Europe's Quest for the Universe - Laboratoires de Recherche

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Total reflecting surface area in m2 of fully steerable telescopes/number of members of the International Astronomical Union (divided by 10) Development of European Astronomy 19 1000 100 10 1 1900 1950 2000 Year Figure I, 3. Astronomers and telescopes. The total reflecting surface area in m 2 of fully steerable telescopes for the world (green) and for Europe (blue) compared to the number of members of the International Astronomical Union (divided by 10, in red) for different years. Exponential growth is noticeable in all, though now the numbers of IAU members are beginning to flatten off. It is seen that after the war Europe had fallen far behind in telescope construction, but that by now it has caught up again. The cross indicates what would be the result of the construction of OWL (Chapter VIII). overall employment increased and more continuing appointments were available but now long term positions are not easy to find, and a large number of postdocs are floating around from one temporary position to the next. Some ultimately quit and take jobs in industry or government. Young astronomers tend to be well qualified in subjects like programming, image processing and the handling of large data sets. In addition, they are used to
20 Europe’s quest for the Universe arrive at conclusions concerning systems about which insufficient information is available. So, at least in some European countries, they fit relatively easily into jobs in insurance, banking and government planning offices. For example, in Holland two out of three people with a degree in astronomy wind up in nonastronomical positions. There is nothing wrong with this, but it implies that astronomy education should not be too narrow. Of course, some astronomers also become science teachers in high school. Nevertheless, one may wonder if the postdoc system has not been overstretched. Especially at a time when alternative jobs become also more difficult to obtain, the prospects become so uncertain that many of the more perspicacious students may choose other directions. To summarize, there thus were three phases. Till the early years of the 20th century astronomy was largely a European affair. During the subsequent decades, the American dominance was established partly by a better funding situation and also by the unfortunate developments in Europe which paralyzed research and caused many prominent researchers to leave, never to return. After the war ended European astronomy began a slow recovery process which accelerated in the seventies and eighties. By now Europe has reached again a position of equality in most astronomical fields and leadership in some. Two fundamental factors have contributed to this: a well educated pool of young talent and nearly adequate funding. If these would begin to be lacking, a decline would be rapid. In this respect, some fears for the future are justified. At the political level in Europe there is much talk about the “knowledge based economy”, while at the same time the financial underpinnings of such an economy are being weakened. Besides, the evolution of high schools and universities is not always encouraging. So what around 1975 were the main problems that the world astronomical community perceived as essential to tackle, and which have shaped astronomical technology in the subsequent decades? Perhaps clearest was that only a very small part of the Universe had been surveyed. A few quasars at larger redshifts were already known, but since they were not understood, they did not yet help much in cosmological studies. The key to further progress was the ability to observe fainter galaxies at greater distances and also fainter stars in our own Galaxy. Second, it was also evident that we had only a very washed out view of astronomical objects ranging from remote galaxies to the planets. Much of the essential physics would only be seen when angular resolution would be improved by better observational techniques or in the case of our solar system by in situ studies. Third, we had seen enough to realize that the view at visible wavelengths was very incomplete. More satisfactory radio observations were in sight, but in the IR, X- and γ-rays and in the study of particles like neutrinos or of gravitational waves we had just scratched the surface sufficiently to know that our ignorance was complete. Thus, the trio that since then has dominated progress was increased sensitivity, increased angular resolution and increased wavelength coverage.
Page 1 and 2: Europe's Quest for the Universe Lod
Page 3 and 4: Cover: THE VLT Array on the Paranal
Page 6 and 7: Preface What a magnificent title,
Page 8: Acknowledgements First of all I wou
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Page 13 and 14: 10 Europe’s quest for the Univers
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Page 28 and 29: II. ESO, La Silla, the 3.6-m Telesc
Page 30 and 31: ESO, La Silla, the 3.6 m Telescope
Page 46 and 47: III. Origin of the VLT Project; The
Page 48 and 49: Origin of the VLT Project; The NTT
Page 62 and 63: IV. Technological, Financial and Sc
Page 64 and 65: Technological, Financial and Scient
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V. Construction of the VLT Could we
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Construction of the VLT 71 contract
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Construction of the VLT 73 of the p
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Construction of the VLT 75 Figure V
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Construction of the VLT 77 The desi
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Construction of the VLT 79 Agreemen
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Construction of the VLT 81 to 272 M
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Construction of the VLT 83 telescop
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Construction of the VLT 85 Supporte
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88 Europe’s quest for the Univers
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Figure VI, 3. Map of northern Chile
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100 Europe’s quest for the Univer
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VII. The VLT Observatory: Adaptive
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The VLT Observatory 111 effects. Ho
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The VLT Observatory 113 member coun
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The VLT Observatory 115 Table VII,
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The VLT Observatory 117 the NTT and
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Interferometry The VLT Observatory
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The VLT Observatory 121 Figure VII,
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VIII. Ground and Space Based Optica
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Ground and Space Based Optical Tele
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HST and VLT Ground and Space Based
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HST and VLT are complementary. Beca
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seeing conditions prevail; the latt
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IX. Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA A
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 141 a
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 143 w
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at Jodrell Bank. Baselines range up
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science remains compelling. We stil
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 149 A
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 151 w
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ALMA Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 155 F
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 157 S
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Radio Astronomy; ALMA and SKA 159 o
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CLUSTER DOUBLE STAR 1 9 9 0 2 0 0 0
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XIII. European Space Missions: The
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European Space Missions: The Sun an
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XIV. Astroparticles and Gravitation
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Log +5 F (>E) 0 -5 -10 -15 Astropar
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Astroparticles and Gravitational Wa
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XV. Looking for Planets and Life in
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Looking for Planets and Life in the
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XIX. Epilogue …entre européens d
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Introduction 1) ESO, Garching, 1991
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Chapter V; Most notes refer to docu
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27) E. Carrasco, R. Avila, A. Carra
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NASA (-1/2 “research”) ESA × 1
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Missions”. An excellent review on
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Acronyms and Concepts - A - A Austr
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CDS 1. Coronal Diagnostic Spectrome
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EGRET Energetic Gamma-Ray Experimen
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HALCA Japanese satellite with radio
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La Palma island of the Canary Islan
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O2 O3 - O - Odin molecular oxygen o
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SN supernova SNO Sudbury Neutrino O
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- W - Wetzel site in Germany WFPC W
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Photo credits p. 10 ESO I 1 ESO 2 J
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