ESO 3.6 m Telescope explained

The ESO 3.6 m Telescope is an optical reflecting telescope run by the European Southern Observatory at La Silla Observatory, Chile since 1977, with a clear aperture of about 3.6m (11.8feet) and 8.6m2 area.

The telescopes uses the HARPS instrument and has discovered more than 130 exoplanets. In 2012, it discovered Alpha Centauri Bb, a now-disproven possible planet in the Alpha Centauri system only 4.4 light-years away.[1]

ESO collaborated with CERN on building the telescope.[2] [3] It saw first light in 1976 and entered full operations in 1977.[4] When completed it was one of the world's largest optical telescopes. It received an overhaul in 1999 and a new secondary in 2004. The ESO 3.6-metre Telescope has supported many scientific achievements and presented ADONIS, one of the first adaptive optics system available to the astronomical community in the 1980s.

Instruments

Since 22, the ESO 3.6 m telescope has hosted HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher and NIRPS, the Near Infra Red Planet Searcher. HARPS is a fibre-fed high resolution echelle spectrograph dedicated to the discovery of extrasolar planets. Other instruments on the telescope, now decommissioned, include:[5]

Recent scientific achievements

The ESO 3.6 m telescope has made several scientific discoveries since it saw first light. Recent astronomical achievements were made possible by HARPS, a "top-class" instrument. This include finding the lightest exoplanet known at the time of discovery in, Gliese 581e, with only twice the mass of the Earth,[6] and the richest planetary system known at the time, with up to seven planets orbiting a Sun-like star.[7]

The telescope was also involved in solving a decades-old mystery regarding the mass of Cepheid variable stars. By using the HARPS instrument, astronomers detected for the first time a double star where a pulsating Cepheid variable and another star pass in front of one another, which allows to measure the mass of the Cepheid. The study concluded that the mass prediction coming from the theory of stellar pulsation was correct while the value calculated was at odds with the theory of stellar evolution.[8]

The discovery of the extrasolar planet Gliese 581 c by the team of Stéphane Udry at University of Geneva's Observatory in Switzerland was announced on April 24, 2007.[9] The team used the telescope's HARPS spectrograph, and employed the radial velocity technique to identify the planet's influence on the star.[10]

By 2009, the telescope was used to discover 75 exoplanet candidates.[11] In 2011, another 50 exoplanet candidates were announced.[12]

Contemporaries on commissioning

Largest optical astronomical telescopes in 1976
width=18 Name
(observatory)
ImageAperturewidth=60 M1
area
Altitudewidth=60 First
light
Special advocate
align=left BTA-6
bgcolor=#ddd 238 inch
605 cm
26 m2 2070m (6,790feet)1975Mstislav Keldysh
align=left Hale Telescope
bgcolor=#ddd 200 inch
508 cm
20 m21713m (5,620feet)1949
align=left Mayall Telescope
bgcolor=#ddd 158 inch
401 cm
10 m22120m (6,960feet) --> 1973Nicholas Mayall
align=left Víctor M. Blanco Telescope
bgcolor=#ddd 158 inch
401 cm
10 m22200m (7,200feet)1976Nicholas Mayall
align=left Anglo-Australian Telescope
bgcolor=#ddd 153 inch
389 cm
12 m21742m (5,715feet)1974
align=left ESO 3.6 m Telescope
bgcolor=#ddd 140 inch
357 cm
8.8 m22400m (7,900feet)1976Adriaan Blaauw
align=left Shane Telescope
bgcolor=#ddd 120 inch
305 cm
~7 m21283m (4,209feet)1959Nicholas Mayall

Gallery

Images from telescope

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.planetary.org, Bruce Betts, B. Betts - First Planet Discovered in Alpha Centauri System - TPS, 18 October 2012
  2. Book: Madsen, Claus. The jewel on the mountaintop : fifty years of the European Southern Observatory. 2012. Wiley-VCH. 978-3-527-41203-7. [Weinheim]. 818323656.
  3. Book: Reiz, Anders. ESO/SRC/CERN Conference on Research Programmes for the New Large Telescopes, Geneva, 27-31 May 1974: Proceedings. 1974. Organizing Committee of the Conference. en.
  4. Web site: Telescopes and Instrumentation, the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope. 2011-05-02. Table on the right of the page.
  5. Web site: The ESO 3.6m Telescope . 2011-05-26.
  6. News: Lightest exoplanet yet discovered . 2009-04-21 . ESO. 2011-05-26.
  7. News: Richest Planetary System Discovered . 2010-08-24 . ESO. 2011-05-26.
  8. News: Pulsating Star Mystery Solved . 2010-11-24 . ESO. 2011-05-26.
  9. News: Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life . Than . Ker . 2007-04-24 . space.com . 2007-04-29.
  10. News: Planet Hunters Edge Closer to Their Holy Grail . Than . Ker . 2007-02-24 . space.com . 2007-04-29.
  11. News: 32 planets discovered outside solar system - CNN.com . . 4 May 2010 . 19 October 2009.
  12. http://phys.org/news/2011-09-exoplanets-harps.html 50 new exoplanets discovered by HARPS