Outreach Activities

Outreach activities are carried out by the ESO education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD). A wide range of programs and activities are used to meet the specific requirements of television, print and online media, such as press releases and broadcast material for the media. ePOD embraces a multimedia approach to public outreach, as seen in e.g., the ESOcast, the Hubblecast, Facebook pages etc. ePOD produces high-quality printed material such as brochures, books, annual reports, newsletters (Messenger, ST-ECF Newsletter, CAPjournal) posters, etc.

In the past some impressive events have come out of the Department, such VLT First Light, Astronomy On-line, and the S-L 9 impact. Also famous educational campaigns such as Venus Transit, Science on Stage and Science in School have come out of the Department. ePOD also organises exhibitions.

A large collection of nice photos can be found in the ESO Public Image Gallery.

As part of the Department, European outreach for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides comprehensive information about this telescope and its scientific discoveries. Also the IAU Press Office is hosted as part of the Department.

LATEST NEWS STORIES

The Superwind Galaxy NGC 4666
The galaxy NGC 4666 takes pride of place at the centre of this new image, made in visible light with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 4666 is a remarkable galaxy with very vigorous star formation and an unusual “superwind” of out-flowing gas. It had previously been observed in X-rays by the ESA XMM-Newton space telescope, and the image presented here was taken to allow further study of other objects detected in the earlier X-ray observations.
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Richest Planetary System Discovered
Astronomers using ESO’s world-leading HARPS instrument have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the Sun-like star HD 10180. The researchers also have tantalising evidence that two other planets may be present, one of which would have the lowest mass ever found. This would make the system similar to our Solar System in terms of the number of planets (seven as compared to the Solar System’s eight planets). Furthermore, the team also found evidence that the distances of the planets from their star follow a regular pattern, as also seen in our Solar System.
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How Much Mass Makes a Black Hole?
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, European astronomers have for the first time demonstrated that a magnetar — an unusual type of neutron star — was formed from a star with at least 40 times as much mass as the Sun. The result presents great challenges to current theories of how stars evolve, as a star as massive as this was expected to become a black hole, not a magnetar. This now raises a fundamental question: just how massive does a star really have to be to become a black hole?
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