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ESO European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere Annual Report 2006 presented to the Council by the Director General Dr. Catherine Cesarsky
About ESO ESO is the foremost intergovernmental European Science and Technology organisation in the field of ground-based astrophysics. It is supported by 1 countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The Czech Republic is currently in the process of joining ESO (Status as of 31.1 . 006). Further countries have expressed interest in membership. Created in 196 , ESO provides state-ofthe-art research facilities to European astronomers and astrophysicists. In pursuit of this task, ESO’s activities cover a wide spectrum including the design and construction of world-class groundbased observational facilities for the member-state scientists, large telescope projects, design of innovative scientific instruments, developing new and advanced technologies, furthering European cooperation and carrying out European educational programmes. ESO operates the La Silla Paranal Observatory at several sites in the Atacama Desert region of Chile. The first site is at La Silla, a 400 m high mountain 600 km north of Santiago de Chile. It is equipped with several optical telescopes with mirror diameters of up to 3.6 metres. The 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) was the first in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror. Whilst La Silla remains one of the scientifically most productive observing sites in the world, the 600 m high Paranal site with the Very Large Telescope array (VLT) is the flagship facility of European astronomy. Paranal is situated about 130 km south of Antofagasta in Chile, 1 km inland from the Pacific Coast in what is probably the driest area in the world. Scientific operations began in 1999 and have resulted in a high number of extremely successful research programmes. The VLT is a most unusual telescope, based on the latest technology. It is not just one, but an array of four telescopes, each with a main mirror of 8. -m diameter. With one such telescope, images of celestial objects as faint as magnitude 30 have been obtained in a one-hour exposure. This corresponds to seeing objects that are four billion times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye. ESO Annual Report 006 One of the most exciting features of the VLT is the possibility to use it as a giant optical interferometer (VLT Interferometer or VLTI). This is done by combining the light from several of the telescopes, including one or more of four 1.8-m moveable Auxiliary Telescopes. In the interferometric mode, one can reach the resolution on the sky that would be obtained with a telescope of the size of the separation between the most distant of the combined mirrors. Artist’s impression of a part of ALMA on Chajnantor. The . -m, the 3.5-m NTT and the 3.6-m telescopes at La Silla. In 006, over 1700 proposals were made for the use of ESO telescopes. They have resulted in a large number of peerreviewed publications. In 006, 630 refereed papers based on data from ESO telescopes were published. ESO is also a major partner in the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the largest ground-based astronomy projects of the next decade.
Page 4: ALMA will be comprised of a main ar
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Page 9 and 10: ture early in 007. The 3 -CCD-mosai
Page 11 and 12: Research Highlights In 006 ESO agai
Page 13 and 14: Trio of Neptunes and their Belt A m
Page 15 and 16: Watching How Planets Form The disc
Page 17 and 18: Stellar Vampires Unmasked Some hot,
Page 19 and 20: To Be or Not to Be: Is It All About
Page 21 and 22: How to Steal a Million Stars? In an
Page 23 and 24: Cut from Different Cloth A large su
Page 25 and 26: Long-lasting but Dim Brethren of Co
Page 27 and 28: The Invisible Galaxies That Could N
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Page 31 and 32: La Silla Paranal Observatory In 006
Page 33 and 34: APEX Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) deve
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Page 39 and 40: Atacama Large Millimeter/submillime
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Page 47 and 48: The activities within the EU FP6-su
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Personnel Services The ‘Five-Year
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The Adaptive Optics Facility The AO
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tember following successful tests o
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Opto-Mechanics During 006, several
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Science Archive Operation The Scien
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The European Virtual Observatory Th
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64 ESO Annual Report 006 Open House
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generated huge media attention worl
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ESO Press Releases ESO Press Photo
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Relations with Chile The year 006 m
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European Affairs European Affairs a
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The ESO Council in session on 6 Dec
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The Scientific Technical Committee
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five-mirror option, which they cons
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ESO Annual Report 006 81
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Public Surveys Surveys provide larg
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85 ESO Annual Report 006 Percentage
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Bedding, T. R.; Butler, R. P.; Carr
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Cucciati, O.; Iovino, A.; Marinoni,
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Förster Schreiber, N. M.; Franx, M
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Jehin, E.; Manfroid, J.; Hutseméke
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Masetti, N.; Bassani, L.; Bazzano,
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Piconcelli, E.; Sánchez-Portal, M.
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Sodani, S.; Hickson 6 . I. Kinemati
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Additional peer-reviewed publicatio
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Bragaglia, A.; Tosi, M.; Andreuzzi,
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Financial Statement Financial State
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June First spectra on-sky obtained
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Glossary of Frequently Used Acronym
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ESO Europe Headquarters Karl-Schwar
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