European Southern Observatory

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an international astronomical organisation, composed and supported by ten countries from the European Union plus Switzerland and was created in 1962. It is famous for discovering a candidate to be farthest galaxy ever seen by humans, the Abell 1835 IR1916 galaxy, though this claim seems to be debunked by a series of new articles. In 2005, it obtained the first picture of an exosolar planet, 2M1207b, orbiting a brown dwarf 260 light-years away.

Facilities

Most of its observation facilities are located in Chile (hence the name "Southern"), and the headquarters are located in Garching near Munich, Germany. ESO operates three major observatories in the Atacama desert, Chile:

Related Topics:
Chile - Garching - Munich - Germany - Observatories - Atacama desert

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• The La Silla Observatory
• The Paranal Observatory, which includes the Very Large Telescope
• The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), a sub-milimetric telescope on Chajnantor

ESO is also involved in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array under construction in collaboration with the NSF (USA), the NRC (Canada), and the NAOJ.

Related Topics:
Atacama Large Millimeter Array - NSF - USA - NRC - Canada - NAOJ

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One of the most ambitious ESO projects is the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL). If built, it will be the largest telescope in the world.

Related Topics:
Overwhelmingly Large Telescope - Telescope

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Member countries:

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• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

Observatories Host Country:

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• Chile