Press Releases

10 January 2025: Embark on a rich and fascinating journey through our celestial neighborhood, as we look for one of organic life's key ingredients - liquid water.

10 January 2025: Since the dawn of time, the starry night sky has fascinated people, but only recently the wonders of astronomy have become accessible to the general public. Last year, over 64,000 people visited the ESO Supernova and took a journey to the stars in the planetarium. The fact that these journeys are possible today is primarily due to the invention of the planetarium projector, which was first unveiled by the company Zeiss in Jena in October 1923. The first public planetarium opened its doors on 7 May, 1925, at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. 100 years later, there are more than 4,000 planetariums worldwide, including the ESO Supernova since 2018. Celebrate the planetarium's 100th birthday with us this year! Under the slogan “100 Days of Planetarium”, we will show you a wide range of special shows and highlights until the 100th birthday of planetariums on 7 May 2025. Among other things, ...

10 January 2025: From February 2025 until May 2025, on the first Friday of the month, the ESO Supernova has extended opening hours until 20:00.

10 January 2025: 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 Thursday, 6 February 2025 at 19:00 at the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. This year, Dr. Hannah Übler, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, will give a talk about how the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has given astronomers a window into the nursery of the Universe, allowing them to study the first billion years after the Big Bang with unprecedented detail. Before and after the lecture, the astronomy exhibition at the ESO Supernova will be open, where you will have the opportunity to talk to female scientists and engineers working on 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 ...

10 January 2025: Dr. Steffen Hagstotz from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich (LMU) gives an overview of the largest structures in the Universe, where they come from and what they tell us about dark energy and the cosmos. This German-language event will take place on 13 February 2025 at 19:00 in the ESO Supernova. Tickets cost 6.50 Euro each and can now be booked online. The Universe is a cosmic network of galaxies and stars - enormous structures that today extend over millions of light years. The farther away a galaxy is, the longer its light takes to reach us. What does the distribution of galaxies in the sky tell us about the history of the Universe? How did it develop? And what role does dark energy play in this? Cosmology is currently in a golden age. A new observation programme of light-sensitive telescopes reaches around the entire globe and is supplemented by state-of-the-art ...

10 January 2025: On Friday 14 February, as part of our "100 Days Planetarium" programme, the ESO Supernova will remain open until 20:00. Treat your loved one to a romantic evening under the dome of the planetarium and enjoy a special show combining art, science and fantasy.

5 December 2024: What makes Earth special? Is it really unique? These and other exciting questions are at the heart of the next Kosmisches Kino Talk taking place on 16 January at 19:00, this time exceptionally on the third Thursday of the month. The event will be in English. Tickets can already be booked here. Over the past three decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets. These worlds orbiting stars beyond our Sun showcase a stunning variety of sizes and environments. Many are unlike anything in our solar system: some worlds are scorching hot giants; others are icy mini-Neptunes. All of them are reshaping our understanding of planetary formation and evolution. To study these distant worlds, scientists use innovative techniques. In transit observations for instance, a planet passes in front of its star and blocks a tiny fraction of starlight during its passage. This allows us to even analyse the planet’s atmosphere and ...

5 December 2024: After closure for the winter break, we will be excited to welcome you back with a vibrant lineup of activities. The programme will feature planetarium shows, concerts, astro-talks about some of the biggest cosmic mysteries, and more!

11 November 2024: On Saturday, 14 December at 19:30 the ESO Supernova hosts the first edition of the new event series "Echolab" from the Munich-based collective and label "IO". A captivating sensory experience awaits you under the dome of the planetarium.

7 November 2024: Buy your copy on location or online and get ready for a year among the stars!

6 November 2024: 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. In the fifth issue of 2024 you will find this: Book a visit to the Xcool Lab at European XFEL for an inspiring experience at a cutting-edge research facility, with hands-on experiments to bring classroom concepts to life. Sign up to Physics in Advent and open the door to 24 simple engaging experiments and the chance to win cool prizes. As the International Year of Camelids draws to a close, discover how the unusual structures of camelid antibodies are inspiring important medical advances, ...

6 September 2024: The popular planetarium show "Birth of Planet Earth" returns to the ESO Supernova programme from October 2024.

18 July 2024: ESO and the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) are very pleased to announce that the Summer AstroCamp 2024 prize offered by ESO will be awarded to the Spanish student Kiara de Mendiolagoitia. In a highly competitive selection process, Kiara emerged as the standout candidate among tens of talented applicants from around the world. Offered by ESO, the AstroCamp 2024 prize will cover Kiara’s expenses to join the camp. These comprise the camp fee, full accommodation and meals, as well as insurance and transportation to and from Porto airport. Moreover, ESO will provide all twelve participants with a goodie bag, filled with items like posters, pens, and an ESO cap. The summer AstroCamp is an educational initiative taking place every year and offered by CUAP with support from ESO. Held in a beautiful, protected landscape area in northern Portugal, it brings secondary school students from a wide ...

11 July 2024: For the summer holiday period, we are delighted to offer two new planetarium shows: Dynamic Earth and Solar Superstorms. Both films are available from Thursday 1 August and tickets can be booked online now.

13 June 2024: The schedule of planetarium shows through the end of the year 2024 is now published. Visitors interested in coming to our centre in the next months can now book their planetarium tickets online.

8 May 2024: On Thursday, 13 June 2024 a new series of lectures will be launched in the planetarium. Kosmisches Kino combines planetarium visualisations with live lectures by researchers.

6 October 2023: Little Major Tom: Into the Unknown brings the beloved characters of Tom and Stella to immersive domes in an exciting tale set in the year 2053. Teenage friends Tom and Stella live, laugh and train on a space station, honing their astronaut skills as they float above Earth. Stella is ready to dive into any challenge, while Tom is panicking at the thought of completing his first-ever spacewalk. But a massive hurricane is forming on Earth, and Tom must put aside his fears and accept a difficult space mission. If Tom and Stella fail, the consequences could be devastating for them — and for Earth. Dr. Peter Popp of both Softmachine and Reef Distribution and musician Peter Schilling, singer/songwriter and producer of the No.1-hit song “Major Tom (Coming Home)”, teamed up to create the 25-minute long science fiction film, Little Major Tom: Into the Unknown exclusively for fulldome theaters. The ...

21 August 2023: Appearing on the front pages of newspapers worldwide, the first-ever image of a black hole was a landmark in astronomy. Starting this September, you can delve into the captivating tale of this ground-breaking result through our new full-dome planetarium film Black Hole: First Picture.

3 March 2023: The children's show "Captain Snoop's Space Trip" now offers educational space adventures for children between 4 and 9 years.

16 March 2022: The stars and the cosmos are fascinating to all people - from early childhood onwards. Turning this curiosity into long-lasting interest in science is the goal of this very special cooperation: On 1 February 2022, the cooperation between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching and the Forscherstation, Klaus-Tschira Centre of Excellence for Early Science Education based in Heidelberg, was officially launched. The aim is to offer training in early science education for educational specialists and teachers from preschool, kindergarten and primary schools at ESO Supernova in Garching. This will strengthen and expand the already existing ESO Supernova education programme. The Forscherstation, which has so far been active primarily in the Rhine-Neckar and the Rhine-Main area, thus also wants to promote early science education among educational specialists and teachers in the Munich area. Already now, an astronomy training course for educators is being conducted by the Forscherstation at ESO Supernova. ...