ESO 3.6 m Telescope

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ESO 3.6 meter Telescope[1]
3.6-m Telescope at La Silla.jpg
Organization European Southern Observatory
Location La Silla Observatory, Chile
Coordinates 70° 43' 54.1" W -29° 15' 39.5" S (WGS84)
Altitude 2400 m (7874 ft)
Weather Good
Wavelength Visible/Near IR
Built 1976 first light
1977 full operations[2]
Diameter 3.566 m (140″)
Angular resolution 0.2 arcsec at Zenith
Collecting area 8.8564 m2
Focal length f/8 (HARPS)
Mounting Equatorial/Horseshoe
Website ESO 3.6m

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 3.6 meters (140 in.) and 8.6 m2 area. It received an overhaul in 1999 and a new secondary in 2004. It was one of the largest optical telescopes in the world when it was completed in the late 1970s, and has supported many advanced optical and scientific achievements. It presented one of the first Adaptive Optics system available to the astronomical community, ADONIS: ADaptive Optics Near Infrared System in the 1980s.

In 2012, it discovered a planet in the Alpha Centauri system using HARPS.[3]

Contents

[edit] Instruments

Since April 2008, the only instrument on the ESO 3.6m telescope is HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity 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:[4]

  • CES: A spectrograph providing a resolving power of up to 235,000 in the 346 - 1028 nm region.
  • EFOSC2: The ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (v.2) to give its full name, is a very versatile instrument for low resolution spectroscopy and imaging.
  • TIMMI-2 Thermal Infrared MultiMode Instrument dedicated to the 3 micron to 25 micron
  • ADONIS, an acronym for ADaptive Optics Near Infrared System, was a second-generation adaptive optics system for the astronomical community.[5] More than 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles were published based on this instrument data.[6] ADONIS is the final version of diverse Adaptive Optics (AO) prototypes named Come-on and Come-on +. It was offered in its final version in October 1996 as an official ESO instrument,[7] then decommissioned in 2001. ADONIS was the first AO system offered to a large community of astronomers.

[edit] Recent scientific achievements

The ESO 3.6m 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,[8] and the richest planetary system known at the time, with up to seven planets orbiting a Sun-like star.[9]

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.[10]

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.[11] The team used the HARPS instrument (an echelle spectrograph) on the European Southern Observatory ESO 3.6 m Telescope in La Silla, Chile, and employed the radial velocity technique to identify the planet's influence on the star.[11][12]

By 2009, the telescope was used to discover 75 exoplanet candidates.[13] In 2011, another 50 exoplanet candidates were announced.[14]

[edit] Contemporaries on commissioning

In the heat of a Cold War, the ESO 3.6 m took its place among giant eyes old and new.

Largest telescopes in 1976:

# Name /
Observatory		 Image Aperture M1
Area		 Altitude First
Light		 Special advocate
1 BTA-6
Special Astrophysical Obs		 Главная обсерватория.jpg 238 inch
605 cm		 26 m2 2070 m
(6791 ft)		 1975 Mstislav Keldysh
2 Hale Telescope
Palomar Obs.		 P200 Dome Open.jpg 200 inch
508 cm		 20 m2 1713 m
(5620 ft)		 1949 George Ellery Hale
3 Mayall Telescope
Kitt Peak National Obs.		 Kittpeakteliscope.JPG 158 inch
401 cm		 10 m2 2120 m
(6955 ft)		 1973 Nicholas Mayall
4 CTIO 4m/Blanco Telescope
CTIO Obs.		 4m-Victor M. Blanco Telescope.jpg 158 inch
401 cm		 10 m2 2200 m
7217 feet		 1976 Nicholas Mayall
5 Anglo-Australian Telescope
Siding Spring Obs.		 Anglo-Australian Telescope dome.JPG 153 inch
389 cm		 m2 1742 m
(5715 ft)		 1974 Prince Charles
6 ESO 3.6 Telescope
ESO La Silla Obs.		 3.6-m Telescope at La Silla.jpg 140 inch
357 cm		 8.8 m2 2400 m
(7874 ft)		 1976[2] Adriaan Blaauw
7 Shane Telescope
Lick Observatory		 Shane dome.JPG 120 inch
305 cm		 m2 1283 m
(4209 ft)		 1959 Nicholas Mayall

[edit] The telescope and site

  • The 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla observatory.

  • The road to the 3.6m telescope at La Silla.

  • Leonard Euler Telescope in the foreground on right side, the ESO 3.6 m Telescope is in the distance.

  • Panoramic view of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope's dome.

  • Early evening scenery at the ESO La Silla observatory, with the 3.6m Telescope visible on on the right in the background. Credit: ESO.

  • Construction of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope.[15]

[edit] Images from telescope

  • Image of two interacting spiral galaxies captured by the EFOSC2 instrument on the ESO 3.6m Telescope. Credit: ESO

  • NGC 520 as viewed by the 3.6m Telescope.|Credit: ESO.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The ESO 3.6 meter Telescope
  2. ^ a b "Telescopes and Instrumentation, the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope". Retrieved 2011-05-02 (table on the right of the page). 
  3. ^ B. Betts - First Planet Discovered in Alpha Centauri System - TPS
  4. ^ "The ESO 3.6m Telescope". Retrieved 2011-05-26. 
  5. ^ Jack B. Zirker (2005). An acre of glass: a history and forecast of the telescope. JHU Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-8018-8234-0.  Unknown parameter |isbn10= ignored (help)
  6. ^ ADS query results for "ADONIS"
  7. ^ Gérard Rousset and Jean-Luc Beuzit (1999). "The COME-ON/ADONIS systems". In François Roddier. Adaptive optics in astronomy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 171 et seq. ISBN 978-0-521-55375-9.  Unknown parameter |isbn10= ignored (help)
  8. ^ "Lightest exoplanet yet discovered". ESO. 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2011-05-26. 
  9. ^ "Richest Planetary System Discovered". ESO. 2010-08-24. Retrieved 2011-05-26. 
  10. ^ "Pulsating Star Mystery Solved". ESO. 2010-11-24. Retrieved 2011-05-26. 
  11. ^ a b Than, Ker (2007-04-24). "Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life". space.com. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
  12. ^ Than, Ker (2007-02-24). "Planet Hunters Edge Closer to Their Holy Grail". space.com. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
  13. ^ "32 planets discovered outside solar system - CNN.com". CNN. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  14. ^ 50 new exoplanets discovered by HARPS
  15. ^ "Three Very Different Telescopes at La Silla". ESO Picture of the Week. Retrieved 8 May 2012. 

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