Europäische Südsternwarte

Info

The official page of the European Southern Observatory, the world's most productive ground-based observatory. Follow us also at http://twitter.com/ESO

Geschichte

ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of even more powerful observing facilities.
ESO has enabled the first picture of a planet around another star, measured the distance to the most remote object ever found, found the largest solar system yet around another star and contributed to the discovery of the Universe’s accelerating expansion due to the elusive dark energy.

Unsere Aufgabe

To develop and operate world-class observing facilities for astronomical research in the Southern Hemisphere, and to organise collaborations in astronomy.

Produkte

ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced optical instrument and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the largest survey telescope in existence and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky". The ESO Headquarters are in Garching near Munich, Germany.