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ESO: 50 years of space observations
Article written by Théo Pirard On 5 October 1962, a new organisation saw the light of day in Europe: ESO, which stands for the European Southern Observatory. The European Southern Observatory was born. That day, its birth certificate – the ESO Convention – was signed by six countries: Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Although the UK didn’t confirm its membership until 40 years later! It took a decade of discussions between scientists and politicians for this idea of a European observatory for the community of astronomers and astrophysicists to take shape. The University of Liège played a pioneering role in it and was soon joined by Liège’s space industry.
Heading for the magnificent skies of the Southern HemisphereThe creation of ESO met two objectives: to make Europe a global reference in astronomy and astrophysics, and to explore the southern universe with high performance tools. These two objectives have been achieved without a doubt! The Atacama Desert in Chile – chosen over South Africa - was to provide ESO with sites of a unique quality thanks to the local geography that is so particular to the Atacama Desert, wedged between the Andes and the Pacific. These sites have more than 300 clear nights a year and the atmospheric stability there is such that it is possible to take images of exceptional quality. In exchange, Chilean astronomers were to be given 10% of the observation time. Three ESO observatories are currently based in northern Chile: the first one is the La Silla observatory in the Serena region at 2,400 m (first observations made in 1966), then Paranal (2,600m) with its four giant telescopes 8 m in diameter in the Antofagasta region (first light in 1998), and more recently in Chajnantor, a plateau at an altitude of almost 5,400 m (whose construction began in 2005) in the San Pedro de Atacama region. ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) is currently being deployed at the last site, following the APEX prototype (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment): it is a vast radio telescope which will be comprised of 66 satellite dishes (54 with a diameter of 12 m, and 12 with 7 m), when the works are finished in 2014, to listen to the sky in the submillimetric domain. The cost of this project – which is a partnership with the United States (NRAO) and Japan (NAOJ) – is in the region of a billion dollars. Once combined, these satellite dishes will form the most powerful radio interferometer in the world. Its construction will be complete in 2012, but it is already making hitherto unseen observations 24/24, since the observations can also be made during the day. ![]() Besides the five founding countries, there is also Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. |
© 2007 ULi�ge
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