Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen EUROPE TO THE STARS ESO’S FIRST 50 YEARS OF EXPLORING THE SOUTHERN SKY DVD movie inside EUROPE TO THE STARS ESO’S FIRST 50 YEARS OF EXPLORING THE SOUTHERN SKY Europe to the Stars — All rights reserved (including those of translation into ESO’s First 50 Years of Exploring the Southern Sky other languages). No part of this book may be reproduced in any form – by photoprinting, microfilm, or any other The Authors means – nor transmitted or translated into a machine Govert Schilling & Lars Lindberg Christensen language without written permission from the publishers. Registered names, trademarks, etc. used in this book, Design & Layout even when not specifically marked as such, are not to be ESO education and Public Outreach Department considered unprotected by law. André Roquette & Francesco Rossetto Printed and binding Himmer AG, Augsburg, Germany Printed on acid-free paper ISBN: 978-3-527-41192-4 All books published by Wiley-VCH are carefully pro- duced. Nevertheless, authors, editors, and publisher do Cover and back not warrant the information contained in these books, The VLT including this book, to be free of errors. Readers are This photograph taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Babak advised to keep in mind that statements, data, illustra- Tafreshi, captures the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) tions, procedural details or other items may inadvertently against a beautiful twilight sky on Cerro Paranal. A VLT be inaccurate. enclosure stands out in the picture as the tele scope is readied for a night studying the Universe. The VLT is the Library of Congress Card No. world’s most powerful optical telescope, consisting of Applied for four Unit Telescopes with primary mirrors of 8.2-metre diameter and four movable 1.8-metre Auxiliary Tele- British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data scopes, which can be seen on the back of the cover. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Over the past 13 years, the VLT has had a huge impact on British Library. observational astronomy. With the advent of the VLT, the European astronomical community has experienced a Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche new age of discoveries, most notably, the tracking of the Nationalbibliothek stars orbiting the Milky Way’s central black hole and the The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in first image of an extrasolar planet. the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at <http://dnb.d-nb.de>. Back, top © 2012 European Southern Observatory & Wiley-VCH Heavenly wonders Verlag & Co. KGaA, Boschstr. 12, 69469 Weinheim, A selection of spectacular images made with ESO’s Germany telescopes. 2 ESO — Reaching New Heights in Astronomy 3 6 8 10 Foreword Preface 1. Setting the Scene 20 30 60 2. The Birth of ESO 3. In the Saddle 4. Cosmic Voyage 82 112 142 5. The Paranal Miracle 6. The Soul of ALMA 7. Bridging Borders 158 174 190 8. Catching the Light 9. The Desert Country 10. Giant Eye on the Sky 212 248 252 Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Image Credits ESO’s Telescopes ESO Timeline 256 262 264 Index Further Reading About the Movie 5 Foreword The signing of the ESO Convention in 1962 and the cre- In 2012, our 50th anniversary year, we are ready to enter a ation of ESO was the culmination of the dream of lead- new era, one that not even the initial bold dreams of ESO’s ing astronomers from five European countries, Belgium, founding members could have anticipated. It is undoubt- France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden: a joint edly a most exciting time that we live in. It is a pleasure to European observatory to be built in the southern hemi- thank everyone involved in making the ESO dream come sphere to give astronomers from Europe access to the true: to the ESO staff for their professionalism, ingenuity magnificent and rich southern sky by means of a large and passion, to Council and Committee members and tele scope. The dream resulted in the creation of the the former Directors General for leading the observatory La Silla Observatory near La Serena in Chile and even- to new heights in astronomy. And to the public, educa- tually led to the construction and operation of a fleet of tors and media who on a daily basis take part in ESO’s telescopes, with the 3.6-metre telescope as flagship. As discoveries. Italy and Switzerland joined ESO in 1982 the construc- tion of the New Technology Telescope, with pioneering The year 2012 is also a time to congratulate all our Mem- advances in active optics, became possible, preparing the ber States. The five founding members have been joined way for the next step: the construction of the Very Large by Denmark (1967), Switzerland (1982), Italy (1982), Por- Telescope. The VLT made adaptive optics and interfer- tugal (2001), the United Kingdom (2002), Finland (2004), ometry available to a wide community. Spain (2007), the Czech Republic (2007), Austria (2009), and Brazil, who will become the 15th, as well as the first The decision to build a fully integrated VLT system, con- non-European, Member State after parliamentary ratifi- sisting of four 8.2-metre telescopes and providing a dozen cation of the Accession Agreement signed in December foci for a carefully thought-out complement of instruments 2010. The Member States have adhered to ESO’s coura- opened a new era in ESO’s history. The combination of a geous plans to lead ground-based astronomy, and offer long-term, adequately-funded instrument and technology us constant support and top-level people. Together these development plan, with an approach where instruments 15 countries contain approximately 30% of the world’s are built in collaboration with institutions in the Member astronomers, and by now ESO is the most productive States, and with in-kind contributions in labour compen- ground-based observatory in the world supplying data sated by guaranteed observing time, has created the most for more than 750 scientific papers per year. advanced ground-based optical observatory in the world. The scientific community is to be congratulated for keep- Today, in 2012, the original hopes of the five founding ing astronomy at the forefront of scientific research, as members have not only become reality but ESO has fully well as our supporters and international partners for taken up the challenge of its mission to design, build and believing in our ambitious projects. ESO owes its suc- operate the most powerful ground-based observing facili- cess in a large part to these collaborations! ties on the planet. On the Chajnantor Plateau in Northern Chile, together with North American and East Asian part- Welcome to the world of ESO! ners, ESO is developing the biggest ground-based astro- nomical project in existence, the Atacama Large Millim- eter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). And ESO is starting to build the world’s biggest eye on the sky, the European The VLT at work Extremely Large Telescope. Tim de Zeeuw The Very Large Telescope with galaxies Messier 31 ESO Director General (left middle) and Messier Garching, June 2012 33 (top left) as backdrop. 6 7 Preface As part of the celebration of its 50th anniversary, this book A big thank you also goes to Andre Roquette, Francesco paints a portrait of the European Southern Observatory in Rossetto, Jutta Boxheimer, Mafalda Martins and Kristine accessible text and stunning images. Although it presents Omandap from ESO’s education and Public Outreach some historic detail, it is not meant to be a formal history Department for the wonderful design of the book, as well of ESO. Rather, we have focus sed on ESO’s achievements as to Mathieu Isidro for the hard work of updating ESO’s — on the magnificent telescopes and instruments that timeline. Many other individuals from this department, enthral anyone visiting them, and on the scientific break- including Hännes Heyer, have also made a major effort, throughs that they regularly produce. Our visual journey and have helped to put together a treasure trove of more tries to give a feel for ESO as a scientific organisation and than 7000 photos online over the past four years. We to present a cross-section of the many parts that combine are especially indebted to the world-class photographers in making it the successful endeavour that it is. who have provided material for this book, most nota- bly ESO Photo Ambassadors Babak Tafreshi, Christoph In a book like this, it is impossible to cover the topic com- Malin, José Francisco Salgado, Serge Brunier, Stéphane pletely, and also to describe the many wonderful scientific Guisard, Gerhard Hüdepohl, Gianluca Lombardi, Yuri and engineering breakthroughs made outside the ESO- Beletsky and Gabriel Brammer. These photographers sphere. It is equally not possible to give proper credit to have also in part delivered stunning time-lapse footage the many people who deserve it. The limited space has for the 60-minute movie that accompanies this book. Max only allowed us to introduce the Directors General who Alexander took the wonderful portraits of unsung ESO have been at the helm of ESO. Anyone interested in a heroes for the book, for which we are thankful. much more comprehensive history of ESO should read Jewel on the Mountaintop by Claus Madsen (see p. 254), published together with this book, as the other half of Govert Schilling & Lars Lindberg Christensen what can really be seen as a complementary set. We have Amersfoort, the Netherlands & Garching bei München, however made space to show some of the many unsung Germany, June 2012 heroes who usually remain invisible, but who represent the cement that holds the organisation together.