Announcements

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 ...

20 November 2022: On 8 December 2022, you have the chance to meet four female Max Planck astronomers and learn more about the fascinating science they are investigating, as well as about what it is like to be a female in this field. The ESO Supernova doors will open at 18:00, giving you access to our exhibition for one hour, before you enter the planetarium. On its 360 degree dome, you will be immersed on a trip to the Universe with the show “Unseen Universe”. Four short talks by female astronomers will then cover topics such as: the first images of black holes ever taken and how these massive, mysterious objects form; using supercomputers to generate virtual universes; and the rising „stars” of recent astronomy research — gravitational waves. The talks will be followed by a discussion on women in astronomy. The event tickets cost 10 euro. Learn more about the event and ...

5 November 2022: 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 fifth issue of 2022 presents the following Highlights: Learn about the groundbreaking advance behind ‘click chemistry’ - a kind of chemistry for which the Nobel prize was awarded this year. Find out why only some plants and animals have blue colour, peer into Mars’ ‘Grand Canyon’ with recent images from ESA’s Mars Express and explore how fluorescence microscopy can illuminate our gut microbiome and its role in cancer. Suggestions for classroom activities in the Teach articles include building instructions of a rotating ...

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 ...

5 September 2022: 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 fourth issue of 2022 presents the following Highlights: Explore the science behind some of the Sustainable Development Goals and the key role science has to play in our efforts towards achieving them, and discover how to spark students’ natural curiosity while learning about curriculum-relevant topics with ESA’s teach with space program. Learn how to spot pseudoscientific fake news in the media, and what we’ve learned about the Higgs boson in the past ten years. Suggestions for classroom activities in the Teach articles ...

1 August 2022: This September, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre offers you an exclusive and limited-time offer: a chance to see Cosmos Odyssey — Our Quest to Discover the Universe, a Korean planetarium production. Tickets can be booked in advance through our website. Cosmos Odyssey will have a limited number of showings, only during the month of September, so don’t miss your chance! This show explores the history of the Universe and the human effort to understand it. From ancient mythological views of the Universe to modern observatories, the production takes you through the evolution of astronomical science and technology. Throughout the show, you will explore the evolution of our knowledge of the Universe over its 13.8 billion-year history. Learn about how our ancestors explained the movements of celestial objects in the night sky, take a look at how the early telescopes worked and be amazed by the new, modern facilities, ...

30 June 2022: ESO and the Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP) are delighted to announce that April Sánchez Scott, a british-mexican student preparing her A-Levels in the UK, is the winner of the summer AstroCamp 2022 prize offered by ESO. The camp received about 50 valid applications from 12 different countries in Europe and the Americas, most of these applications being from ESO member states. The ESO prize covers the camp fee, including full-board accommodation, camp activities, internal travel to and from Porto airport, and insurance. With this prize, ESO is delighted to provide April 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 ...

29 April 2022: This summer season, from June to August, you are invited to dive into the story of our own planet, as told by the planetarium film: Birth of Planet Earth. Currently, scientists believe that our galaxy contains as many as a billion planets roughly the same size as the one we live on. Through data-driven, cinematic-quality visualisations, the film explores some of the world's greatest scientific questions today: how did Earth become a living planet in the wake of our Solar System’s violent birth? Is its history a sign that we are likely to find worlds that resemble Earth in the future? The documentary looks at the very beginning of our planet, and the unique characteristics that enabled life to evolve. The new programme will help viewers better understand the history of humanity’s existence on Earth. If this description intrigues you, don’t hesitate any longer: book your ticket at this link. ...

6 April 2022: Applications for the eleventh ESO-supported Summer AstroCamp 2022 are now open. Organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP), AstroCamp is an academic excellence programme in the field of astronomy and physics dedicated to secondary school students from 42 different countries, including all ESO member states, as well as Canada and the United States. The AstroCamp 2022 public presentation can be viewed here. The camp, which for the first time will run for three weeks, from 7–28 August, will bring students from a wide range of backgrounds together for a unique and inspiring experience where they can learn about astronomy and physics. As usual, it will take place in a beautiful protected landscape area in the north of Portugal. Applications for the Summer AstroCamp 2022 are open from 1–30 April. Applicants are required to submit a motivation letter alongside a letter of recommendation from their physics ...

31 March 2022: Are you making plans for the warm season and a cosmic journey is on your list? The ESO Supernova has you covered as we have just opened online booking for planetarium shows from May to July, with some shows particularly suitable for the June school holidays. If a cosmic journey was not on your list, we think it deserves to be added. Here are a few highlights of the programme to convince you: Learn more about the fascinating diversity of alien worlds in Out There — The Quest for Extrasolar Worlds Unseen Universe brings you a thrilling exploration of cutting-edge astronomy and the Universe far beyond our senses The Amazing Adventures of Rosetta and Philae is an animated tale about landing on a comet and exploring it In Beyond the Sun, a young girl explores the mysteries and delights of finding exoplanets From Earth to the Universe takes you on ...

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 ...

4 February 2022: On 28 April 2022, 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 ...

4 February 2022: 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 first issue of 2022 presents the following Highlights: Read about how cyclic dinucleotides could offer new approaches to treating a range of serious diseases, and learn why light pollution is a serious environmental problem. There has been a lot of focus recently on eliminating plastic packaging to help the environment, but could the situation actually be more complicated than the slogans suggest? Classroom experiments don’t have to rely on complicated specialised equipment. In fact, using everyday materials can help engage students by ...

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 ...