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European Southern Observatory (ESO) Since We Last Spoke with You in 2012?

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European Southern Observatory (ESO) Since We Last Spoke with You in 2012? ANALYSIS In an enlightening conversation, ESO European Director-General Professor Tim de Zeeuw catches up with International Innovation, highlighting progress made in the construction Southern and installation of new telescopes and technologies as well as some of the exciting discoveries made by researchers using these Observatory state-of-the-art instruments Could you update International Innovation on what has been happening at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) since we last spoke with you in 2012? It has been a busy and successful period! After the 50th anniversary of the organisation in 2012, the following year marked 50 years of ESO in its host country Chile, which we also celebrated. This has been a fruitful collaboration that continues to strengthen. At the end of 2012, the start of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) programme received full approval from the ESO Council. And in 2013 we inaugurated the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ESO is one of the three international partners, along with North America and East Asia, who built and are now operating this uniquely powerful tool for studying the cool Universe. ALMA has already delivered many exciting results on the planets around nearby stars and right out to galaxies in the early Universe. At ESO’s Headquarters in Garching near Munich, the impressive new extension building was completed and inaugurated. This allows all the staff in Germany to work on a single site. In addition, ESO received a major donation from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung to build an impressive planetarium and visitor centre adjacent to the ESO buildings. This new outreach facility will be called the ESO Supernova. How are planning and construction of the E-ELT progressing? What is your involvement in this endeavour? In October 2013, the President of Chile personally handed over to ESO the deeds to a large tract of land around the E-ELT’s site. Construction of the road to the summit of Cerro Armazones, where the telescope will be sited, started in March this year, and we had a ceremony in June to mark the blasting away of the top of the mountain to make a flat area where construction can proceed. Are there certain discoveries made by ESO scientists that you have been particularly enthused by? Over the last year, there has been a flood of exciting science from early observations with ALMA. The survey telescopes on Paranal are also starting to show their full potential through a growing number of publications. This progress is on top of the continuing scientific productivity of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) itself and its interferometer; and the older, but still very productive facilities at ESO’s first observatory at La Silla. Here are some highlights: ALMA antennae under the Milky Way. © ESO/José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org) WWW.RESEARCHMEDIA.EU 29 ANALYSIS • ALMA has been probing how and when stars are formed in galaxies What are the benefits and challenges of ESO inherently relying on near and far, and in particular how star formation seems to be large-scale international collaboration? switched on and off, and how material flows away from and into galaxies. This is a key ALMA science area and the early results are ESO has shown itself to be very effective at delivering large-scale science exceeding expectations infrastructure, serving the needs and interests of Member States on scales not possible nationally. A treaty-level organisation such as ESO has the • Closer to home, ALMA has made the crucial discovery of a ‘dust trap’: long-term stability and planning ability, as well as ample resources, to a region in the dusty disc around a young star where particles are being build the largest facilities on the planet. ALMA is a good example of how concentrated. This region is a vital step in the formation of planets that multiple organisations can take the next step and collaborate globally. had not been observed directly before With experience designing and implementing some of the largest • Exoplanets are also being discovered and studied using the High astronomy projects ever considered, you are ideally placed to offer Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument on La wisdom to those behind the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Have you Silla. This field is now moving from the discovery of individual objects been approached by a SKA delegation with regard to collaboration? to the study of multi-planet systems and the statistics of planetary systems throughout the Galaxy It is clear that a big-science facility like SKA has a lot in common with the world-class facilities that ESO is operating and constructing at the • The VLT was used to make the first map of the surface of a recently moment. ESO is in regular discussions with SKA and the organisation is discovered brown dwarf – a small, cool ‘failed star’ – just 6 light years keen to help them build what will be an extraordinary tool for astronomy from Earth in future decades. Several of our staff are working closely with their astronomers and engineers. • Another recent first for the VLT was the use of the CRyogenic high- resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) to measure the spin of an exoplanet for the first time www.eso.org To read International Innovation’s 2012 interview with Professor Tim de Zeeuw, please visit: www.research-europe.com/index.php/2012/12/professor-tim-de-zeeuw- director-general-european-southern-observatory Rare 360° panorama of the southern sky. © ESO/H H Heyer European Space Agency Arvind Parmar, Coordinator for Astronomy and Fundamental Physics Missions, talks about the Agency’s Science Programme which aims to answer some of the most basic and profound questions about human existence, as well as emphasising the importance of collaboration to all ESA space science Artist’s impression of Gaia. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S Brunier 30 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION ANALYSIS Could you begin by introducing the European Space Agency (ESA)’s European industry with no obvious success. However, this process ensures Science Programme and highlighting its most recent achievements? that only the very best and most scientifically worthwhile missions ever What makes Europe well positioned to carry out this Programme? get built, and this is at the heart of what we are striving to achieve in the Science Programme. The Science Programme is one of ESA’s few ‘mandatory’ programmes. This means that all our 20 Member States take part and their scientists and industries can participate in the activities. Space science is always pushing the limits of science and technology, and by pooling resources and expertise individual European nations are able to achieve much more than they could on their own. This allows Europe to play in the Premier League of space science, helping strengthen European cooperation, innovation and competitiveness. It is worth noting that most of our missions are partnerships between ESA and Member State entities. ESA is normally responsible for the spacecraft, launch and part of the operations, while universities and research institutes Artist’s impression in the Member States provide the payloads and the remaining science of Euclid Beauty. operations. However, the scientific results coming from our missions are Credit: ESA – C made available to the worldwide scientific community, just as the results Carreau; background: from NASA scientific missions are available to European scientists. NASA, ESA, CXC, C Ma, H Ebeling and E Barrett (University Our most recent achievement was clearly the last launch! This was Gaia of Hawaii/IfA), et al. in December of last year. Gaia will map the 3D structure of the Milky Way and STScI and reveal its composition, formation and evolution. Gaia will provide unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements of about 1 billion stars. The next highlight will be worth waiting for too! This will be the arrival of Rosetta at comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August ESA’S COSMIC VISION 2014 and the deployment of the Philae lander in November 2014. What are the ESA Science Programme’s objectives? ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are in the initial stages of planning a joint scientific space mission. What developments The Science Programme has always played a prominent role in have been made so far toward this? How important is international Europe’s space programme and has been at the core of many of collaboration to progress in space science and exploration? the successes in space since the early 1960s. The Horizon 2000 long-term plan, which included the Cassini-Huygens mission, was This is a very exciting development! We have been talking to CAS for some prepared in 1984. Horizon 2000 Plus was drawn up in 1994-95 time and are progressing towards issuing a joint call for a small scientific and has come to fruition with the highly advanced scientific mission, perhaps later this year. As a first step, CAS hosted a meeting in satellites which are producing today’s exciting results. The current Chengdu, China, in February 2014 attended by more than 100 scientists, long-term objectives of the Science Programme were set out in of which around 40 came from Europe. The idea was to present initial 2005 in the Cosmic Vision plan. This posed four questions that ideas for potential joint missions and to start the process of collaboration future missions should address: between Chinese and European teams. There were several very interesting missions presented that may be compatible with the constraints of a • What are the conditions for planetary formation and the ‘small’ mission. emergence of life? The next step will be to have a second meeting, this time in Copenhagen, • How does the Solar System work? Denmark, in September, where these ideas can be further elaborated and collaborations strengthened.
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