16th April 2009
RAS PN 09/21 (NAM 8)
ESO (EWASS) Media Advisory
Forwarded from ESO by
Dr Robert Massey
Press and Policy Officer
Royal Astronomical Society
Piccadilly
London W1J 0BQ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
E-mail: rm@ras.org.uk
and
Anita Heward
Press Officer
Royal Astronomical Society
Mob: +44 (0)7756 034 243
E-mail: anitaheward@btinternet.com
Web: http://www.ras.org.uk
EWASS meeting press room (20th – 23rd April only)
Tel:
+44 (0)1707 285530
+44 (0)1707 285640
+44 (0)1707 285781
+44 (0)1707 285587
EWASS home page: http://www.jenam2009.eu (map of campus at http://www.star.herts.ac.uk/ewass)
EWASS press page: http://www.star.herts.ac.uk/ewass/press
Username: ewass
Password: astro@uh
RAS PN 09/21 (NAM 8): ESO TO ANNOUNCE MAJOR EXOPLANET DISCOVERY AND PROVIDE UPDATE ON THE EUROPEAN EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, will host two press events during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science that will take place at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. The two events are scheduled for the morning of Tuesday 21 April 2009.
At 1100 BST, a press conference will highlight a major and truly unique discovery in the field of exoplanets, made possible with ESO telescopes.
From 1130 until 1330 BST the same day, a special writer’s workshop will be dedicated
to the future 42-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, which will become “The
World’s Biggest Eye on the Sky”. Science writers will be updated by the key players
on the status of this amazing project, which has gained wide support in the scientific
community, and whose go-ahead for construction is expected in 2010.
Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General
Roberto Gilmozzi, ESO, E-ELT Principal Investigator
Mark Casali, ESO, Head of the Instrumentation Division
Isobel Hook, University of Oxford, UK
A buffet lunch will be offered.
Media registration for EWASS is free of charge — any bona fide media delegates can pre-register online using the form at http://www.jenam2009.eu/default.asp?ContentID=1400 (advance registration is not essential but encouraged).
CONTACTS
Dr Henri BoffinESO
Tel: +49 89 3200 6222
E-mail: hboffin@eso.org
Dr Robert Massey
Press and Policy Officer
Royal Astronomical Society
(details above)
NOTES FOR EDITORS
ESO
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is the
foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe. It is supported by 14 countries:
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an
ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based
observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also
plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO
operates three unique world-class observing sites in the Atacama Desert region of Chile: La
Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor.
http://www.eso.org
E-ELT
Since the end of 2005 ESO and its user community of
European astronomers and astrophysicists have been collaborating to define the giant new
telescope needed by the middle of the next decade. More than 100 astronomers from all European
countries have been involved since 2006, helping the ESO Project Offices to produce a novel
concept, in which performance, cost, schedule and risk were carefully evaluated. Dubbed the
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), this revolutionary new ground-based telescope will
be 42 metres in diameter and will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world
or “The World’s Biggest Eye on the Sky”.
With the start of operations planned for 2018, the E-ELT will tackle the biggest scientific
challenges of our time, and aim for a number of notable firsts, including studying Earth-like
planets around other stars in the habitable zones where life could exist — one of the
holy grails of modern observational astronomy. It will also perform “stellar
archaeology” in nearby galaxies as well as making fundamental contributions to cosmology
by measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies and probing the nature of dark
matter and dark energy. On top of this astronomers are also planning for the unexpected —
new and unforeseeable questions will surely arise from the discoveries made with the E-ELT. The
E-ELT may, eventually, revolutionise our perception of the Universe as much as Galileo’s
telescope did.
http://www.eso.org/e-elt
THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE
More than 1000 astronomers and space scientists will gather at the University of Hertfordshire for the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS), incorporating the 2009 Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting (RAS NAM 2009) and the European Astronomical Society Joint Meeting (JENAM 2009). The meeting runs from 20th to 23rd April 2009.EWASS is held in conjunction with the UK Solar Physics (UKSP) and Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (MIST) meetings. The conference includes scientific sessions organised by the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
EWASS is principally sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield.