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

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  The Cosmic Bat

  The delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in a new and finely nuanced image that ESO is releasing today. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, the latter’s powerful winds and light have had a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it home to a multitude of infant suns.
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  Light, Wind and Fire

  Today ESO has released a dramatic new image of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in our neighbouring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, 210 000 light-years away towards the constellation of Tucana (the Toucan). The light, wind and heat given off by massive stars have dispersed the glowing gas within and around this star cluster, forming a surrounding wispy nebular structure that looks like a cobweb. NGC 346, like other beautiful astronomical scenes, is a work in progress, and changes as the aeons pass. As yet more stars form from loose matter in the area, they will ignite, scattering leftover dust and gas, carving out great ripples and altering the face of this lustrous object.
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  No Place to Hide: Missing Primitive Stars Outside Milky Way Uncovered

  After years of successful concealment, the most primitive stars outside our Milky Way galaxy have finally been unmasked. New observations using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have been used to solve an important astrophysical puzzle concerning the oldest stars in our galactic neighbourhood — which is crucial for our understanding of the earliest stars in the Universe.
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