Press Room

Welcome to the Press Room of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), brought to you by the education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD). Here you will find information about press releases, the image gallery, video libraries, mailing lists, media visits, and more.

We encourage journalists and educators to reproduce ESO images and videos in their articles and educational materials, so long as ESO is clearly credited as the source of the material. Please refer to the copyright notice at the bottom of this page for full terms of use.    

You can learn more about ePOD and ESO’s outreach activities here.

Press Releases

ESO press releases describe important scientific, technical and organisation developments and achievements, as well as results obtained by scientists using ESO facilities. The goal of these press releases is to share exciting discoveries and the beauty of the Universe with the general public.

Press release types

ESO publishes three different types of press releases:

• Science Release
  A science release describes scientific results usually appearing in a peer-reviewed journal that involve data from ESO observatories or ESO staff. These press releases explain the significance of the findings and provide contact information for the scientists announcing their results.
• Organisation Release
  organisation releases cover a range of themes related to ESO operations, including news on current and future observatories, new astronomical instruments, and announcements of exhibitions all over the world. Among other topics, organisation releases also report on the accession of new ESO member states and more exotic items such as filming for the James Bond film Quantum of Solace at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.
• Photo Release
  The science of astronomy yields beautiful, awe-inspiring images of the cosmos. ESO selects the best of these images and presents them to the public in periodic photo releases. These photo releases provide a detailed description of the object in the image and explain the science behind such cosmic wonders.

ESO also publishes Announcements and Pictures of the Week on its website.

Announcements are shorter than press releases (typically below 200 words) and highlight stories and events which are of interest to the community. This includes announcing dates and locations of upcoming events, presenting new ESOcasts and highlighting interesting scientific results which are not covered in Science Releases.

Pictures of the Week show beautiful or interesting photos from ESO telescopes, and can highlight recent events or archival photos. They are accompanied by a short explanatory text.

Press release archive

View all ESO press releases dating back to 1985.

Translations

A dedicated network of persons in the ESO Member Countries, the ESO Science Outreach Network, is set up to serve as local contacts for the media in connection with ESO developments. They also translate ESO’s press releases into their local languages.

Procedures and principles behind ESO press releases

To the best of its abilities, ESO endeavours to ensure that its press releases are factually correct representations of the underlying scientific work and are written in a way that avoids misinterpretations and exaggerations. In order to ensure that the public can consider ESO press releases as reliable sources of information, ESO has adopted procedures and principles that you can read about here.

Image Gallery

The Image Gallery is a collection of photographs, images and illustrations conveying the beauty of the Universe and the ESO observatories that probe its mysteries. A range of image qualities and formats is available, including the files in the highest resolution available. ESO images and motion pictures may be reproduced on a non-exclusive basis without fee so long as ESO is clearly credited as the source of the image material. Please consult the copyright notice for full terms of use.

Video Library

ESO’s expansive video library contains the multimedia that has accompanied press releases as well as video news releases and the ESOcast, our signature podcast. Most videos are available in High Definition (720/50p) but please refer to the video formats page for detailed technical information about the video file types available. ESO images and motion pictures may be reproduced on a non-exclusive basis without fee so long as ESO is clearly credited as the source of the video material. Please consult the copyright notice for full terms of use.

Click here to learn more about specific Video News Reels and Video Compilations for broadcast use. 
           

Mailing Lists

ePOD offers journalists and the public a number of ways to keep up on the latest ESO news. We recommend that journalists sign up for our Press Mailing List (epodpress, see below).

Press mailing list — advance access to ESO press releases

Bona fide members of the press may sign up here to receive ESO press releases about 48 hours in advance of public dissemination. Please email information@eso.org to request access and state your affiliation.

In an effort to provide journalists with more lead-time to write and research articles relating to ESO press releases, the ESO education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD) is introducing an advance notice system for most or all press releases.

In previous practice, the only press releases that ePOD has made available to journalists prior to the public at large have pertained to scientific studies that are under an embargo at peer-reviewed journals. Under the new advance notice system, journalists will ideally be provided with 48 hours or so of pre-public access to the contents of most or all ESO press releases and their associated multimedia. As with an embargo, ePOD insists that articles related to the press releases must not be published until the press releases become public at a specified time and date.

Please note this decision is not meant to “hype” ESO press releases; rather, it is hoped that this early access will afford media professionals the time they require to arrange interviews with scientists, conduct research, and so on. We assume this is many journalists’ preferred method of working, instead of having to “react” to a just-published, previously unannounced press release.

ePOD plans to run this advance notice service through the end of 2009, at which time we will assess if the system has met its goal of providing the media with greater access and flexibility in reporting ESO news.

Esonews Mailing List

Esonews is ESO’s public email subscription list. You can subscribe here.

RSS Feeds

Include our RSS feeds in your RSS Reader and stay informed about the latest news!

• All press releases
  News about ESO science and operations.
• ESOcast
  ESO’s signature video podcast series, available in a variety of video formats.    
• Hubblecast
  A video podcast chronicling the Hubble Space Telescope, produced at ESO in conjunction with ESA and NASA. Also available in a variety of video formats.
• Picture of the Week
  A stunning new photo every week! Click here to see all.
  
• Announcements
  Keep up on ESO organisation announcements for both the public and the scientific community.
  
• Portal To The Universe
  A global portal for online astronomy content, serving as an index and aggregator featuring news, blogs, video podcasts, audio podcasts, images, videos and more. Visit the portal by clicking here.
  
  

Facts about ESO

Find information here about the history of ESO and its world-class observatories.

Press Kits

Press kits related with ESO activities are available in different languages here.

Media Visits

ESO welcomes journalists, science writers and producers interested in visits to the observatory sites in Chile for production of news stories, documentaries, photo books and other projects. Please click [here] to read more about the media visit guidelines.

Copyright Notice

ESO images and motion pictures may be reproduced on a non-exclusive basis without fee so long as ESO is clearly credited as the source of the image material. Read more here.