La Silla Observatory

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La Silla Observatory
Organization European Southern Observatory
Location Coquimbo Region, Chile
Coordinates
Altitude 2,400 metres (7,900 ft)
Established 1964 (1964)
Website
ESO - La Silla
Telescopes
New Technology
Telescope		 3.5 m reflector
ESO 3.6-metre 3.6 m reflector
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre 2.2-m reflector
Danish National
Telescope		 1.5 m reflector
Euler Telescope 1.2 m reflector
ESO 1-metre
Schmidt		 1.0 m reflector
REM Telescope 0.6 m reflector
TRAPPIST 0.6 m reflector
TAROT 0.3 m reflector

La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Several telescopes are located at the site and are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and was the first in Chile to be used by ESO.[3]

The La Silla telescopes and instruments are located 150 km northeast of La Serena at the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert, one of the driest and remotest areas of the world. Like other observatories in this geographical area, La Silla is located far from sources of light pollution and, like the Paranal Observatory, home to the Very Large Telescope, it has one of the darkest night skies on the Earth.

History

La Silla's transformation through time.[1]

Following the decision in 1963 to approve Chile as the site for the ESO observatory,[4] scouting parties were sent to various locations to assess their suitability. The site that was decided upon was La Silla in the southern part of the Atacama desert, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile and at an altitude of 2400 metres. Besides being government property, it had the added benefits of being in a dry, flat and easily accessible area, yet isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources. Originally named the Cinchado, it was renamed La Silla (the saddle in Spanish) after its saddle-like shape.[5]

On October 30, 1964, the contracts were signed and an area of 245 square miles was purchased the following year. During 1965, temporary facilities were erected with living quarters, a workshop and storage area. The dedication ceremony of the road to the top took place in March 1966, two months after its completion.

On 25 March 1969, the ESO site at La Silla was finally formally inaugurated by President Eduardo Frei Montalva. With a permanent base of dormitories, workshops, hotels and several functioning telescopes, the observatory was fully operational. The 1 m and 1.5 m telescopes had been erected in the late 1960s, and were joined in 1968 by the Gran Prismo Objectif telescope that had been previously been used in South Africa.[6]

By 1976, the largest telescope planned, the 3.6 m, started operations.[7] It was subsequently to have a 1.4m CAT (Coudé Auxiliary Telescope) attached.

In 1984, the 2.2m telescope began operations, while in March 1989, the 3.5 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) saw "first light".[8]

The program reaches its apex with the installation of the SEST in 1987 (Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope), the only large submillimetre telescope in the southern hemisphere, which was a combined project between ESO and the Swedish Natural Science Research Council.

During the end of the century some of the original telescopes were closed-the 1m Schmidt closed in 1998 and the 1.5m in 2002, whilst new equipment owned by various foreign observatories was introduced. A 1m telescope owned by Marseille Observatory opened in 1998, followed by a 1.2m telescope from Geneva Observatory in 2000.[9]

Telescopes

ESO operates three major optical and near infrared telescopes at the La Silla site:[10] the New Technology Telescope (NTT), the 3.6-m ESO Telescope, and the 2.2-m Max-Planck-ESO Telescope.

In addition La Silla hosts several other national and project telescopes: the 1.54-m Danish Telescope, the 1.2-m Leonhard Euler Telescope, the Rapid Eye Mount Telescope and the TAROT Telescope. These telescopes are not operated by ESO and hence do not fall under the responsibility of La Silla Science Operations.[11]

New Technology Telescope

Main article: New Technology Telescope
View of the NTT in front of the smaller telescopes, from the 3.6m.

The ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) is an Alt-Az, 3.58m Richey-Chretien telescope which pioneered the use of active optics. The telescope and its enclosure had a revolutionary design for optimal image quality.[12] NTT saw first light in March 1989.

The telescope chamber is ventilated by a system of flaps which optimize the air flow across the NTT minimizing the dome and mirror seeing. To prevent heat input to the building, all motors in the telescope are water cooled and all the electronics boxes are insulated and cooled.

The primary mirror of the NTT is actively controlled to preserve its figure at all telescope positions. The secondary mirror position is also actively controlled in three directions. The optimized airflow, the thermal controls, and the active optics give the excellent image quality of the NTT. Note that the NTT has active instead of adaptive optics: it corrects the defects and deformation of the telescope and mirror, but does not correct the turbulence; it ensures that the optics is always in perfect shape. Together with the thermal control, it allows the NTT to reach the ambient seeing, but it does not improve it.[13]

3.6 m ESO Telescope

This 3.6 m Cassegrain telescope started operations in 1976[14] and has been constantly upgraded since, including the installation of a new secondary mirror that has kept the telescope in its place as one of the most efficient and productive engines of astronomical research.

The telescope hosts HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter. HARPS is a spectrograph with unrivalled precision and is the most successful finder of low-mass exoplanets to date.[15] Since April 2008, HARPS is the only instrument available at the 3.6 m telescope.[16]

2.2 m MPG/ESO Telescope

This image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile shows NGC 6388.[2]
Main article: MPG/ESO telescope

The 2.2-metre Telescope has been in operation at La Silla since early 1984 and is on indefinite loan to ESO from the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft or MPG in German). Telescope time is shared between MPG and ESO observing programmes, while the operation and maintenance of the telescope are ESO’s responsibility.

The telescope hosts three instruments: the 67-million pixel Wide Field Imager with a field of view as large as the full Moon, which has taken many amazing images of celestial objects; GROND, the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector, which chases the afterglows of the most powerful explosions in the Universe, known as gamma-ray bursts; and the high-resolution spectrograph, FEROS, used to make detailed studies of stars.[17]

Former telescopes

The following telescopes have now been decommissioned:[18]

  • ESO 1.52-metre telescope
  • ESO 1-metre telescope
  • ESO 0.5-metre telescope (now at the Observatorio UC in Santiago, Chile)
  • Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST), 15-metre
  • Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (CAT), 1.4-metre
  • Grand Prism Objectif (GPO) Telescope
  • Marly 1-metre Telescope
  • Swiss T70 Telescope
  • Dutch 0.9-metre Telescope (National telescope)
  • Danish 0.5-metre Telescope (National telescope)
  • Marseille 0.4-metre Telescope (National telescope)
  • Bochum 0.61-metre Telescope (National telescope)

Scientific discoveries

With about 300 refereed publications attributable to the work of the observatory per year, La Silla remains at the forefront of astronomy. La Silla has led to an enormous number of scientific discoveries, including several "firsts". The HARPS spectrograph is the undisputed champion at finding low-mass extrasolar planets. It detected the system around Gliese 581, which contains what may be the first known rocky planet in a habitable zone, outside the Solar System.[19] Several telescopes at La Silla played a crucial role in linking gamma-ray bursts — the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang — with the explosions of massive stars. Since 1987, the ESO La Silla Observatory has also played an important role in the study and follow-up of the nearest recent supernova, SN 1987A.

On February 2, 2011, astronomers using the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2m telescope discovered an unusual pure disk galaxy christened NGC 3621.[20]

Gallery

  • La Silla at night, Leonhard Euler Telescope in the foreground, and the ESO 3.6 m Telescope in the distance.

  • The inauguration of La Silla Observatory.

  • Telescope Domes Clustered at La Silla.
    Credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky.

  • La Silla Observatory at sunrise. Credit: KszuloFotki.

  • New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory. Credit: Denys.

  • La Silla Observatory. Credit: Masteruk.

  • La Silla Observatory seen from 3.6m telescope (located on highest peak). Credit: KszuloFotki.

  • The stars rotate around the southern celestial pole during a night at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. Credit: Iztok Bončina/ESO

This time-lapse sequence shows ESO's La Silla Observatory, looking towards the south.
This sequence shows the night sky at ESO's La Silla Observatory during a night of observing.
This time-lapse video taken at ESO's La Silla site shows the stars revolving around the south celestial pole.
This time-lapse sequence shows the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory during a night of observation.
This sequence shows a night of observing at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.
This sequence shows a night of observing at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.


See also

References

  1. ↑ "A Window to the Past — La Silla’s transformation through time". ESO Picture of the Week. Retrieved 9 March 2012. 
  2. ↑ "The globular cluster NGC 6388 observed by the European Southern Observatory". ESO Press Release. Retrieved 13 February 2013. 
  3. ↑ Adriaan Blaauw (1991). ESO's Early History. ESO. 
  4. ↑ Adriaan Blaauw (1991). "3". ESO's Early History. ESO. 
  5. ↑ "About La Silla". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  6. ↑ "About La Silla". Retrieved 2011-04-29. 
  7. ↑ Lodewijk Woltjer (2006). Europe's Quest for the Universe. EDP Sciences. p. 27. 
  8. ↑ Lodewijk Woltjer (2006). Europe's Quest for the Universe. EDP Sciences. p. 35. 
  9. ↑ "La Silla Observatory, A Dictionary of Astronomy". Retrieved 2011-04-29. 
  10. ↑ "Telescopes and Instrumentation". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  11. ↑ "La Silla Telescopes Overview". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  12. ↑ "The ESO New Technology Telescope". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  13. ↑ "The ESO New Technology Telescope, Overview". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  14. ↑ "Telescopes and Instrumentation, the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope". Retrieved 2011-05-02 (table on the right of the page). 
  15. ↑ "Telescopes and Instrumentation, the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  16. ↑ "The ESO 3.6m Telescope, Introduction". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  17. ↑ "Telescopes and Instrumentation, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre Telescope". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  18. ↑ "La Silla". Retrieved 2011-05-02. 
  19. ↑ "Astronomers Find First Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone". ESO. 25 April 2007. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  20. ↑ "Oddball Spiral Galaxy Is Flat as a Pancake". Space.com. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-29. 

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