Building the World’s Largest Optical Telescope at ESO

(1)

ASIAA, Taiwan, 5 May 2015 1

Building the World’s Largest

Optical Telescope at ESO

(2)

ASIAA, Taiwan, 5 May 2015

Astronomy

■ 

Study of everything beyond the Earth

■ 

Objects far away, hence appear small and faint

! Need for large instruments: resolution and sensitivity

■ 

Combining different types of observations crucial

! Images/spectra/time-series

! Visible/IR and radio regimes accessible from ground

! Other wavelengths: space observatories

■ 

Technology now available to

! Study objects over 95% of the age of the Universe

! Detect and study planets around other stars

2

(3)

European Southern Observatory

■ 

1962

! ESO created by five Member States with the goal to build a large telescope in the southern hemisphere

•  Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands

! This became the 3.6m telescope on La Silla (1976)

■ 

2015

! 14+2 Member States (~30% of the world’s astronomers)

! Paranal is the world-leading ground-based observatory

! ALMA (in partnership) on Chajnantor in early operations

! Construction of 39m E-ELT on Armazones has started

(4)

La Silla, Paranal & Chajnantor

4

(5)

La Silla

5

3.6m with HARPS

3.5m NTT

(6)

Paranal

6

(7)

Paranal

(8)

Transparent Skies

8

(9)

Control building

(10)

Integrated System

10

(11)

(12)

(13)

Paranal Residence

13

(14)

MUSE

■ 

Integral field spectrograph

! 60″x60″ FOV sampled at 0.2″x0.2″

! 7″x7″ FOV sampled at 0.025″x0.025″

! 90000 spectra covering 4650-9300 A, with R ~ 2000-4000

! Most efficient spectrograph on VLT

■ 

Built for deep fields

! Applications across ~all astrophysics

14

(15)

SPHERE

15

■ 

Adaptive optics assisted imager

! Near-infrared wavelengths

■ 

Early results:

(16)

VLT Interferometer

■ 

Unique facility

! Can use all 4 UT’s and/or 4 movable AT’s (mapping)

•  130 m max baseline ⇒ angular resolution ~2 mas at H and K

! Imaging and spectroscopy

! Routine operations, integrated in VLT data-flow model

■ 

Science

! Proto-planetary disks

! Shapes of stars

! Characterization of AGN dust tori

16

HD98922+6+ImgRec2+

Fs0+=+30%+

dind+=+1.57+

+

−5 0 5

+0.00e+00 +6.87e−05 +1.37e−04 +2.06e−04 +2.75e−04 +3.44e−04 +4.12e−04 +4.81e−04 +5.50e−04 +6.18e−04 +6.87e−04

relative α (milliarcseconds)

relative δ (milliarcseconds)

Chi2+=+0.47+

SCI_HD98922

2012−12−19_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2012−12−21_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−01−25_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−01−26_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−01−27_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−01−29_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−01−30_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−01−31_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−02−16_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−02−17_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−02−18_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits 2013−02−19_SCI_HD98922_oiDataCalib.fits

−50 0 50

−80

−60

−40

−20 0 20 40 60 80

Mλ

0 20 40 60 80 100

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Mλ

v2

0 20 40 60 80 100

−20

−15

−10

−5 0 5 10 15 20

Mλ

t3phi

Eta Carina Dust sublimation in

proto-planetary disk

(17)

Survey Telescopes

■ 

VISTA 4.1m for infrared

! VIRCAM, 8k x 8k, FOV 1.6

■ 

VST 2.6m for optical

! OmegaCAM, 16k x 16k, FOV 1

■ 

Dedicated to large public surveys

! Carried out by community teams after open competition for time

! Several 100 nights per programme

! Data reduction done outside ESO

! Reduced data to ESO archive

17

VST VISTA

(18)

Instrumentation Programme

■ 

Long-range plan

! Upgrades and new instruments in budget through 2030⁺

■ 

In-house development programme

! Detectors, controllers, edge-sensors

! Adaptive optics systems

! Innovative fiber lasers (patented)

■ 

Infrastructure upgrades

! Adaptive Optics Facility on UT4 in 2015/16

•  Four powerful lasers plus deformable secondary

! Key components for VLTI

•  Adaptive Optics units for ATs

! Commissioning incoherent combined focus

18

(19)

Partnership with Community

■ 

Future Paranal instruments

! VLT: ESPRESSO, CRIRES⁺, CUBES, ERIS, MOONS, …

! VLTI: GRAVITY, MATISSE, …

! VISTA: 4MOST

■ 

Most instruments built by consortia of institutes

! ESO pays hardware (~1/3^rd of total cost)

! Consortia provide fte’s; compensated in Guaranteed Time

! This corresponds to up to ~250 nights per instrument

■ 

Consortia constitute very powerful support network

19

(20)

End-to-end Operations Model

■ 

Observing proposals

! ~900⁺ proposals per semester (plus ~50 DDT)

•  Oversubscription ~3⁺, depending on requested mode

! Time allocated on scientific merit

■ 

Operations

! ~70/30 in Service/Visitor mode (Paranal)

•  Travel support by ESO

! Data transfer by fiber: in HQ archive in few minutes

! User portal: 9000⁺ registered users

■ 

APEX (1)

■ 

Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (since 2006)

! 12m sub-millimeter antenna on Chajnantor at 5100m

! Partnership of MPIfR (50%), OSO (23%) and ESO (27%)

! Operated by ESO since 2007

•  From base in Sequitor near San Pedro de Atacama since 2007

22

(23)

APEX (2)

■ 

Strong scientific use and impact

! Facility, PI- and visiting bolometers and spectrometers

! Star formation, high-redshift galaxies, ISM physics

! Kilo-pixel cameras A-MKIDS and ArTeMiS to come

! Wide-field complement to, and pathfinder for, ALMA

23

(24)

ALMA

■ 

Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

! 54 x 12m + 12 x 7m antenna’s on Chajnantor at 5050m

! 7 – 0.35 mm (30-900 GHz) in 10⁺ atmospheric windows

! World’s most powerful radio interferometer

! Cold Universe: formation of planets, stars and galaxies

■ 

Global partnership

! North America (37.5%), East Asia (25%) & ESO (37.5%)

! In cooperation with Chile

24

(25)

Array Operations Site

25

(26)

Long Baselines

26

CARMA ALMA

■ 

Transformational facility

! Superb Chajnantor site (5000m), state-of-the art receivers

! 66 antennas, baselines larger than 15 km

(27)

E-ELT

■ 

Largest optical/infrared telescope in the world

! 39m segmented primary mirror: transformational step

! Science: exo-earths, deep universe, resolved populations

! On Armazones, as integral part of the Paranal system

■ 

Construction has started

! Cost-to-completion 1122 MEUR (2015 prices)

! Includes contingency and contribution to first instruments

! Roadmap for seven instruments being implemented

■ 

Funding

! Regular ESO income

! ~30% increase of contributions by 14 Member States

! Accession of Brazil and Poland

27

(28)

E-ELT

28

(29)

E-ELT, is there life outside Earth?

(30)

Armazones and Paranal

30

(31)

(32)

(33)

The Organization

■ 

Mission

! Develop and operate world-class observing facilities for astronomical research

! Organize collaborations in astronomy

■ 

This is achieved by

! Highly-skilled staff carrying out a multi-project programme

•  ~390 staff in Garching at Headquarters

•  ~300 staff in Chile at Observatory sites and Vitacura Office

! In-house science, engineering and support activities

•  Without these ESO becomes a management agency, the quality of the programme will suffer and support by the MS will decline

! Matched by additional effort in the Member States

•  In industry and in technical and scientific institutions

•  In good coordination with ESO

33

(34)

The ESO Model

■ 

Partnership with community is key to support

! Joint instrumentation development

! Public surveys, advanced data products, ALMA support

! Student and Fellowship programme

! Small telescope and experiments hosted on La Silla

■ 

Multi-project programme is cost-effective

! Re-use engineering skills, apply lessons learned

! Experience in working effectively with industry

■ 

Intergovernmental structure provides

! Support at highest government levels

•  Ministerial level and above in Member States and in Chile

! Budget stability and long-term planning ability

•  Contributions proportional to Net National Income

34

(35)

Long-term strategy for ESO

■ 

Moderate further growth in membership

! Countries with high-quality scientific communities that are keen to join, bring added value, and government support

■ 

Continue to operate and build world-class facilities

! Optical, radio and other ‘messengers’

•  CTA interested in siting Southern array in Paranal area

! Balance multi-purpose telescopes and experiments

! Can be ‘all-ESO’ or in partnership

35

Building the World’s Largest Optical Telescope at ESO