Astronomical News

Report on the Workshop ESO@50 — The First 50 Years of ESO held at ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 3–7 September 2012

Jeremy Walsh1 Young stars and planets Transients Eric Emsellem1 Michael West1 ESO’s next major milestone, the Atacama Steven Smartt (Belfast) summarised Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array detection and follow-up surveys for bright (ALMA) featured strongly in the first few transients which have recently begun at 1 ESO talks. Some of the first Cycle 0 results . The La Silla–QUEST in young stars and star-forming regions survey (see Baltay et al., p. 34) produces were presented by Leonardo Testi (ESO) transient alerts within days and these In recognition of the 50th anniversary where the high spatial resolution and sen- are followed up spectroscopically by the of the signing of the ESO Convention, a sitivity of ALMA will bring many ad­vances. Public ESO Survey of Transient Objects special science workshop was held at The field of astrochemistry was covered (PESSTO) with EFOSC on the New Tech- ESO Headquarters in Garching to focus by (Leiden), con­ nology Telescope (NTT). on the main scientific topics where centrating on very high spectral resolution, ESO has made important contributions, including some ALMA spectra from pro- The (VLT) was very from Solar System to funda­ toplanetary discs, demonstrating the well timed for the beginning of the era mental physics, and to provide a per­ potential for finding new species (up to of observations of gamma-ray burst after- spective for future scientific challenges. 50% of lines are unidentified). High-mass glows. The seminal object 1998bw, The workshop is summarised. star formation in clusters was presented a supernova (SN) associated with a weak by Guido Garay (Universidad de Chile) gamma-ray burst and extensively ob­­ who highlighted the contributions of the served by ESO telescopes, began the The five-day workshop ambitiously Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope exploration of the now fruitful SN– c­overed a vast range of topics in optical, (SEST) and more recently the ATLASGAL gamma-ray connection, as reported by infrared and millimetre/submillimetre survey with the Large Bolometer Camera Johan Fynbo (Niels Bohr Institute). astronomy on which ESO telescopes (LABOCA) on the Atacama Pathfinder have concentrated over the last 50 years. Experiment (APEX). Topics ranged from the planets and The Milky Way moons of the Solar System, extrasolar Two invited talks were devoted to the planets, stellar evolution, star clusters, Solar System, one on the planets and The major role that ESO facilities have the Galactic Centre, Galactic structure to moons by Bruno Sicardy (IAP) and played in studies of the Milky Way nearby galaxies, dwarf and giant, to one on small bodies by Pierre Vernazza was covered by Marina Rejkuba (ESO), ­quasars and active galactic nuclei to gal- (ESO). Occultations play an important ranging from large surveys with high axy surveys and the distant Universe. As role in determining the structure of Solar ­resolution spectroscopy dating back to well as focussed contributed talks (21) System bodies by exploiting fast read- the 1980s to the current imaging surveys and poster papers (15), there were invited out modes and also adaptive optics with the survey telescopes VISTA (VVV) reviews (25) covering a broader range imaging with NACO. ESO telescopes and the VST (VPHAS+) and the Gaia– and five plenary talks putting ESO astron- have been instrumental in the detection ESO spectroscopic survey. Pavel Kroupa omy in the widest context. As befits the and characterisation of small bodies — (Bonn) covered the evidence for system- celebratory tone, there were many and comets, asteroids and trans-Neptunian atic variations of the stellar initial mass diverse social activities, from a welcome objects (TNOs). function, demonstrating that ESO facili- reception at ESO on the evening of the ties have made many essential contri­ first afternoon of the workshop, an infor- Stephane Udry (Geneva) reported there butions. Giampaolo Piotto (Padova) mal dinner in a Biergarten in Munich, a were 777 extrasolar planet candidates showed how the old paradigm of a glob- more formal workshop dinner in a restau- at the time of the meeting, of which 715 ular cluster as a single population of rant in Garching, “beer and brezen” in had been detected by the radial velocity ­co-eval stars has been overturned in the auditorium on the penultimate even- technique. The large HARPS allocation favour of globular clusters as an assem- ing and a farewell lunch on the Friday (100 nights/year over five years) has been bly of multiple populations showing ­following the last session. A photograph crucial, with a variety of programmes an Na–O (and Mg–Al) anticorrelation. of the participants is shown on p. 62. ­targeting stars of different types (early- FLAMES in its Medusa modes (130 and late-type, giants and dwarfs, young ­simultaneous single-object spectra) has The contributions are available (in PDF) and older stars). Francois Bouchy (IAP) revolutionised the field and enabled on the conference website1. For the followed with a talk on transiting planets; chemical abundances in many clusters to first time at ESO the proceedings were many detected with the CoRoT satellite be measured. Reinhard Genzel (MPE) webcast and the recordings of each have been followed up with ESO tele- described two decades of high precision presentation are also available on the scopes and instruments. infrared imaging and astrometry on the website. We present a brief summary of Galactic Centre. One of the highlights the topics covered in the plenary and was the observation of a complete orbit invited talks. for the star S2 from 1992–2012 as it ­travels around the central black hole,

64 The Messenger 150 – December 2012 encompassing many NTT and VLT astro- spectroscopy (IFS) with SINFONI at the of quasars using the many-multiplet metric measurements. VLT with adaptive optics has enabled method, the two datasets show evidence the kinematics and structure at 1–2 kpc for a dipole in the sky distribution of Δα/α scales of the star-forming regions to be at 4.1σ level. Nearby galaxies studied. Many more targets will become accessible with KMOS, currently being Dwarf galaxies of the Milky Way and the commissioned on the VLT and in the Instrumentation Local Group were discussed by Eline longer term by E-ELT IFS instruments. ­Tolstoy (Groningen). GIRAFFE and UVES Guy Monnet (CRAL) presented a his­ have provided important data on the Yannick Mellier (IAP) provided an over- torical outline of ESO’s contributions and chemical evolution timescales for these view of gravitational lensing studies, innovations in instrumentation. Sandro galaxies and detailed spectroscopy ­noting that the first quadruple gravitation- D’Odorico (ESO) then went through the of more distant dwarf galaxies will be ally lensed galaxy was detected by the development of instrumentation at ESO, achievable with the European Extremely MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope in 1988 following his close involvement from 1981 Large Telescope (E-ELT). The Magellanic and the redshift determination of the to his emeritus appointment in 2010. Clouds have naturally proved a rich large arc in the galaxy cluster A370 with The instrumentation plan for the VLT was ­pasture for ESO telescopes and they the 3.6-metre. From 1990–1997 ESO defined with the community at an early have explored many of the objects that supported the EROS microlensing survey stage and for the E-ELT the paradigm act as astrophysical probes in these, with the 1.0-metre MarLy telescope at was significantly extended, with ESO the nearest, and lower metallicity galax- La Silla and from 2002–2012 the PLANET coordinating 11 studies for instruments ies, as shown by Carme Gallart (IAC). consortium using the Danish 1.54-metre. and adaptive optics modules, of which Marijn Franx (Leiden) treated ESO’s role two concepts were accepted as first-light Francoise Combes (Observatoire de Paris) in the study of galaxy evolution at high instruments (a diffraction-limited near- discussed observational approaches redshift, highlighting the early influential infrared imager and a single-field near- to understanding the triggering and regu- surveys COMBO-17, a 17-filter imaging infrared wide-band integral-field spectro- larisation of star formation in galaxies. programme with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre graph).

Although H2 is key for star formation it is telescope and the wide-field imager very difficult to observe directly, so CO (WFI), and the K20 survey of extremely is the favoured tracer. ALMA is set to red objects with FORS on the VLT. Plenary talks bring CO and other molecular tracers in normal galaxies at high redshift within the Alvio Renzini (Padova) presented a per- realm of study. Cosmology sonal view on ESO’s important influence on astronomy in Europe, noting that The talk by Mark Sullivan (Oxford) on approval of the VLT was seen as a turning Distant galaxies and clusters supernova cosmology began with an point from small to big science. Large ­historical overview of the first ESO sur- Guaranteed Time Observing (GTO) alloca- The great impact of the VLT on large- veys of SN Type i a as cosmological dis- tions to instrument consortia, Large scale redshift surveys was summarised tance probes, dating from the late 1980s. ­Programmes and most recently Public by Simon Lily (ETH Zurich) who noted More recently VLT observations have Surveys, have led to progress on major that of the ~ 100 000 spectroscopic red- contributed to refining the value of the problems and areas of astrophysics. shifts to z > ~ 1 about two thirds are cosmological equation of state parame- These large programmes typically pro- from the VLT. We are currently in a golden ter, w, whose value seems to be very duce a larger impact per night, in terms age for the exploration of the distant close to –1 (­Einstein’s cosmological con- of papers and citations, compared to ­Universe. Linda Tacconi (MPE) showed stant). Absorption lines arising in the dif- small programmes. how ESO is perfectly tuned to answer fuse intergalactic medium and dense many of the big questions in cosmic star interstellar medium along the line of sight Massimo Tarenghi (ESO) gave an enthu­ formation history and ALMA will open to ­quasars were considered by Patrick siastic talk on the history of the ESO up the field of mapping the rotation Petitjean (IAP). The spectrum of the first observatories from the 3.6-metre to the curves of disc galaxies at z ~ 1. Active quasar was obtained in 1962, but it was NTT (for which he was Project Manager) galactic nuclei (AGN) have been known not until the commissioning of UVES on at La Silla, to the VLT (where Massimo from around the time of the signing of the VLT in 1998 that extensive surveys was the first Director) and onwards to the ESO convention and, as Carlos de of quasar absorption lines took off at ALMA (where he also served as Director). Breuck (ESO) showed, their increased ESO. Michael Murphy (Swinburne) con- numbers and luminosities at higher sidered the astronomical evidence that Richard Ellis (Caltech) presented a talk on z made them ideal targets with which to the fundamental constants (in particular the global impact of ESO. In its formative investigate galaxies. Natascha Förster- the fine structure constantα ) are varying years (1962–1986) ESO showed a strong Schreiber (MPE) described spatially throughout the Universe. Based on high- diversity of high performance instrumen- resolved studies of the kinematics and resolution spectra with UVES (153 absorb- tation including the infrared, pioneered structure of early galaxies. Integral field ers) and HIRES on Keck (142 absorbers) by the late Alan Moorwood. The NTT era

The Messenger 150 – December 2012 65 Astronomical News Walsh J. et al., Report on the workshop “ESO@50 — The First 50 Years of ESO”

(1986–1996) was based not only on the success of this innovative new telescope, but also planning of the VLT and expan- sion of instrumentation at La Silla includ- ing the SEST, which initiated ESO’s route into the submillimetre. For the VLT era (1998–present), he compared some of the science cases in 1997 with those achieved with the VLT and demonstrated that new telescopes achieve far more than their original science cases. He closed by looking forward to the Extremely Large Telescope era with the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the E-ELT.

Bruno Leibundgut (ESO) examined the synergies between ground- and space- based observatories. Examples of the ­relative advantages of ground versus space measurements were made and the example of SN1987A was used to show how a multi-wavelength approach is Figure 1. The Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, out- likely the exoplanet field will continue to essential to arrive at a fuller picture of the lining future perspectives for ESO at the conference. be a high priority one. Technology devel- many features of the evolving supernova opments should be harnessed to improve remnant. The presence of the Space and extend the capability of instruments. ­Telescope European Co-ordinating Facil- in 2013 with the aim to finalise the white This assumes, of course, that society ity, which was hosted by ESO from 1984 paper by end of 2013. continues to be interested in scientific to 2010, provided many synergistic bene- advancement; outreach has a role to play fits with prac- here. ESO operates within a world astro- tice and operations, such as operations Closing remarks nomical community and a degree of models and the science archive. In addi- competition in the optical/infrared­ field is tion, the link with the European Space Tim de Zeeuw summarised ESO’s mis- healthy for future progress. Agency improved coordination of ground sion and accomplishments during the and space missions, such as ground- past half century in developing and oper- Strategically some moderate further based support for the Rosetta and Gaia ating world-class observing facilities growth by the addition of new ESO missions. for astronomical research and organising ­Member States was advocated, and will collaborations (see Figure 1). He then bring added value without leading to Roberto Gilmozzi presented a white provided a perspective for the next 10–15 over-dominance (ESO currently involves paper, for discussion, on Paranal in the years: about 30% of the world astronomical era of the E-ELT, seeking community – keep Paranal as a leading observatory community). ESO’s successful opera- input to the two questions: with an integrated system of VLT, VLTI, tional model should be retained with a – Is the VLT operations model suitable for VST and VISTA; mix of multi-purpose telescopes and the E-ELT? – maintain and upgrade instruments and experiments, in combination with strong – What is the future of the VLT in the next replace them with second generation national programmes and strong con­ decade 2020–2030? instruments; nections between the Observatory and He sketched the facilities considered – add the E-ELT into this system; the in the Member States to be available circa 2025, the instru- – further develop ALMA; (through community involvement and a ments still operating on the VLT and what – continue the fruitful partnership with mix of visitor/service observing modes). the extant scientific questions might be. the community such as, for example, Around the end of the decade a new tele- A range of tactical and strategic options hosting experiments on La Silla, build- scope project could be perhaps contem- were presented. The initial ideas have ing instruments and providing student- plated in close connection with space been presented to the ESO committees — ships and fellowships. observatories and other ground-based the Scientific Technical Committee (STC) astronomy developments. and Council — and internally to ESO The Director General tried to envision astronomers. The aim is to incorporate astronomy 50 years from now, emphasis- feedback in a white paper to be subse- ing that surely new questions will arise Links quently iterated in the next six months, and paradigm shifts will occur in the way 1 ESO@50 workshop programme: http://www.eso.org/ leading to a community-wide workshop astronomy is done in the future, but most sci/meetings/2012/ESOat50/program.html

66 The Messenger 150 – December 2012