centro Multimeios de Espinho have signed a three-year partnership agreement with ESO as a Technology Partner in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. Through this collaboration Centro Multimeios de Espinho is contributing to keeping this cutting-edge astronomy centre open for free so that students, teachers, friends and families can all enjoy an unforgettable educational experience. Centro Multimeios de Espinho is based in the city of Espinho, near Porto, Portugal, supported by the Associação de Desenvolvimento do Concelho de Espinho (ADCE). It is a science centre and a planetarium, but also creates original software for use in planetariums. The ESO Supernova will be a centre featuring spectacular planetarium technology, making them an ideal partner. Centro Multimeios de Espinho will be providing lifetime use, including updates, of pieces of its own software, such as Domeview on Windows. Their generosity is being reciprocated by ESO in the form of several partner benefits. ...

1 September 2016: HARVARD engage! COMMUNICATIONS have signed a one-year agreement with ESO as a Media Partner of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. HARVARD engage! COMMUNICATIONS specialises in strategic brand and corporate communication for enterprises, organisations and brands in the area of technology, e-commerce, digital lifestyle and digital business. Through this collaboration, HARVARD engage! COMMUNICATIONS will contribute to raising awareness of the new ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre that offers Bavarian families, astronomy enthusiasts and tourists the opportunity to experience the Universe through an interactive astronomical exhibition, ten different guided tours and what in 2017 will become the largest tilted planetarium in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. “We want the ESO Supernova to be a place where people are genuinely engaged by science and technology.”, said Tania Johnston, ESO Supernova Coordinator. “HARVARD engage! COMMUNICATIONS strive to ‘make technology personal’ via people, stories and emotions, and this fits perfectly with our mission”. ...

28 June 2016: The construction of the concrete shell of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre has been completed and the exciting “double-star system” design of the building is now coming to life. The ESO Supernova will provide visitors with an immersive experience of astronomy and ESO’s scientific and technological achievements. The building, donated by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, has been designed by architects Bernhardt + Partner. Other companies involved in the planning and construction include Bollinger + Grohmann (support structure planning), engineering firm Hausladen (HVACR planning), engineering firm Burnickl (electrical planning),Grossmann Bau (rough construction), Frener & Reifer (facades) and more. Over 700 completely unique formwork elements for the concrete shell have been accurately designed from the architects’ 3D model. These crucial components were designed and built by the company Doka. Surveyors checked all formwork parts were in the correct positions, maintaining the necessary millimetre accuracy of the shell, before pouring the ...

12 April 2016: On 12 April 2016 the impressive Star-roof for the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre building was installed. The roof, which weighs almost 30 tonnes, consists of glass panels set into a metal framework made of triangular sections — 262 of them, arranged to artistically represent some of the constellations of the southern sky. It was constructed by South Tyrolean family company, Frener-Reifer after an idea fromBernhardt + Partner architects working together with ESO’s astronomers. The whole roof was installed in one single lift using a special 500-tonne crane. The roof will allow visitors to the centre to see the sky above, while beneath it they are introduced to the full majesty of the Universe in ESO’s new educational and public outreach facility. It will be studded with lights, to mimic in a modest way the spectacular view of the sky that astronomers at ESO's observatory sites can expect to ...

16 December 2015: Space Scoop, an astronomy news service for children aged eight and above, invites you to explore a brand-new website and share its exciting astronomical content with your children during their Christmas break. Space Scoop is coordinated by the international Universe Awareness (EU-UNAWE) and Space Awareness (SPACE-AWE) projects in association with several partners, including ESO and ESA/Hubble. Every Space Scoops article provides news about the latest astronomical discoveries in child-friendly language and is accompanied by a stunning astronomical image. The goal is to feed children’s curiosity about the Universe, to share the excitement of new discoveries with them and to inspire children to develop an interest in science and a passion for learning. The project aims to change young children’s frequent perception that science is an outdated and dull subject. As such, the brand-new Space Scoop website features a vibrant, eye-catching visual design along with fun graphics, images and icons tailored ...