Announcements

18 April 2018: On 28 April 2018, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre will open its doors to the public. The inauguration of the centre will be celebrated with a series of events dedicated to its community of partners, supporters, neighbours and friends. In its first quarter, the centre has prepared a starry line-up of activities for its visitors. On 26 April we will host a press conference at the ESO Supernova, where media representatives will have the opportunity to learn more about the new planetarium and visitor centre, interview representatives from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS) and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and participate in an exhibition tour and planetarium show. On the evening of the same day, an event will bring together the founders of the ESO Supernova, the extended team of architects, exhibition designers and project managers, as well as representatives from ...

10 April 2018: On 27 April 2018, ESO is inviting all digital enthusiasts to meet the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, a new cutting-edge astronomy centre for the public that will open its doors the next day. The Meet #ESOSupernova event is aimed at keen social media users, passionate bloggers and other digital content creators from both the local community (Munich, Bavaria and Germany) and the European and international community. The event is organised in Garching, near Munich in Germany, at the Headquarters of the European Southern Observatory, where the ESO Supernova is also located. The planned language of the event is German, but depending on the participants attending, English may also be used. From 09:00 until 13:00, event participants will have the chance to enjoy an immersive experience at the ESO Supernova. A special exhibition tour will give participants the opportunity to test our exhibits. They will also become familiarised with ...

5 April 2018: Over the past months, the ESO Supernova team has been preparing the programme for the new Planetarium & Visitor Centre, due to open to the public on 28 April 2018. We are delighted to announce that a printed version of the programme is now available, in addition to the online version which can be used to book activities directly. The programme contains information about the range of planetarium shows, guided tours and educational workshops offered by the ESO Supernova. It also features special public events such as science talks, concerts and much more. For more information, see the press release about the online version of the programme. The printed programme will be distributed to various tourism outlets, hotels and other partners, to ensure that our incredible Planetarium & Visitor Centre reaches as broad an audience as possible. It will also be available in the ESO Supernova itself and can be ...

3 April 2018: The latest issue of the free magazine Science in School is now available online and in print. This European journal for science teachers offers up-to-date information on cutting-edge science, teaching materials and projects in science education, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books and other resources, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and everyone else involved in European science education. Some of the highlights of this issue include: an interview with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer; an article about the iron-eating bacteria on the wreck of the Titanic; and 10 things you might not know about fracking. Teaching activities include: colourful redox reactions using lollipops; and a set of challenges involving bouncing and falling objects to investigate simple physics principles. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration between eight European intergovernmental scientific research ...

29 March 2018: ESO will host a press conference on 26 April 2018 at 13:00 CEST, at its Headquarters in Garching, Germany, to present the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre on the occasion of its inauguration. The media will be introduced to the facility and there will be opportunities for interviews. There will also be a tour of the exhibition as well as a planetarium show. The press conference will be in German, but there will be opportunities for interviews in English and material will be provided in both languages where possible. This invitation is addressed exclusively to media representatives. To participate in the conference, bona fide members of the media must register by completing an online form. Space is limited so we recommend early registration. The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cutting-edge astronomy centre for the public and an educational facility. The centre hosts the largest tilted planetarium ...

26 March 2018: Applications for the ESO-supported Summer AstroCamp 2018 will open on 1 April. AstroCamp is an academic programme in the field of astronomy and physics that aims to stimulate curiosity and critical thinking, organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP). The camp takes place from 5–19 August 2018 in a secluded and tranquil setting, away from the stresses of urban centres. The programme is intended for secondary school students from European Union countries, in one of their final three years of education before university. 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 naked eye and telescopes (including the Perseid meteor shower); Skyping with astronomers and physicists from different countries; A computational project, working with data from the world’s best telescopes; Social activities such ...

23 March 2018: The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre offers unique venue alternatives for event organisers in Munich. Our events brochure provides information about the spaces for hire and the available services. The centre can cater for events ranging from conferences, meetings, and workshops to cocktail parties and other evening events. The centre has two highlights in terms of venue alternatives. The 360-degree planetarium offers an immersive and spectacular environment. The Void is a spherical room displaying the Milky Way Galaxy on its walls, and its star roof can light up with the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. Other spaces include the 2200 m2 exhibition area, two seminar rooms and the open-air rooftop terrace from which the Alps are visible on a clear day. Any event for which the ESO Supernova is chosen as the host venue will benefit from parking, cloakroom access, and wifi throughout the building. We can also recommend ...

21 March 2018: School students from around the world are invited to take part in the 2018 Catch a Star contest. This is a European astronomical writing contest, with prizes that will leave students starry-eyed! To participate, students should submit a written report on an astronomical topic of their own choice — for example, an astronomical object, phenomenon, observation, scientific problem or theory. Reports must be written in English and be no more than 5000 words in length. Contestants may work in groups of up to three students, plus a group leader who is not a student. Each submission must be emailed as a PDF file to astro.edu@gmail.com. The deadline for all entries is 17:00 CET on 14 December 2018. There will be five lucky winners chosen, and each winner will have the chance to carry out their own remote observations at the National Astronomical Observatory “Rozhen”, Bulgaria, or to hold a video ...

19 January 2018: The winners of the 2017 Catch a Star Contest have been announced. ESO is providing each of the top five places with a mounted image of a particularly fascinating astronomical object. The top three places will also have the rare opportunity to carry out remote observations at the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria. The top three prizes were awarded to: First prize:Astronomy and Mathematics: Estimation of the Sun rotation movements and the Earth translation, by Mario Martín and Susana Sánchez, from Spain. Second prize:61 Cygni, by Elina Hell Messner & Maximilian Komar, from Italy. Third prize:Steam Moon: An interdisciplinary vision of the Moon, by Miquel Macías & Martí Rubio, from Spain. A complete list of the winners can be found on the Catch a Star website. School students from around the world were invited to take part in the European astronomy contest Catch a Star. To participate students had ...

11 December 2017: 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 and projects in science education, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books and other resources, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and everyone else involved in European science education. Some of the highlights of this issue include: an insight into the blood-brain barrier; an article about how we can track pathogen changes at the genetic level; and ten things you might not know about antimatter. Practical classroom activities include a series of Earth science activities exploring the constituents of soil, as well as molecular detective activities on mushrooms and other plants and fungi. Science in School is published by EIROforum, a collaboration ...

13 November 2017: More than 180 video applications from 19 countries were submitted for the 2017 ESO Astronomy Camp, and the winners of the bursaries offered by ESO and the national partners have now been selected. These talented scientists and engineers of the future put forward applications of extremely high quality, all eager to be selected for a place at this year’s camp. ESO is delighted to announce that Elise Denis from France is the winner of the ESO bursary. The ESO bursary covers the full cost of the camp and the associated travel for the student. The following students will also receive financial support from the national partners: From the German Astronomical Society, Germany, support for Luise Raum From the National Institute of Astrophysics, Italy, support for Lisa Niederbrunner From the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy, the Netherlands, support for Isabelle Joosten From the Polish Astronomical Society, Poland, support for Daniel Wirzba ...

8 November 2017: FORSCHA, the annual science fair of Munich, is an event that aims at getting the public involved with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). With a varied programme for children, young people, parents and educators, the event encourages everyone to learn more about our world and the Universe we live in. This year the fair will take place at the MOC in Munich from 17–19 November 2017. Following last year’s successful participation, ESO will have a stand at the FORSCHA event with hands-on experiments based on activities being developed for the new ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. This year, ESO is delighted to be working with students from the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium in Garching, and with support from the Project Management Institute Southern Germany Chapter. The school students will help FORSCHA participants experience the capacity of both current and new ESO telescopes to probe the mysteries of the Universe otherwise beyond ...

16 October 2017: ESO, the world’s most productive ground-based observatory, will open its doors to the public on Saturday 21 October 2017 between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST. The ESO Open House Day event will be held at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the world of ESO first hand by taking part in many different activities; the programme of activities for the day is set out below. Our Open House Day is part of the Tag der offenen Tür that is taking place across the Garching research campus, as well as at several other local institutes. If you need help to find your way around during the Open House Day, look out for our members of staff, who will be wearing name badges. As ESO is an international organisation, our staff speak several languages between them. Media representatives who wish to attend the event are ...

4 October 2017: 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 and projects in science education, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books and other resources, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and everyone else involved in European science education. Some of the highlights of this issue include: an article highlighting the many uses of molybdenum; an insight into an evolutionary biology experiment; and another article in the series about gravitational waves. Practical classroom activities include: investigating how the skin of a shark can improve energy efficiency for swimming; making a particle accelerator from a salad bowl; and measuring the distance to the Moon using radio signals. Science in School is published by ...

28 September 2017: On Saturday 21 October 2017 the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will open its doors to the public between 11:00 and 18:00 CEST at its headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. This event is one of the Open House Day activities taking place across the whole Garching research campus, when several other institutes will also open their doors to the public. ESO can be found at location number 39 on this map of the campus. Some of the highlights of the 2017 programme are: See the ESO Headquarters buildings — join guided tours through the innovatively styled office building and the technical building. Learn how ESO creates artificial stars, see what mirror prototypes for the Extremely Large Telescope look like, and more. Find out about the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre, currently under construction and due to open in 2018. It will be the largest tilted planetarium in Germany, Austria ...

4 July 2017: As the construction of the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre here in Garching continues apace, ready for its opening in Spring 2018, ESO continues to make an unprecedented range of high-quality materials available for use in planetariums, produced by world-renowned astrophotographers, artists, technicians and musicians. The latest additions to our collection include: New 4k live fulldome webcams for ALMA and VLT, new deep-sky night-time cameras. These new webcams show many wonderful day- and night-time phenomena live from the observatories, such as zodiacal light, gegenschein, airglow, atmospheric absorption and diffraction. New free music tracks produced for our archive by our new music ambassadors. More ESO fulldome clips, including stunning timelapses of ESO’s observatories, an artist’s impression of the TRAPPIST-1 system, and renderings of violent events in the Universe such as a black hole devouring a star and merging stars creating a supernova. More ESA/Hubble fulldome clips. More beautiful image compositions ...

15 June 2017: The winner of the AstroCamp 2017 bursary offered by ESO has now been selected from almost 100 applications from about a dozen countries. ESO is delighted to announce that Eva Forrest from the United Kingdom is the winner of the ESO bursary. The standard of applications was extremely high, from a variety of enthusiastic future scientists and engineers keen to attend this year’s camp. The ESO bursary covers the full cost of the camp, providing Eva with financial assistance to participate in this potentially career-defining event. AstroCamp is an academic programme devoted to astronomy and physics, organised by the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences. The camp will take place from 6 to 20 August 2017 in northern Portugal, at the Centre for Environmental Education and Interpretation of the Corno de Bico Protected Landscape. The program is intended for ...

15 June 2017: 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 and projects in science education, interviews with inspiring scientists and teachers, reviews of books and other resources, and many other useful resources for science teachers. It aims to promote science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists and everyone else involved in European science education. Some of the highlights of this issue include: an article looking at how structures in nature are inspiring the design of the buildings of the future; an interview with Nobel prizewinner Sir Paul Nurse; and an article looking at how the sensitivity needed to detect gravitational waves was achieved. Practical teaching activities for the classroom include: exploring how chemistry and physics are used to solve crimes; and an activity about the spread of ...

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 ...

6 June 2017: ESO and its Science Outreach Network are collaborating with the science education event organiser Sterrenlab and the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) to arrange the fifth ESO Astronomy Camp on the topic of Distances in the Universe. The camp will take place from Tuesday 26 December 2017 to Monday 1 January 2018 in the Aosta Valley, Italy. The camp will explore the theme of Distances in the Universe through several astronomical sessions, including lectures, hands-on activities, and night-time observations with the telescopes and instruments at the observatory. Social activities, winter sports and excursions will contribute to making the camp a memorable experience for the participants. ESO and OAVdA will be responsible for the scientific programme of the ESO Astronomy Camp, and will provide lecturers and material together with several other partners. The registration fee of €500 covers full-board accommodation at the hostel in Saint ...