European Southern Observatory

European Southern Observatory

The European Southern Observatory (ESO; formally the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. Observatoire européen austral, in French ) is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs around 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately 143 million Euros. Its observatories are in northern Chile.

ESO has built and operated some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes in the world. These include the New Technology Telescope (NTT) that pioneered active optics technology, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), consisting of four 8-metre-class telescopes and four 1.8-metre auxiliary telescopes. Currently on-going ESO projects include the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

ALMA is a revolutionary facility for the observation of the Universe in the millimeter/submillimetre range of radiation and is the largest ground-based astronomy project in existence. Its construction is well under way, being scheduled to be completed in 2013. The ALMA project is an international collaboration between Europe (represented by ESO), East Asia, North America and the Republic of Chile.

The E-ELT is a 40-metre class telescope that is currently in detailed design phase and will be the world's largest optical/near-infrared telescope. The light-gathering power of this telescope will allow detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first objects in the Universe, super-massive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the Universe. ESO has been working together with its user community of European astronomers and astrophysicists to define this new giant telescope since the end of 2005.

ESO's observing facilities have made important astronomical discoveries and produced several astronomical catalogues. Recent findings include the discovery of the farthest gamma-ray burst and the evidence for a black hole at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In 2004, the VLT allowed astronomers to obtain the first picture of an extrasolar planet, 2M1207b, orbiting a brown dwarf 173 light-years away. The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument, installed in another ESO telescope, led to the discovery of many other extrasolar planets, including Gliese 581c, one of the smallest planets outside the Solar System found to date.