Astronomical News

Report on the International Workshop on Observing Planetary Systems held at ESO, Vitacura, Chile, 5–8 March 2007

Michael Sterzik, Christophe Dumas ness of the field for the next generation of of highest relevance for the massive (ESO) researchers. Each of the four sessions follow-up of planetary transit candidates was organised around three presenta- (Queloz). tions by invited speakers, each of 45 min, Motivation all contributing to the discussion from a Direct imaging of extrasolar planets is a complementary perspective of Solar Sys- key science driver for many future ground- Nowadays, the ESO premises in Vitacura tem and extraplanetary sciences. The and space-based instrument develop- host more than 80 PhD students, fel- addition of contributed talks and a large ments. A few extrasolar giant planets lows and astronomers, and represent the number of posters deepened our under- (EGPs) around nearby young stars are research centre for the scientific staff de- standing of each subject. All available already in reach of current adaptive- ployed at the different observatory sites time-slots were intensively used for lively optics assisted NIR companion search in Chile. Several topical working groups and open discussions and some poster programmes, and a leap of the astro- help locally to actively promote and foster pop-up sessions were organised at the physical understanding of EGPs is ex- joint research initiatives among ESO sci- end of each day. pected with the next-generation high entists. One example is the “Planetary contrast imagers, like SPHERE (Mouillet). Sciences Research Group” at ESO Chile Astrochemistry provides another im- (http://www.sc.eso.org/santiago/science/ Scientific highlights portant link from our own Solar System PlanetaryGroup), which seeks to under- to other planetary systems. Deuterium-to- stand the formation of planetary systems A few subjectively selected highlights hydrogen ratios appear remarkably simi- at large and the place occupied by our may demonstrate the scientific ideas and lar in comets and in the interstellar me- own Solar System. Group members are prospects presented during this work- dium (Kamp). Comets, as messengers actively involved in observation-oriented shop. from the early Solar System, may reveal programmes making use of ESO facilities the answer to questions like, why is the to carry out front-line research ranging The physical, chemical, and morphologi- Earth wet and alive? (Mumma). Transiting from discoveries of new brown dwarfs cal evolution of circumstellar discs from (eclipsing) planets play a key role in un- and exoplanets, to the study of primitive gas-dominated rotating optically thick derstanding their physics and chemistry. Solar System bodies. structures towards thin planetesimal discs Atmospheres of hot Jupiters can be stud- is a key to understand the formation of ied in detail by transmission spectros- Encouraged by the fruitful interdiscipli- planetary systems in general, and our own copy, while mass-radius-composition nary research approach of our own Solar System in particular. Disc models relations allow the interior of super-earth group, we proposed to gather both com- can be best constrained by applying a planets to be probed: the era of com- munities of Solar System and extra- combination of modern observing tech- parative exoplanetology has just started planetary system scientists and organise niques, utilising the highest spatial resolu- (Charbonneau)! the international workshop “Observing tion imaging in the optical and NIR in Planetary Systems”. The main idea was to scattered light, polarimetry and SED de- The search for signatures of life on exo- explore the synergy between these two termination. Dust settling, i.e. the vertical planets by the detection of atmospheric communities and confront them with four segregation of particles with different and surface biomarkers is a far-reaching key topics: from Discs to Planets; Search masses and sizes can now be directly goal of future, ambitious, space-based for Planets; Planetary Chemistry; Towards probed (Menard). The dynamical history missions. Both ESA and NASA are active- other Earths. In order to establish such of our own Solar System, as recon- ly promoting missions not only to detect, meetings as part of our research culture, structed by sophisticated numerical but also to characterise, the physical we selected the venue to be in our refur- N‑body integration, teaches us charac- conditions of terrestrial planets (Fridlund, bished, large, conference room in Vita- teristic differences and/or similarities with Lawson). Today, Earth is still the only cura, equipped with state-of-the-art au- known extrasolar systems, such as why known planet that hosts life, and it can dio-visual facilities. does our Solar System not have a hot serve as a template to discuss potential Jupiter? The most likely reason is the res- biosignatures in other habitable worlds. The response from the community was onant hierarchical configuration of our The search for life beyond our Solar Sys- overwhelming. While our original plans four gas giants. Late heavy bombard- tem may soon become a reality – exciting were to limit attendance to 60–80 partici- ment, a cataclysmic episode of planetesi- times are ahead (Kaltenegger)! pants, nearly 120 scientists participated mal infall on terrestrial planets, requires a in the workshop, many of them worldwide large reservoir of planetesimals and ap- Contributed talks and posters presented recognised leaders in their field: about pears therefore compatible with the dust the latest results from ground-based and half of the participants were from Euro- excesses observed in debris discs space-based (e.g. Spitzer) observatories pean countries, 20 % from the USA, 20 % (Morbidelli). Accuracy limits of radial ve- in the search for exoplanets and the from Chile, 5 % from other South Ameri- locity searches for exoplanets are con- study of planetary-system formation, in- can countries, and a few researchers tinuously improving, and the physical cluding our own. The prospects for future joined us from Japan and Australia. A limits have still not been reached (con- ground-based interferometric, radial- healthy number of students (~ 30 % of the trary to what was thought ten years ago). velocity and high-contrast imaging instru- participants) demonstrated the attractive- Precision RV studies will continue to be ments in the field of exoplanet search

72 The Messenger 128 – June 2007 Participants at the workshop on “Observing Stellar Systems” photographed in the garden at ESO Vitacura. well invested in making an attractive pro- gramme, and supporting some partici- pants to enable their visit in Chile. In total about 40 % of the participants received some financial aid; half were students, half researchers, and all students had their registration fees waived.

We would like to thank ESO for allocating the financial support for this workshop, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile its co-sponsoring. Also, we would like to thank all people who made this workshop possible, in particular Maria- Eugenia Gomez, our librarian who acted were presented, while several contribu- stead, all contributions, both oral and as workshop secretary, the ESO-Chile tions highlighted the importance of com- poster, were made available for download administration for the logistical sup- bining in situ spacecraft missions of immediately after the workshop from the port received, and the students from the the planets and small bodies of our Solar conference website (http://www.sc.eso. Universidad Católica de Chile, who System with ground-based supporting org/santiago/science/OPSWorkshop) – helped during the four days of this work- observations (Cassini/Titan, Rosetta/ given the consent of the authors. This de- shop, notably at the time of the registra- Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Mars space cision was based on our belief that pro- tion. The flawless local organisation, missions). Although we are still lacking viding instant access to the research the highly praised coffee breaks (includ- evidence for the presence of life outside highlights presented during this meeting ing delicious appetisers), joint cocktails the Earth, the discussions generated dur- was more useful than waiting for printed and conference dinner all contributed to ing this four-day workshop deepened proceedings in a competitive field like this a warm and friendly atmosphere during our belief that the search for signatures of one, where results are rapidly evolving the workshop, remembered by all partici- life in our own Solar System will provide and will be published in refereed journals. pants. strong guidance to the future exploration The idea to provide near-instantaneous of exoplanetary systems. access to the material discussed in this While meetings of this quality and size workshop was developed even further by take place naturally in many research providing, experimentally, a live-stream institutes in Europe and North America, Summary webcast during the conference (video- ESO Vitacura largely lacks this experi- streams are also available for download ence and we are looking forward to future On purpose we opted not to publish on the conference website). We also be- workshops of this kind organised within printed proceedings of this workshop. In- lieve that the costs saved have been our premises.

The Re-launch of the ESO Web

Rein Warmels, Gabriele Zech (ESO) The ESO Web plays an integral and in- and is critical for coordination and disse- dispensable role in the process of doing mination of information, both internal and science with ESO’s observing and external to ESO, in particular in the area Recently, the ESO Web went through a archive facilities. It provides an effective of science and archive operations. major revision and was re-launched and adaptive medium for exchanging with a new Look and Feel and new navi- information, documents and images be- The ESO Web started its service in 1994. gation tools. This article gives an over- tween scientists, engineers, the media Since then it has expanded rapidly, both view of why and how the ESO Web has and the general public. Furthermore, it in the amount of information and serv- changed. provides various services to the commu- ices that are provided as well as in terms nity of users of ESO’s observing facilities of access rates. Currently, the statistics

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