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German Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space, German dignitaries visit ESO’s Paranal Observatory

6 February 2026: Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space of Germany, Markus Blume, Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts, Thomas Reiter, Director General ‘Space and Security’, Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space of Germany, and a high-profile delegation — including Patrick Cramer, President of the Max Planck Society — have completed a visit to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Northern Chile, home to some of the most advanced ground-based telescopes in the world. The visit provided an excellent opportunity for the Ministers and the delegation to experience Paranal, its facilities and its stunning dark skies in person, following a visit to ESO Headquarters and the ESO Supernova Planetarium and Visitor Centre last year. On 4 February, ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons together with Andreas Kaufer, ESO’s Director of Operations and Director General designate, welcomed Federal Minister Bär, State Minister Blume and the rest of the delegation to the ...

ann26001 — Announcement

BlueMUSE: ESO signs agreement for new instrument on the VLT

30 January 2026: Today, ESO has signed the agreement for the construction of the Blue Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (BlueMUSE), an upcoming instrument for ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The signing marks a major first step in the development of BlueMUSE , which will offer new and unique science opportunities to astronomers. Its evolved technology will enable detailed observations within our galaxy, helping study targets as varied as massive stars, nebulae and comets. It will also revolutionise the study of the distant Universe by allowing the detection of the diffuse material in the space between galaxies and helping us understand how matter moves within it. Earlier today, ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons and Céline Reylé, the Deputy Director for Science for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), signed the BlueMUSE agreement at the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany. The CNRS’s Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL ...

annlang26001-es-cl-en — Announcement

Winners announced for the ESO–Chile 2025 Joint Committee

13 January 2026: The ESO–Government of Chile Joint Committee has announced 16 winning projects from the 2025 call, which will distribute more than 600 million Chilean pesos in initiatives dedicated to supporting astronomy dissemination and education projects in Chile, and supporting astronomy post-doctoral programmes in Chilean institutions. This year 98 eligible proposals were received. Almost 44% of the applications funded were proposals for the dissemination and education on astronomy, while 38% fall on supporting astronomical post-doctoral programmes and technology development projects in Chilean institutions. “This fund has been an instrumental tool for the development of astronomy in Chile, not only for supporting academic positions in Chilean universities and technological development related to astronomy, but also for its dissemination. In the next years this will be a very important area for the Chilean community, with the upcoming celebration of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly in 2030 in Chile,” said Itziar de Gregorio ...

ann25011 — Announcement

New SOXS instrument ready to observe fleeting cosmic events

16 December 2025: ESO’s new facility, SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter), has successfully made its first observations at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The spectrograph can be flexibly and rapidly scheduled to make observations of time-critical astronomical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and asteroids passing close to Earth. From its new home on ESO’s 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT, pictured above), SOXS is a unique spectrograph that can be used to quickly observe transient cosmic events, at large distances or closer to home. Designed to see, simultaneously, in both optical and near-infrared wavelengths, SOXS is inspired by the X-shooter instrument currently operating on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. “SOXS was conceived 10 years ago in view of what is now called time-domain astronomy,” says the project’s Principal Investigator Sergio Campana of the Brera Astronomical Observatory, Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). “After years of hard work, we are now positioned to play a ...

ann25010 — Announcement

ESO becomes a partner in the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky

10 December 2025: Yesterday, ESO signed an agreement with the International Astronomy Union (IAU)’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky (CPS) to become a contributing partner. The agreement was signed by the ESO Director General Xavier Barcons and Piero Benvenuti, IAU CPS Director during a high-level event on the protection of astronomical sites in Vienna. “This signing underscores ESO’s unwavering commitment to the protection of the sky above astronomical observatory sites. We are proud to join our partners at the IAU CPS in the fight against light pollution and satellite interference,” Barcons said. Remote locations with pristine dark skies, ideal for most astronomical observations, are increasingly at risk from light pollution due to the urban growth of cities and industrial complexes near the observatories. An acute example is the threat of INNA, an industrial project planned to be located just a few kilometres away from the telescopes of ...

ann25009 — Announcement

Eminent astronomers worldwide appeal for the protection of the Paranal skies

2 December 2025: Award-winning researchers from around the world have written an open letter to the Chilean Government appealing for the protection of the dark skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory. The site, the best place for astronomy on the planet, is currently threatened by the large-scale industrial complex INNA, from the AES Andes company, which is planned to be located just a few kilometres from Paranal’s telescopes. Earlier this year, ESO conducted a detailed analysis on the impact of INNA, which showed that, at its planned location, the project would cause severe, irreversible damage to the Paranal’s dark skies and to the capacity of its facilities (such as the Very Large Telescope [VLT], the VLT Interferometer [VLTI], and the Extremely Large Telescope [ELT]) to operate as designed. The most significant impacts would be caused by light pollution and micro-vibrations. The open letter, led by Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Genzel and signed by nearly ...

ann25008 — Announcement

ESO signs agreement for MOSAIC instrument on the ELT

1 December 2025: Today, ESO has signed an agreement with a large international consortium for the design and construction of the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOSAIC), an instrument for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Able to measure the light from more than two hundred sources at the same time, MOSAIC will be used to trace the growth of galaxies and the distribution of matter from the Big Bang to the present day. The agreement was signed by ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons and Alain Schuhl, the Deputy CEO for Science at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the institution leading the MOSAIC consortium. Also in attendance were the MOSAIC Principal Investigator Roser Pello from Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory and Co-Principal Investigator Mathieu Puech from the Paris Observatory, in addition to other dignitaries from ESO, CNRS and the MOSAIC consortium [1]. The signing took place at the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany. MOSAIC is a ...

ann25007 — Announcement

Thousands of eyes on the sky: 4MOST sees first light

21 October 2025: Over the weekend, the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) successfully completed its first test observations. Installed on the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), an ESO telescope in Chile, 4MOST is the largest facility of its kind to survey the southern skies. It is expected to capture and analyse the light of more than 25 million different objects during its first five years of operation, to unravel our galactic history, explore the mysteries of dark matter, and investigate the origins of stars, among many other science goals. This instrument is designed to capture the light of thousands of cosmic objects simultaneously, using more than 2400 thin optical fibres, each about the width of a human hair. This light is then directed to three separate spectrographs that split it into up to 18 000 colour components (in the visible light range from violet to red), giving us individual spectra. ...

annlang25002-de-en — Announcement

President of Germany visits ESO’s Headquarters in Garching

2 September 2025: The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, H.E. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, along with a delegation of representatives including the Bavarian State Minister for European and International Affairs, Eric Beißwenger, have concluded a visit to ESO’s Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. The President was provided an opportunity to learn about recent ESO developments, following his visit to ESO sites in Chile in March 2025, in addition to touring engineering and outreach facilities at ESO’s German site. The President, Bavarian State Minister and delegation were welcomed by ESO Director General, Xavier Barcons, and introduced to members of ESO’s top-level management in Garching and in Chile. This group consisted of Claudia Burger, Director of Administration; Andreas Kaufer, Director of Operations; Sara Krauss, Director of Engineering; and Adrian Russell, Director of Programmes. ESO Director General Barcons said: “It’s an honour to welcome Federal President Steinmeier at our headquarters in Garching, Germany, following his ...

ann25006 — Announcement

Final design for new VLT instrument CUBES completed

7 August 2025: The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES), a future instrument for ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), has successfully passed its Final Design Review. With ESO giving the go-ahead to manufacture the instrument, the VLT is one step closer to acquiring a dedicated ultraviolet eye on the sky. CUBES will search for water in the asteroid belt and explore the ultraviolet cosmic background, among other science cases. ESO has now approved the construction of CUBES, a ground-based spectrograph capable of dedicated observations at ultraviolet or UV radiation at 300-400 nm, a region of the light spectrum never before explored with such high sensitivity with large telescopes. Observing in the ultraviolet from the ground is incredibly difficult due to the Earth’s atmosphere blocking most of the photons in this range of light, while space telescopes are typically too small to be able to see far-away and faint objects in this wavelength range. This ...

annlang25005-es-cl-en — Announcement

Joint Committee ESO-Government of Chile opens its national call for proposals for 2025

24 July 2025: The Joint Committee ESO-Government of Chile has opened its national financing fund for 2025, which will award more than 500 million Chilean pesos. The skies of northern Chile provide the best conditions for astronomical observation in the world. For this reason, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has been designing, building, and operating observatories in northern Chile for more than 60 years. La Silla, Paranal, ALMA, and the upcoming CTAO-S and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) are part of ESO's infrastructure, making it the most important organization for ground-based astronomical observation. In order to promote scientific and technological development in Chile through astronomy, ESO and the Chilean government have been funding projects since 1995 that encourage astronomical research, training of highly skilled personnel, technology development, and science education and outreach. ESO finances and administers this annual fund as part of its scientific cooperation program with Chile, the host country for all of ...

ann25005 — Announcement

Contract signed for construction of CTAO-South roads and telescope foundations

3 July 2025: This week, a major contract, worth several million Euros, has been signed between ESO and a consortium of Chilean companies for the construction of telescope foundations for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory’s (CTAO’s) southern hemisphere array (CTAO-South) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The contract includes more than 50 foundations for CTAO-South telescopes, as well as approximately 17 km of roads connecting these foundations to the support facilities. ESO, a founding member of the CTAO European Research Infrastructure Consortium and host of its southern array, signed the contract on behalf of this international organisation. The construction of this important civil infrastructure is expected to take one year, paving the way for the first telescopes to be erected on site. Therefore, this milestone marks the beginning of the array’s construction in the southern hemisphere. The CTAO will be the largest and most powerful ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. It is composed ...

annlang25004-nl-be-en — Announcement

King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians visit ESO’s Paranal Observatory

26 June 2025: Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians have completed a visit to the Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, home to ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), among other world-class facilities. This is the King’s second visit to ESO sites in Chile, after his prior visit in 2011 as the heir apparent. The delegation was hosted by ESO Director General Xavier Barcons, alongside the ESO Director of the La Silla Paranal Observatory Thomas Klein and the ESO Representative in Chile Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo. Their Majesties the King and Queen started their visit with a tour of the ELT construction site, guided by the ESO ELT Programme Manager Roberto Tamai. Later, they had the opportunity to visit SPECULOOS (Search for Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars), a Belgium-led facility sited at Paranal, and to see some of the facilities that make up the VLT and ...

annlang25001-de-en — Announcement

German Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space and Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts visit ESO Headquarters

23 June 2025: Today, Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space of the Federal Republic of Germany visited the ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany. She was joined by the Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts Markus Blume. Both ministers were welcomed to the site by ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons, before meeting an ESO delegation that included the Director of Engineering Sara Krauss and the Director of La Silla Paranal Observatory Thomas Klein. This visit provided an excellent opportunity for the Ministers to learn more about ESO’s contributions to technology and research, and to strengthen the links between ESO and Germany, a founding member and host state of the ESO headquarters. It’s the first time Dorothee Bär, who took over her current role just six weeks ago, visits ESO’s premises. Federal Minister Bär said: "After 30 years, the two topics space and astronomy are once again part ...

ann25004 — Announcement

ESO Annual Report 2024 now available

18 June 2025: The ESO Annual Report 2024 is now available online, offering an engaging and high-level overview of ESO’s activities from the past year. The report was approved by the ESO Council earlier this month. Among the highlights are: The launch of Expanding Horizons, the process to identify ESO’s next innovative ground-based programme. Progress made in the construction of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), including the coating of the first segments of the primary mirror. A selection of the fascinating scientific results published during 2024 using observations from ESO facilities. How ESO contributes to and engages with society and our communities in our Member States, Chile as the Host State of our observatories, our Strategic Partner Australia, and beyond. ESO’s work to protect dark and quiet skies. News from the La Silla Paranal Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), as well as forthcoming instruments and upgrades. Technology development and R&D ...

ann25003 — Announcement

Record 1200 studies using ESO data published in 2024

16 June 2025: More than 1200 studies using data from ESO’s facilities were published last year, a record high. This is the eighth consecutive year where observations conducted at ESO’s observatories have led to more than 1000 scientific publications. The ESO Library, Documentation, and Information Services Department has updated their detailed statistics on publications using ESO data presenting each facility's contributions in 2024 [1]. The data were presented to ESO Council earlier this month. As in previous years, the most productive ESO facilities continue to be the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and its interferometer (VLTI), which last year yielded data included in over 700 studies, a record high. VLT highlights include the observation of the awakening of a massive black hole at a galaxy’s core and the discovery of a planet orbiting Barnard’s star, the closest single star to our Sun, while the VLTI was used to take the first close-up picture of ...

annlang25004-es-cl-en — Announcement

Dark Skies Council: International astronomical observatories join forces to protect Chile's skies

3 June 2025: Faced with the growing risk that light pollution represents for the development of astronomy in Chile, the main international observatories with a presence in the country have formed a joint organization dedicated to protecting the dark skies of northern Chile. The council will act through Fundación Cielos de Chile and the Office for the Protection of the Quality of the Northern Chilean Sky (OPCC), with the objective of coordinating strategies and articulating actions in the face of the advance of light pollution. Light pollution is increasing by 9.6% each year, according to a study published in Science magazine. Chile's skies are also being affected by this phenomenon and it is estimated that a 10% increase in sky brightness would mean a loss of 12.07% of the original capacity of the optical telescopes located in the country. In response to this problem, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), ...

ann25002 — Announcement

Celebrations held as dome of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope reaches its peak

16 April 2025: ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) recently hit an important symbolic milestone: with the structure of one of the dome’s sliding doors now fully installed — and much of the other also up — construction on the ELT dome has reached its highest point. The occasion was celebrated today in Garching, Germany, where ESO hosted an event at its headquarters for industrial and institutional partners, as well as at the construction site atop Cerro Armazones in Chile, in what is known as the Topping Out — or Roofing — Ceremony. This ceremony, also known as the Tijerales in Chile, featured ESO and Chilean flags being raised atop the telescope dome, and a traditional barbecue for the hardworking people at the construction site. The Tijerales was attended by Governor Ricardo Díaz, representing the Antofagasta Region, where the ELT is located. In Garching, the event featured presentations, networking and a lunch buffet, with ...

annlang25003-es-cl-en — Announcement

Members of the European Parliament visit ESO offices in Santiago

20 March 2025: On 19 March, ESO had the pleasure of hosting European Union politicians, administrators and advisors, including 4 Members of the European Parliament, in its Vitacura offices in Santiago, Chile. The group consisted of representatives from several European countries, including ESO Member States Austria, Italy, and Spain. The delegation was hosted by Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, ESO’s Representative in Chile and Andreas Kaufer, ESO’s Director of Operations, and learnt about ESO’s observatories and the key role the pristine dark skies of Northern Chile play in making cutting-edge astronomical discoveries possible. De Gregorio-Monsalvo also emphasised the importance of protecting this heritage and the value of ESO facilities, especially at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, which is currently threatened by an industrial complex planned nearby. Our Vitacura offices host students, astronomers, and technicians who work with data gathered at the remote observatories of Paranal, La Silla and Chajnantor, acting as a local hub for scientific activity. ...

ann25001 — Announcement

Telescope first light for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope now planned for March 2029

14 March 2025: As a result of delays experienced during construction, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is now set to make its first test observations at the beginning of 2029, with “telescope first light” expected in March 2029. Afterwards, the first instruments will be installed and commissioned, leading to “scientific first light” in December 2030. This updated ELT schedule has been put in place after several of the telescope contracts suffered delays. The reasons for these delays are not untypical for such large, cutting-edge projects, ranging from harsh weather conditions at the construction site, to technological developments taking longer than expected, and equipment failing during manufacturing. After the telescope sees first light, it will be optimised before receiving its first scientific instruments. ESO’s ELT is now expected to deliver the first scientific observations in December 2030. With this revised schedule, ESO wants to ensure the telescope and its instruments are ready to deliver ...

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