The Messenger 191

Sixty Years of Engagement Between ESO and Chile
Scientific Highlights from Ten Years of the MUSE Collaboration

The ESO Science Archive Facility: Status, Impact, and Prospects
The Messenger
No. 191 | 2023
ESO, the European Southern Observa- Contents
tory, is the foremost intergovernmental
astronomy organisation in Europe. It is The Organisation
supported by 16 Member States: Austria, Barcons, X. – Sixty Years of Engagement Between ESO and Chile:
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Past, Present and Future 3
France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Díaz Trigo, M. et al. – Ten Years of ALMA: Achievements and Future Perspectives 6
the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Astronomical Science
Kingdom, along with the host country of Bacon, R. et al. – Scientific Highlights from Ten Years of the MUSE Collaboration 11
Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Meingast, S. et al. – The VISTA Star Formation Atlas (VISIONS) 18
Partner. ESO’s programme is focussed
on the design, construction and opera- Telescopes and Instrumentation
tion of powerful ground-based observing Concas, A. et al. – ERIS Science Verifications 25
facilities. ESO operates three observato- Romaniello, M. et al. – The ESO Science Archive Facility:
ries in Chile: at La Silla, at P
aranal, site of Status, Impact, and Prospects 29
the Very Large Telescope, and at Llano Pritchard, J. et al. – Telluric Correction of VLT Spectra:
de Chajnantor. ESO is the European The New Graphical Interface to Molecfit 34
partner in the Atacama Large Millimeter/ López-Fernández, I. et al. – Ultra-wideband Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers:
submillimeter Array (ALMA). Currently a Cool and Crucial Component for Future Submillimetre Radio Telescopes 37
ESO is engaged in the construction of the Emerson, J. et al. – VIRCAM Operations End at VISTA 42
Extremely Large Telescope.
Astronomical News
The Messenger is published in electronic de Gregorio-Monsalvo, I. et al. – Celebrating 25 Years of Remarkable Science
form twice per year. ESO produces and and Engineering with the VLT 47
distributes a wide variety of media con- Guglielmetti, F. et al. – Report on the ESO workshop “VLTI and ALMA Synthesis
nected to its activities. For further infor- Imaging Workshop” 50
mation, contact the ESO Department of Mérand A. et al. – Report on the ESO workshop “Disks and Planets across
Communication at: ESO Facilities” 56
Bodensteiner, J., Kaasinen, M., Berton, M. – Fellows at ESO 58
ESO Headquarters
Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2
85748 Garching bei München, Germany
Phone +498932006-0
[email protected]
The Messenger
Editor: Mariya Lyubenova
Editorial assistant: Isolde Kreutle
Copy-editing and proofreading:
Peter Grimley
Graphics, Layout, Typesetting:
Lorenzo Benassi
Online Publishing: Mafalda Martins
Design: Jutta Boxheimer
messenger.eso.org
Unless otherwise indicated, all images in

The Messenger are courtesy of ESO,
except authored contributions which are
courtesy of the respective authors.
Front Cover: Deep observations made with the
© ESO 2023 MUSE spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope
have uncovered vast cosmic reservoirs of atomic
ISSN 0722-6691 hydrogen surrounding distant galaxies. The exquisite
sensitivity of MUSE allowed for direct observations
The Messenger and all articles are pub- of dim clouds of hydrogen glowing with Lyman-a
lished open access under a Creative Com- emission in the early Universe — revealing that almost
the whole night sky is invisibly aglow. This composite
mons Attribution 4.0 International License. image shows the Lyman-a radiation in blue superim-
posed on the iconic Hubble Ultra Deep Field image.
Credit: ESO/Lutz Wisotzki et al., ESA/Hubble & NASA
2 The Messenger 191 | 2023

The Organisation DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5333
Sixty Years of Engagement Between ESO and Chile:

Past, Present and Future
Xavier Barcons 1 tific observations of the southern sky for optical and infrared observations
were performed using OAN’s telescopes (for example, in Paranal weather losses
at various sites. In 1927 the OAN became rarely reach 10%, seeing is excellent
1
ESO part of the University of Chile, while and the dryness of the air secures a low
another very powerful astronomy centre median precipitable water vapour, critical
was taking off at the Pontificia Universi- for infrared observations) have driven
On 6 November 1963 ESO and the dad Católica de Chile. the selection of first Paranal and then
Republic of Chile started a journey Armazones. The altitude, dryness and
together that enabled the establishment In the 1950s the excellence of the Chilean size of the Llano de Chajnantor have iden-
in Chile of all ESO’s observatories and skies was known around the world, and tified that site as unique for submillimetre
telescopes so far. Despite all the chal- Chile took the strategic decision to observations.
lenges that the world went through over engage with international institutions in
these six decades, a strong partner- establishing their observatories in Chile. Next to those criteria, the continued sup-
ship between ESO and Chile has been The 1963 agreement between ESO and port of the Chilean authorities, in facilitat-
forged. A vibrant user community in Chile was therefore signed on very flour- ing ESO organisational operations, in
Chile has grown and matured, and ishing astronomical soil in Chile. The granting access and administration of the
ESO is proud to have accompanied this opening of astronomical observatories on sites and engaging in their protection as
remarkable evolution. In this article I look La Silla (ESO) and of the Cerro Tololo well as in facilitating access to infrastruc-
at the past and present of the engage- Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) fol- ture, has played an important role, which
ment between ESO and Chile and argue lowed, both in 1969. is acknowledged and appreciated. And
in favour of a future joint path. not to be overlooked, ESO’s accumulated
The current legal framework within which experience of working in Chile, the exist-
ESO and Chile cooperate on astronomy ing infrastructure and services estab-
How it began matters is also an international agree- lished by the organisation over decades,
ment: the Interpretative, Supplementary and the potential synergies among the
It was very soon after the Convention to and Amending Agreement to the 1963 various programmes, were also of great
establish ESO as an intergovernmental agreement, signed on 18 April 1995. This relevance, in particular for the selection of
organisation was signed in 1962 that the agreement led to the establishment of the the CTA-South site.
organisation decided to establish its (first) Paranal Observatory to host the Very
astronomical observatory in Chile. The Large Telescope (VLT) and VLT Interfer- At some point ESO will be in a position to
signature of the Agreement between the ometer (VLTI), as well as to other very identify its next observatory-class project
Government of Chile and the European important elements, including site protec- (in line with the ESO Vision and Strategy3),
Organisation for Astronomical Research tion commitments, contributions to the which could be a major upgrade of an
in the Southern Hemisphere for the development of Chilean astronomy, the existing one or a new one, either for ESO
establishment of an astronomical obser- granting of 10% of the observing time at alone or in a partnership. If a new site
vatory in Chile on 6 November 19631 was all ESO facilities to meritorious proposals needs to be identified and selected, tech-
a hallmark decision that set the scene for by astronomers from the Chilean commu- nical requirements will obviously prevail
the coming decades of both European nity, and inclusion of Chilean astronomers and that may (or may not) require ESO to
and Chilean astronomy. in ESO’s scientific advisory bodies. establish itself in a new place elsewhere
in the world. That aside, at present the
The clear skies of the Atacama Desert most powerful ground-based observato-
were of course a key factor in selecting ESO’s observatories in Chile ries that ESO has in its current programme,
that option (Blaauw, 1991), but there was both in operation and under construction,
a lot more behind the decision: profes- Under the umbrella of the 1995 treaty, are in Chile (see Barcons, 2022 for a
sional Chilean astronomy was beginning and under very similar principles, site review of ESO’s programmatic views).
a path of growth and development2. agreements were signed not only for the
While the study of the sky from northern VLT and VLTI (April 1995) but for the rest
Chile probably dates back to very ancient of ESO’s observatories in Chile: APEX The evolution of Chilean astronomy
times, the development of professional (August 2002), ALMA (October 2002), the
astronomy in the country finds its roots Extremely Large Telescope (ELT, October The presence of some of the most mod-
in the middle of the nineteenth century. 2011), and the Cherenkov Telescope ern astronomical observatories in Chile
The very first astronomy centre in South Array (CTA-South, December 2018). (operated by ESO and others), specifically
America was established in Santiago in the optical/infrared and millimetre/
around 1849, with the support of the The reasons why ESO continued to submillimetre wavelength domains, has
President of Chile and important academic establish all its current observatories in been and remains a catalyser for the
institutions. The National Astronomical Chile are diverse. The driving criteria for development of Chilean astronomy. Uni-
Observatory (OAN) was created in 1852 the various site selections have invariably versity positions in astronomy have been
by a presidential decree and has remained been of a technical nature. The excep- created (in some cases supported by
in Santiago since then. Pioneering scien- tional conditions of the Atacama Desert ESO development funds) and active
The Messenger 191 | 2023 3

The Organisation Barcons, X., Sixty Years of Engagement Between ESO and Chile
researchers, both Chilean and foreign s uccessful collaborations between the conomic impacts, education, training
e
nationals, have been recruited and have astronomical communities of Chile and and engagement with society through
established competitive groups. Attracted Europe. outreach are among the benefits stimu-
by the opportunities offered by the guar- lated by the ‘ESO engine’ in its Member
anteed access to 10% of the observing The importance of the 10% of observing States. The extent to which such benefits
time, these researchers constitute a very time granted to meritorious proposals by materialise depends strongly on how
powerful and highly skilled task force able the Chilean community, as a tool to reach much the countries invest in and support
to exploit the observing opportunities the current international standing, cannot the development of their Research,
offered by observatories at Chilean sites. be overstated. However, the actual Development, Knowledge and Innovation
observing time gained by the Chilean (RDKI) ecosystem.
The Astronomical Society of Chile community on the VLT has exceeded
(SOCHIAS)4 regularly releases statistics 10% in about half of the periods since The strength and stature of the Chilean
about institutions and astronomers in the P80 (the record is in P109 with more than astronomical community is an existing
country. In their 2022 statistics 5 they 15%). The competitiveness of Chilean asset in the Chilean ecosystem. A natural
report that 23 institutions across the proposals is well in line with that of the next step to further this engagement
country are active in astronomy. In 2022 overall community, and therefore the would be the participation of Chilean
(2005) a grand total of 278 (58) profes- observing time gained follows closely the groups in instrument development con-
sional astronomers worked in these insti- observing time requested. Even in open sortia. In Chile this is referred to as
tutions, made up of 170 (39) academic competition, Chilean astronomers would Astro-engineering and has unfortunately
professionals plus another 108 (19) post- normally obtain no less than 6–7% of the been limited so far.
doctoral researchers. In addition, 256 (40) VLT observing time, with occasional
postgraduate students and more than excursions above 10%. The National Strategy of Science,
500 undergraduates are being trained in Technology, Knowledge and Innovation8
astronomy. The evolution of these figures The emerging picture is that today there is presented to the President of Chile in
in less than two decades is a clear testi- a vibrant and productive astronomical user 2022 is another important element. It
mony to the spectacular growth that community in Chile and that international acknowledges that astronomy offers
the Chilean astronomical community collaborations are significant and strong. opportunities for the development of the
has experienced. ESO can be humbly proud of having con- latest technologies and the provision of
tributed to that remarkable evolution. world-class scientific services and tech-
The number of professional astronomers nologies, among other benefits. As one of
in Chile equates to 14.2 staff astronomers the 13 challenges identified by that strat-
(including postdocs) per million inhabit- Furthering the engagement between egy, the Integral exploitation of astronomy
ants, which goes up to 36.3 per million ESO and Chile quotes specific aspects, such as the
when postgraduate trainees/ PhD students need to engage with the supply chain of
are added. These numbers are compa Taking note of the current astronomy precision instrumentation, as well as
rable with those for the ESO Member landscape in the ESO Member States others related to data management.
States, even higher in several cases. and in Chile, it is unavoidable to wonder
about opportunities to further the existing In December 2021 an ELT cooperation
In terms of publications in astronomy, engagement beyond the focus areas agreement was signed between ESO and
according to the Scimago Journal and imprinted in the 1995 Agreement. That ANID (the Chilean National Agency for
Country Rank6, Chile ranks 14th in the focus has been the support to the devel- Research and Development) to jointly
world. When normalised to the population opment of the astronomical community fund cooperative projects of mutual inter-
of the country, Chile has the 7th-highest in Chile and the facilitation and support est around the ELT. Such projects would
number of publications in astronomy per to ESO to establish its world-class obser- be related to smart operations, industry
capita in the world. The average citations vatories in the country. Success and 4.0 tools, and other technical projects
per paper is also high (36), which com- co-evolution describe well the outcome of significance to the future of ESO’s
pares favourably with ESO Member of this joint venture. observatories. They would also develop
States, where it ranges from 44 to 21. capacity building in the community around
ESO, as an intergovernmental organisa- Paranal in technical areas and transfer
A significant fraction of the scientific tion building and operating world-class knowledge to society. I consider this a
publications by the Chilean community research infrastructures (RIs), offers very important step towards furthering
using ESO data are shared with astrono- opportunities and generates impacts that the scope of the ESO-Chile partnership.
mers from ESO Member States. In fact, go well beyond the perimeter of access-
25% of the total yearly publications using ing scientific data7. Beyond enabling During a visit to CERN on 19 July 2023,
data obtained by ESO’s telescopes are astronomical investigations through data the President of Chile announced the ini-
co-authored by members of the Chilean obtained by world-class facilities, impacts tiation of the process for Chile to become
community. This is a large number when in engineering through the design and an Associate Member State of CERN 9.
compared to the 10% of the observing development of advanced facilities, tech- The announcement acknowledges the
time granted, which underlines the nology development, innovation and added benefits of joining a RI like CERN,

including explicitly “cooperation, expertise, astronomical community in Chile; 2) the Links
investment and above all the growth of acknowledgement of Chile’s need to 1
ESO Basic Texts: https://www.eso.org/public/
science and technology for the country”. strengthen its RDKI ecosystem; 3) an archives/books/pdf/book_0017.pdf
The President also confirmed the Chilean existing and trusting relationship that has 2
Astronomy in Chile (1849–2000):
Government’s intention to triple its invest- grown and consolidated for 60 years; and https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/
ment in science, therefore providing fur- 4) ESO’s continuing openness to wel- w3-article-100576.html#presentacion (In Spanish)
3
The ESO Vision and Strategy: https://www.eso.
ther strategic support to the country’s coming Chile as a full Member State, org/public/about-eso/mission-vision-values-strategy/
RDKI ecosystem. should Chile be interested in that ultimate 4
SOCHIAS website: https://sochias.cl
engagement. 5
SOCHIAS statistics for 2022: https://sochias.cl/
In my view there is a path to the future astronomia-en-chile/censos-de-astronomos/
6
with a broader scope for engagement SCIMAGO Journal and Country Rank:
Acknowledgements https://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.
between ESO and Chile, with Chile php?area=3100&category=3103
becoming a full ESO Member State on This paper has benefited significantly from countless
7
ESO’s Benefits to Society: https://www.eso.org/
the horizon. A formal engagement with exchanges and discussions with many ESO col- public/products/brochures/brochure_0076/
ESO as a full Member State by such an leagues (past and present) and members of the gov- 8
Chile’s National Strategy of Science, Technology,
important partner as Chile would be erning bodies, as well as colleagues, public serv- Knowledge and Innovation: https://docs.
ants, and authorities in Chile. To all of them, my consejoctci.cl/documento/estrategia-nacional-de-
indeed of the utmost importance for the sincerest thanks. ciencia-tecnologia-conocimiento-e-innovacion-
organisation. As described above, there para-el-desarrollo-de-chile-2022 (in Spanish)
are signals that Chile may be reflecting 9
Chile and CERN (press release): https://www.gob.
on the added value of joining RIs, to par- References cl/noticias/presidente-confirma-que-chile-esta-
tramitando-su-incorporacion-como-estado-
take in the potential opportunities they Barcons, X. 2022, The Messenger, 188, 3 miembro-asociado-del-cern/
generate above and beyond user access. Blaauw, A. 1991, ESO’s early history (Garching: 10
ESO’s early history: https://www.eso.org/sci/
In the case of ESO, the context is: 1) a European Southern Observatory)10 libraries/historicaldocuments/ESO_Early_History_
numerous and very competitive research Blaauw/ESO_Early_History.pdf
ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: CASU
This spectacular picture of the Sh2-284 nebula has

been captured in great detail by the VLT Survey Tele-
scope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Sh2-284
is a star formation region, and at its centre is a cluster
of young stars, dubbed Dolidze 25. The radiation
from this cluster is powerful enough to ionise the
hydrogen gas in the nebula. It is this ionisation that
produces its bright orange and red colours.

The Organisation DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5334
Ten Years of ALMA: Achievements and Future Perspectives
María Díaz Trigo 1 ALMA’s construction started in 2003 on continuously expanding and contracting
Carlos De Breuck 1 the Chajnantor plateau, at 5000 metres array with baselines from 15 metres
Evanthia Hatziminaoglou 1 above sea level in the Atacama Desert in to 16 kilometres, capable of producing
Silvio Rossi 1 Northern Chile. The site was chosen for images with resolutions better than
Erich Schmid 1 its altitude and dryness, providing the 10 milliarcseconds. To generate such
Martin Zwaan 1 best conditions for scientific observations images ALMA’s main correlator (Escoffier
of millimetre and submillimetre waves, et al., 2007), equipped with 134 million
which are heavily absorbed by water processors, combines the signals arriving
1
ESO vapour in Earth’s atmosphere in lower- at the antennas and detected in one
altitude, more humid, environments. This of the receiver bands between 0.32 and
choice, however, came with strict require- 8.5 millimetres (Tan et al., 2009) at any
This year marks the 10th anniversary of ments related to the construction, main- given time, a task requiring up to 16 quad-
the inauguration of the Atacama Large tenance, and operation of the facility in rillion operations per second. Not surpris-
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), such a harsh environment. ingly, the computing effort on the part of
the world’s largest radio observatory. a globally distributed team to develop the
Over the past decade, ALMA, an inter- More than one thousand kilometres of software with which ALMA operates
national collaboration in which ESO, optical fibre had to be installed for data resulted in about 5.7 million lines of code
representing its Member States, is the transmission from the Array Operations at the end of construction in 2013.
European partner, has revolutionised Site (AOS) at 5000 metres altitude to the
our view of the Universe from the Solar Operations Support Facility (OSF) just But ALMA would not be the success that
System to the most distant galaxies. below 3000 metres. Two 20-metre-long it has come to be without its community
ALMA has produced iconic images that transporters of 130 tons and 1400 horse-
have attracted worldwide attention, power each, Otto and Lore, had to be
Figure 1. This is the sharpest image ever taken by
such as that of the planet-forming disc built to transport the 66 high-precision ALMA — sharper than is routinely achieved in visible
around the young star HL Tau, and antennas of the ALMA interferometer light with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It
contributed to the first image of the from the OSF to the plateau. These trans- shows the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young
shadow of a black hole at the heart of porters were also part of a novel opera- star HL Tauri. These new ALMA observations reveal
substructures within the disc that have never been
the galaxy M87. In this article we look tions concept in which the antennas are seen before and even show the possible positions of
back at the main achievements of ALMA relocated within the plateau to enable a planets forming in the dark patches within the system.
and provide an outlook into the future.
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
ALMA, a worldwide collaboration
In 2001 representatives from Europe,

Japan and North America signed a
Resolution affirming their intent to construct
and operate a giant radio telescope in
cooperation with the Republic of Chile.
With this Resolution three previous top-
priority astronomical large projects aimed
at observations at millimetre/submillimetre
wavelengths in Europe, Japan and the
United States united behind one of the
most ambitious projects in the history of
astronomy: the Atacama Large Millimeter/
Submillimeter Arraya (ALMA).
The many superlatives of ALMA
ALMA has a long history of records as an

astronomical facility, from its construction
and operation at an unprecedented altitude
of 5000 metres to the 6569 m2 total sur-
face area of its antennas, its capability to
observe the Sun, the more than 200 Tera-
bytes of data stored every year in its archive,
and the size of its scientific community.

Sangku Kim/ESO
of more than 11 000 ALMA registered & Zwaan, 2006; Hatziminaoglou et al., Figure 2. ALMA, located in the Chilean Atacama
desert, is the most powerful telescope for observing
users. More than 4000 principal investi- 2015). This highly successful model has
the cool Universe — molecular gas and dust. ALMA
gators and co-investigators request time provided yet more means for ALMA to studies the building blocks of stars, planetary sys-
to perform astronomical observations establish direct contact with the commu- tems, galaxies and life itself. By providing scientists
with ALMA following the yearly ALMA nity and to widen its support across with detailed images of stars and planets being born
in gas clouds near our Solar System, and detecting
call for proposals and in 2022 alone Europe and has inspired the European
distant galaxies forming at the edge of the observa-
nearly 9000 scientists from more than network of VLTI Expertise Centres, aimed ble Universe, which we see as they were roughly ten
50 countries worldwide published scien- at extending the community behind opti- billion years ago, it allows astronomers to address
tific results using ALMA data. This global cal interferometry. some of the deepest questions of our cosmic origins.
ALMA can also be used to study Solar System objects.
community is the result of ALMA’s invest-
ment in creating data reduction and cali-
bration pipelines and providing high- Scientific highlights
quality data products through an archive first ever image of a black hole shadow in
rivalling those of space observatories ALMA’s scientific leadership is demon- 2017 (Event Horizon Telescope Collabo-
(Stoehr et al., 2022), and in providing strated by more than 3000 refereed pub- ration, 2019), featuring more than 1000
users with an extensive support network lications since the start of operations. The and 2000 citations, respectively, to date.
with the goal of making the facility acces- original goals for ALMA b had sensitivity
sible to all astronomers regardless of their and high-resolution and high-fidelity images Beyond our galaxy, ALMA has excelled at
radio-interferometry expertise (Zwaan et at their base. Indeed, ALMA’s investment detecting both normal and bright galaxies
al., 2021). In Europe, the user support in pursuing such goals was key to major at increasingly large distances and map-
has been set up as an internationally dis- discoveries such as the image of the ping their dust and cold gas reservoirs in
tributed network of European ALMA planet-forming disc around the young star exquisite detail at the high angular resolu-
Regional Centre (ARC) nodes (Andreani HL Tauri (ALMA Partnership, 2015) or the tion needed to image the interstellar

The Organisation Díaz Trigo, M. et al., Ten Years of ALMA: Achievements and Future Perspectives
Figure 3. A photograph of an Atacama Large
S. Otarola/ESO
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) antenna at
the ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF). Part
of the Milky Way can be seen in the night sky above
the antenna.
medium (ISM) and resolve molecular

clouds at cosmic noon, thus enabling
the study of distant dust-obscured star
formation (see Hodge & da Cunha, 2020
and references therein). The Large
Programmes ALPINE and REBELS
(Le Fèvre et al., 2020 and Bouwens et al.,
2022, respectively) focus now on going all
the way back to the epoch of reionisation,
thus allowing a precise determination of
the evolution of the cosmic molecular gas
mass density since the early times. The
future is bright in this area thanks to the
large galaxy samples that will arise from
facilities like JWST, Euclid, Vera C. Rubin
Observatory and ESO’s ELT, to name just
a few; those galaxies will need to have
their redshifts determined, confirmed or
refined, and also their gas and dust
resolved and characterised, ensuring
that ALMA will remain a key player.
Complementary efforts to those linking the

physical process that govern star forma-
tion to galaxy properties have been also
made in our vicinity. Molecular clouds in
the Milky Way have been mapped in differ-
ent environments at high angular and
spectral resolution to show the rich struc-
ture of filaments and cores that collapse
gravitationally to form protostars and their
interplay with the ISM (see, for example,
the Large Programmes FAUST and IMF;
Codella et al., 2021 and Motte et al., 2022,
respectively). In particular, studies of the
chemical complexity of protostars are
also providing clues to the emergence of
complex organic molecules in the ISM
and are the target of the recently
approved Large Programme COMPASS.
Zooming-in to already formed protostars tribution of dust and molecules in the events, to name just a few, demonstrating
and the discs around them, a major ALMA discs is providing insights into the physi- that ALMA’s reach at ten years has
discovery was brought about by the high cal characteristics of the disc with, for already gone far beyond expectations
spatial resolution image of the dust in example, temperature or density being and paving the way for new discoveries
the protoplanetary disc around HL Tau, traced with different molecules and their in the next decades.
revealing gaps and rings that indicated transitions. The disc images have also
that planet formation is well under way at revealed velocity kinks and unveiled plan-
stellar ages of ~ 1 Myr. The morphology ets that could not have been discovered ALMA in the 2030s
of protoplanetary discs has now been otherwise as they were occulted by dust.
extensively studied with numerous ALMA Looking to the future, ALMA has just
observations, including the DSHARP Finally, ALMA has also carried out stud- begun the most powerful upgrade in its
(Andrews et al., 2018) and MAPS (Öberg ies of the Sun and the Solar System, history, the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade
et al., 2021) Large Programmes. The dis- neutron stars, supernovae and transient (WSU). This upgrade addresses the first

priority of the ALMA 2030 development the high-spectral-resolution scans References
roadmap1, a strategic plan for technical needed to advance further the study of
ALMA Partnership et al. 2015, ApJL, 808, L3
developments devised in consultation with the origins of chemical complexity across Andreani, P. & Zwaan, M. 2006, The Messenger,
the ALMA Science Advisory Committee a vast range of astrophysical environ- 126, 43
and the scientific community and endorsed ments, enabling for instance comprehen- Andrews, S. M. et al. 2018, ApJL, 869, L41
Beltran, M. T. et al. 2015, arXiv:1509.02702
by the Astronet 2022–2035 roadmap2. sive chemical inventories of filaments,
Bouwens, R. J. et al. 2022, ApJ, 931, 160
cores and protostars in molecular clouds Carpenter, J. et al. 2022, ALMA memo 621
The technical goals of the WSU are to over all evolutionary states. Finally, build- Codella, C. et al. 2021, FrASS, 8, 227
broaden the system’s bandwidth by at ing upon the revolutionary images of dust Escoffier, R. P. et al. 2007, A&A, 462, 801
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration et al. 2019,
least a factor of two and up to four times continuum in protoplanetary discs that
ApJL, 875, L1
the current value, and to upgrade the reveal the presence of rings, gaps and Fuller, G. A. et al. 2016, arXiv:1602.02414
associated electronics and correlator. spirals where planets are forming, the Hatziminaoglou, E. et al. 2015, The Messenger, 162, 24
This will result in increases in ALMA’s WSU will efficiently produce such images Hodge, J. A. & da Cunha, E. 2020, Royal Society
Open Science, 7, 200556
observing speed by at least a factor of for a myriad of molecular lines. This will
Le Fèvre, O. et al. 2020, A&A, 643, A1
three/six (for twice/four times the band- provide the means to advance towards a Motte, F. et al. 2022, A&A, 662, A8
width) for observations at low spectral full understanding of the process of Öberg, K. I. et al. 2021, ApJS, 257, 1
resolution and of up to a factor of 50 for planet formation, since the gas contains Stoehr, F. et al. 2022, The Messenger, 187, 25
Tan, G. H. et al. 2009, The Messenger, 136, 32
spectral scans at high resolution, making most of the mass in protoplanetary discs
Yagoubov, P. et al. 2020, A&A, 634, A46
ALMA even more powerful than it is today and the morphology of different mole- Zwaan, M. et al. 2021, The Messenger, 184, 16
and setting the basis for more exciting cules can be used to determine the phys-
discoveries in the next decades. ical, chemical, and dynamical properties
Links
of the discs.
The first receiver band with wide band- 1
A LMA 2030 development roadmap:
width capability will be Band 2 (Yagoubov https://almaobservatory.org/en/publications/
et al., 2020), covering the 67–116 GHz fre- Concluding remarks the-alma-development-roadmap/
2
quency range, for which the first receivers A STRONET 2022–2035 roadmap:
https://www.astronet-eu.org/wp-content/
have just been successfully installed 3. Ten years after its inauguration, ALMA uploads/2023/05/Astronet_RoadMap2022-2035_
Band 2 completes ALMA’s originally has already transformed our understand- Interactive.pdf
planned coverage of the atmospheric ing of the Universe, from the small to the 3
N ew ALMA receivers that will probe our cosmic
windows from 35 to 950 GHz and opens largest scales. As the first of the 2020 origins successfully tested: https://www.eso.org/
public/announcements/ann23013
a new window at 67–84 GHz, enabling decade’s large facilities to become oper- 4
2020 US Decadal Report: https://science.nasa.gov/
among other things the detection of com- ational, ALMA has succeeded in having astrophysics/decadal-2020/2020-decadal-survey
plex organic molecules such as glycine, a scientific output comparable to those
the characterisation of the fractionation of other large facilities on the ground or
of elements in our Solar System, evolved in space, such as ESO’s Very Large Notes
stars and young solar analogues, and Telescope, ESA’s XMM-Newton or the a
A LMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its
the determination of completely new red- NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope at a Member States), the National Science Foundation
shift ranges (Beltran et al., 2015; Fuller et similar age, while serving as a model for in the USA and the National Institutes of Natural
al., 2016). the operation and user support of future Sciences in Japan, together with the National
Research Council (Canada), the Ministry of
astronomical mega-facilities. Arguably, Science and Technology and the Academia Sinica
These goals are well aligned with the sci- ALMA’s most significant contribution to Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Taiwan)
ence drivers of ALMA 2030, arranged science may be that it was the first truly and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science
around the themes of origins of galaxies, global astronomical facility. As outlined in Institute (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with
the Republic of Chile.
origins of chemical complexity and ori- the recent 2020 US Decadal Survey b
ALMA’s original goals were:
gins of planets (Carpenter et al., 2022). Report4 “Programmatically, the most dra- – the ability to detect spectral line emission from
matic development of the past decade CO or C+ in a normal galaxy like the Milky Way at
ALMA has detected gas in normal and has been the emergence of ALMA as a a redshift of z = 3, in less than 24 hours of
observation;
bright galaxies across the history of the facility that engages the full (in terms of
– the ability to image the gas kinematics in a solar-
Universe, back to the time when the Uni- both wavelength and geography) astro- mass protoplanetary disc at a distance of 150 pc,
verse was less than a billion years old, nomical community”. This is the best trib- enabling one to study the physical, chemical, and
and it is now studying the structure and ute to the dedication of all ALMA staff magnetic field structure of the disc and to detect
the tidal gaps created by planets undergoing
kinematics of such gas. Thanks to the around the world who worked together to
formation; and
wide bands afforded by the WSU and the make ALMA happen. It is therefore time – the ability to provide precise images at an
improved sensitivity, the spectral scans to celebrate: happy birthday ALMA! angular resolution of 0.1 arcseconds.
needed to determine redshifts in unbi-
ased galaxy surveys or to confirm photo- Acknowledgements
metrically determined redshifts will be
3.6 times faster than today. The gains in M. Díaz Trigo thanks F. Stoehr for providing the sta-
observing speed will be even higher for tistics on the ALMA user community.

Astronomical Science
The southern part of the spectacular N44 H II

region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The green
colour indicates areas that are particularly hot.
The field measures 27.5 × 26.5 square arcminutes.
North is up and east is to the left.
Astronomical Science DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5335
Scientific Highlights from Ten Years of the MUSE

Collaboration
Roland Bacon 1 ment for ESO’s Very Large Telescope stellar populations, nearby galaxies, gal-
Jarle Brinchmann 2 (VLT). MUSE was conceived to combine axy demographics, and the circumgalac-
Nicolas Bouché 1 the qualities of a sensitive high-resolution tic medium. While each topic encom-
Thierry Contini 3 imager with those of a powerful integral passes a variety of target types, observing
Sebastian Kamann 4 field spectrograph, capable of not only strategies, and detailed science goals,
Davor Krajnović 5 single-object studies but also opening up the projects within a category share at
Ana Monreal Ibero 6 the possibility of conducting spectro- least several methodical aspects of the
Johan Richard 1 scopic surveys in deep fields and crowded data analysis. Furthermore, the observa-
Tanya Urrutia 5 regions without any target preselection tional data obtained in GTO have often
Lutz Wisotzki 5 (Bacon et al., 2010). After 10 years of served multiple, sometimes very different,
and the MUSE collaboration designing, planning, and manufacturing, scientific purposes. This is particularly
MUSE was successfully deployed at the the case for our MUSE surveys in fields
VLT’s Unit Telescope 4 (UT4) in January with deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
1
Lyon Astrophysics Research Centre, 2014 (Bacon et al., 2014) and almost and multiwavelength data, where we
University of Lyon, CNRS, France instantly started to produce science-grade performed ‘spectroscopy of everything’
2
Institute of Astrophysics and Space data of a hitherto unknown quality (and file down to unprecedented depths. And
Science, University of Porto, Portugal sizes). MUSE has now been in regular although this observing strategy was
3
Institute for Research in Astrophysics operation since October 2014 and has already largely decided before MUSE
and Planetology, CNRS, University of become one of the most in-demand ESO went on sky, we encountered many sur-
Toulouse, France instruments. In 2017 and 2018 its perfor- prises, including some of the most influ-
4
Astrophysics Research Institute, mance was further enhanced by the addi- ential MUSE discoveries.
Liverpool John Moores University, UK tion of the Adaptive Optics Facility at UT4
5
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics, (deploying ground layer adaptive optics
Potsdam, Germany and laser tomography adaptive optics). Resolved stellar populations
6
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University,
the Netherlands After handing over the keys to ESO we, MUSE has been a game-changer in
the MUSE consortium, decided to stay terms of our ability to study stellar popu-
together as a team and exploit our 255 lations in the local Universe. By combin-
We present the scientific highlights of nights of Guaranteed Time Observations ing precise astrometric information with
ten years of exploitation of the Multi Unit (GTO) in a collaborative effort. Ultimately algorithms to recover the point spread
Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) Guaran- this effort stretched over nearly 10 years function (PSF), tools like PampelMuse
teed Time Observations performed in — always absorbing only a small fraction (Kamann, Wisotzki & Roth, 2013) enabled
the context of the MUSE collaboration. of the total time available for MUSE — us for the first time to gather large spec-
These ten years have been particularly and was finally concluded (in the sense of troscopic samples even in the crowded
rich in discoveries and have resulted in recording the very last GTO photons) only environments of massive star clusters or
more than 120 refereed papers. In this a few weeks before finishing this article. nearby galaxies. This novel approach of
article we focus on the main results, Here we take the opportunity to give an ‘crowded field spectroscopy’ has led to
grouped into four broad topical catego- overview of the science projects that we several breakthrough results, as high-
ries: resolved stellar populations, focused on within GTO, and to summa- lighted below.
nearby galaxies, galaxy demographics, rise the key accomplishments.
and the circumgalactic medium. In a core GTO programme we performed
We present these results grouped into a stellar census of Galactic globular clus-
four broad topical categories: resolved ters, presented by Kamann et al. (2018).
Introduction
About 20 years ago we proposed building

600
the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer
575
(MUSE) as a second-generation instru-
vLOS / km s –1
550
525
Figure 1. Discovery of a dormant stellar-mass black
hole in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 3201. The 500
left panel shows a wide-field image of the cluster 475
taken with the ESO/MPG 2.2-metre telescope at
La Silla. Outlined in orange are the contours of a
ΔvLOS / km s –1
5
2 × 2 MUSE mosaic shown in the centre of the Figure.
0
The companion to the stellar-mass black hole is indi-
–5
cated with a red arrow and its phase-folded radial
velocity curve is shown to the right. The red line shows 0 50 100 150 200
the Keplerian motion predicted if the unseen compan- Phase (days)
ion is a black hole with a minimum mass of 4.2 M☉.

Astronomical Science Bacon, R. et al., Scientific Highlights from Ten Years of the MUSE Collaboration
V (km s –1) σ (km s –1) V (km s –1) σ (km s –1) V (km s –1) σ (km s –1)
37.5 37.5 45 45
60 60
PGC047202 Sat 1
PGC047202 Sat 4
35.0
PGC047202 Sat 2
35.0 40 40
32.5 55 55
32.5 35 35
30.0 30.0 50 50
27.5 27.5 30 30
45 45
25.0 25.0 25 25
22.5 40 40
22.5 20 20
20.0 20.0 35 35
– 45 – 40 – 35 – 30 – 45 – 40 – 35 – 30 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 40 – 30 – 20 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
arcsec arcsec arcsec arcsec arcsec arcsec
– 465 – 365 – 265 30 50 2300 2500 2700 30 90 150 – 440 – 270 –100 30 90 150
HST Flux Muse V (km s ) –1

Muse σ (km s ) –1
60 60
V (km s –1) σ (km s –1)

40 40 40 42.5 42.5
40.0 40.0
PGC047202 Sat 5
20 20 20 37.5 37.5
35.0 35.0
32.5 32.5
arcsec
0 0 0 30.0 30.0
27.5 27.5
– 20 – 20 – 20 25.0 25.0
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15
arcsec
– 40 – 40 – 40
1110 1260 1410 50 80 110
– 250/250 200/550
– 60 – 60 – 60
– 60 – 40 – 20 0 20 40 60 – 60 – 40 – 20 0 20 40 60 – 60 – 40 – 20 0 20 40 60
arcsec arcsec arcsec
V (km s –1) σ (km s –1) V (km s –1) σ (km s –1) V (km s –1) σ (km s –1)
17.5 17.5
10 10 22 22
PGC047202 Sat 7
15.0 15.0
PGC047202 Sat 3
PGC047202 Sat 6
8 8 20 20 12.5 12.5
10.0 10.0
6 6 18 18 7.5 7.5
5.0 5.0
4 4 16 16
2.5 2.5
2 2 14 14 0.0 0.0
–28 –26 –24 –22 –20 –18 –28 –26 –24 –22 –20 –18 24 26 28 30 32 24 26 28 30 32 40 45 50 55 40 45 50 55
arcsec arcsec arcsec arcsec arcsec arcsec
250 350 450 30 90 150 190 340 490 30 90 150 620 720 820 50 150 250
Figure 2. MUSE mosaic of 2 × 2 pointings mapping dates to host binary black hole mergers, challenging to target with multi-object
PGC047202, the BCG in the cluster Abell 3558.
observable in gravitational waves. spectrographs because of the low con-
The large central panels show the HST/ACS/F814W
image, the MUSE mean velocity and the velocity dis- trast between member stars and surround-
persion maps of the stellar component. The velocity MUSE also allowed us to study the kine- ing stars and galaxies, and, in some cases,
limits are given in the lower right corner. The smaller matics of globular clusters in unprece- the stellar crowding near their centres.
maps show the stellar velocity and velocity dispersion
dented detail. Kamann et al. (2018) showed By adopting the crowded field spectros-
of the satellite galaxies of PGC047202. Their velocities
(shown under the maps) are given with respect to that the majority of massive clusters copy technique we could bypass the
the systemic velocity of the main galaxy (set to zero). rotate, and that their angular momenta challenge of sample pre-selection and
scale with their relaxation times. Star efficiently measure radial velocities for
clusters evolving in the tidal fields of their faint stars, using their kinematic and
For a sample of about 25 clusters we host galaxies will lose angular momentum dynamical signatures to place constraints
studied the kinematics and chemistry of as stars escape, and the rate of escaping on dark matter models. With this goal in
up to 50 000 cluster stars, and we moni- stars is linked to their relaxation times. mind we carried out MUSE-Faint, a sur-
tored their radial velocities over eight Therefore, the link between the two sug- vey of UFDs with MUSE. In the first paper
years in search of variations that would gests that the rotation we observe today of this survey we used observations of
reveal binaries. This campaign led to the is only a fraction of the clusters’ natal Eridanus 2 to show that the overdensity
detection of a dormant stellar-mass black rotation. In this way MUSE has already present in the galaxy is actually a star
hole (and two additional candidates) in improved our understanding of the condi- cluster hosted by this galaxy (Zoutendijk
the globular cluster NGC 3201, presented tions in which globular clusters — which et al., 2020). We then used the existence
by Giesers et al. (2018, 2019; see Fig- represent some of the oldest constituents of this cluster to place constraints on the
ure 1). This was not only the first detec- of our Milky Way — formed. fraction of dark matter in massive com-
tion of a quiescent black hole in a star pact halo objects.
cluster, but also the very first dynamical Another relic from the infancy of the Milky
detection of a stellar-mass black hole. Way is the population of ultra-faint dwarf Since the UFDs have little baryonic matter,
It proves that massive star clusters are galaxies (UFDs) surrounding it. UFDs are any significant core in the dark matter
able to retain sizable black hole popula- dominated by dark matter and notori- density profile would present a challenge
tions, which makes them prime candi- ously poor in stars, but are nevertheless to the cold dark matter (CDM) model.

Zoutendijk et al. (2021a) carried out the thirty Luminous and Ultraluminous Infra- fuse gas is slower and has higher velocity
first test of this using data from Eridanus 2 red Galaxies. A primary target among dispersion. The ‘dynamically hotter’ nature
and found that its density profile is con- them was the Antennae system, one of of the DIG was confirmed by dynamical
sistent with CDM. This work was extended the most iconic galaxies known and the modelling, suggesting that the DIG gas is
by Zoutendijk (2022) and a forthcoming closest (at 22 Mpc) ongoing major merger. distributed in a disc-like structure that is
paper analyses the dark matter density We mapped its main body together with considerably thicker than the thin disc
profiles of all five UFDs from Zoutendijk et the tip of one of the tidal tails at a spatial holding the star forming gas.
al. (2021b), providing even stronger con- scale of 100 pc arcsec –1, allowing us to
straints on dark matter models. systematically separate H II regions from At the other extreme of the range of star
the diffuse ionised gas (DIG). Combining formation rates are the quenched sys-
Located almost an order of magnitude the measured Hα luminosities with HST tems, i.e. those with little or no star for-
further away than the UFDs at a distance photometry of young star clusters we mation activity. Such objects are particu-
of 1.9 Mpc, the galaxy NGC 300 has inferred that the dominant ionisation mech- larly common among very massive
been the target of a GTO programme to anism of the DIG is UV radiation leaking galaxies. As part of our GTO programme
identify and classify a multitude of dis- from the main sites of star formation, with we conducted the MUSE Most Massive
crete objects, again adopting the new escape fractions (from the H II regions, Galaxies (M3G) survey which targetted
approach of crowded field spectroscopy. not from the galaxy as a whole) of up to some of the most massive galaxies in
A pilot study (Roth et al., 2018) revealed 90%; there is no need for additional the nearby Universe. We focused on a
several emission line nebulae — H II sources of ionising photons (Weilbacher sample of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
regions, supernova remnants and plane- et al., 2018). This study was comple- (BCGs) together with a selection of mas-
tary nebulae — alongside a large variety mented by age-dating the stellar popula- sive (> 1012 M☉) neighbours, all located in
of luminous stellar sources such as car- tions in the H II regions in the system very dense clusters (see Figure 2). While
bon- and oxygen-rich asymptotic giant (Gunawardhana et al., 2020). A surprising presently not completely devoid of gas
branch stars, and symbiotic and other result was the detection of two diffuse (Pagotto et al., 2021), these systems show
emission-line stars. Hot massive stars are interstellar bands, spectral absorption a high fraction (75–90%) of accreted stars,
of particular interest for probing the theory features of mysterious origin, at various suggesting an assembly history domi-
of stellar evolution, chemical enrichment locations across the galaxy (Monreal- nated by merging (Spavone et al., 2021).
and feedback, and as progenitors to Ibero, Weilbacher & Wendt, 2018) — the
black holes. González-Torà et al. (2022) first time that these features had been The detailed kinematic and dynamical
performed quantitative spectroscopy of mapped beyond the Local Group. properties revealed by MUSE provide
16 BA supergiants in a single MUSE point- important clues towards understanding
ing and we were able to place these stars We also observed several blue compact which type of mergers were involved in
into the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, dwarf galaxies to probe the impact of the assembly of these galaxies. Their kin-
extending the so-called flux-weighted extreme star formation on the interstellar ematics is often very complex, with multi-
gravity luminosity relationship to higher medium of galaxies at much lower masses ple spin reversals and generally low stel-
surface gravity, and enabling us to obtain and lower metallicities. An illustrative lar angular momentum. Remarkably,
a new estimate of the distance modulus example is UM 462, a nearby galaxy with about 50% of BCGs in the sample show
of the galaxy, (m−M) FGLR = 26.34 ± 0.06. properties similar to the so-called green evidence of rotation around their major
pea galaxies, where we could use the axis (Krajnović et al., 2018), suggested
rich information content of a MUSE data- to be the signature outcome of major
Nearby galaxies cube to disentangle its complex gas ‘dry’ (similar mass, gas free) mergers.
structures and the impact of stellar feed- Such mass assembly pathways are also
We devoted several GTO programmes back (Monreal-Ibero et al., 2023). confirmed by looking at the internal
to the study of galaxies in the nearby orbital structures: the most massive
Universe, to investigate the role of star Moving to more typical systems, we galaxies are all strongly triaxial systems
formation at different levels and the mapped a sample of about 40 spiral gal- containing all major orbital families, with
dynamics of their stellar and gaseous axies on the stellar mass – star formation co- and counter-rotating spin orientations,
components. Here we use the qualifier rate main sequence to investigate the resulting in truly spectacular observed
‘nearby’ to denote objects close enough relation of the diffuse interstellar gas to kinematics (den Brok et al., 2021).
to resolve their inner structures over denser gas responsible for star formation.
scales of less than 1 kpc, but already Erroz-Ferrer et al. (2019) showed that
too far away to resolve their contents into these two gas components have different Galaxy demographics
individual sources. Within this category, metallicities (star-forming gas being more
however, the definition of the various metal-rich than diffuse gas), but with sim- Among the great scientific successes of
samples and the typical properties in ilar radial variations. Subsequently, den the MUSE GTO programme are undoubt-
these samples vary quite substantially. Brok et al. (2020) demonstrated that the edly the MUSE surveys in deep fields,
star forming gas and the DIG differ in which exploited the multiplexing capabil-
At the high end of the distribution of star their kinematic properties: while the rota- ity of the instrument in completely new
formation rates, we observed around tion curves follow a similar trend, the dif- ways. A substantial fraction of our

invested observing time was focused on 18 Figure 3. Magnitude–

In HST catalogs (HUDF) redshift scatter plot for
a systematic spectroscopic mapping of
Not in HST catalogs (HUDF) well over 4000 sources
the area in and around the Hubble Ultra in both the HUDF and
20 In HST catalogs (MUSE-Wide)
Deep Field (HUDF), selected only on the the surrounding MUSE-
Not in HST catalogs (MUSE-Wide)
basis that it had the best available multi- Wide fields (adapted
from Bacon et al., 2023
band HST coverage to complement the 22
and Urrutia et al., 2019).
MUSE data (Bacon et al., 2017, 2023; As the shallower MUSE-
Urrutia et al., 2019). In other fields we Wide survey covers a
24
took advantage of the presence of strong larger volume, more
mag F775W
low-redshift sources are

lensing clusters in the foreground (Bina
spectroscopically identi-
et al., 2016; Richard et al., 2021). We also 26 fied, while the deeper
surveyed several galaxy groups in the HUDF data identify more
COSMOS area (Epinat et al., 2023). 28
LAEs. Nevertheless,
even in the 1-hour data,
over 20% of LAEs do
A key ingredient of our ‘spectroscopy of not have a catalogued
everything’ approach adopted for these 30 HST counterpart.
MUSE deep fields was the development
of dedicated software to perform ‘blind’ 32
searches for emission-line sources. This
enabled us to build large samples of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
objects with extremely faint continuum Redshift
levels, way below the limit for inclusion in
a photometrically selected sample. We
are thus probing star-forming galaxies single MUSE field of 1 arcmin2 (Herenz Lyman-α equivalent widths. It turns out
down to extremely low stellar masses. In et al., 2017). Of course this number that such objects exist in surprisingly
conjunction with the redshift-dependent increases with exposure time, reaching large numbers. Almost 20% of the LAEs
survey volume corresponding to a fixed densities of almost 400 LAEs per arcmin2 do not have a counterpart even in the
field of view, the two emission lines most in our deepest dataset encompassing deepest existing HST images, implying
frequently selected are [O II] λ3727 and 140 hours — the MXDF (Bacon et al., very low stellar masses and extreme
Lyman-α λ1216. The former is detectable 2023). Altogether we have already identi- equivalent widths of > 240 Å (Hashimoto
with MUSE at (roughly) 0.3 < z < 1.5, the fied several thousand LAEs which we can et al., 2017; Maseda et al., 2018; Kerutt et
latter at 2.9 < z < 6.7. In the following we study in detail. al., 2022). These objects challenge tradi-
denote these two redshift intervals as tional star formation models (for example,
‘intermediate’ and ‘high’ redshifts. In One of the most important tools with Charlot & Fall, 1993; Schaerer, 2002),
between the two domains there is a which to characterise galaxy populations except for the most extreme stellar popu-
region from z = 1.5 to 2.9 where galaxies is the luminosity function. For LAEs this lations with low metallicities and a top-
do not show strong emission lines, clearly quantity is related to the production and heavy initial mass function. In combina-
visible as a ‘redshift desert’ in the overall escape of H-ionising photons. Getting the tion with Spitzer infrared photometry to
redshift distribution (see Figure 3). Here correct shape and redshift evolution of infer Hα luminosities of a subset of these
we report on some key results of these the LAE luminosity function, especially at objects, we obtained extremely high
deep field surveys, with an emphasis on the faint end, is therefore imperative for H-ionising photon production rates, sug-
galaxy demographics and scaling determining which galaxies dominate the gesting that such ultra faint LAEs are a
relations. cosmic ionisation budget. One of the major contributor to the metagalactic UV
challenges that we faced was that the radiation field (Maseda et al., 2020).
In the high-redshift range the dominant generally very extended nature of
population studied with MUSE consists of Lyman-α emission (see below) impacts While Lyman-α is usually the most promi-
star-forming Lyman-α-emitting galaxies the detectability of LAEs. Taking this into nent spectral feature in our high-redshift
(LAEs), which because of their low stellar account when constructing the survey objects, several spectra also show other
masses are far more numerous than the selection function, we found the faint-end UV emission and absorption lines. Some
relatively massive ‘Lyman-break galaxies’ slope of the LAE luminosity function to be of them are valuable for probing the ioni-
(LBGs). In contrast to narrowband sur- considerably steeper than it would have sation states of LAEs, the two most
veys for LAEs or broadband surveys for been if we had assumed point sources prominent being C III] λ1909, a typical
LBGs, MUSE provides substantial sam- (Drake et al., 2017; de La Vieuville et al., tracer for extreme star formation (Maseda
ples of spectroscopically confirmed gal- 2019; Herenz et al., 2019). et al., 2017) and, intriguingly, He II λ1640,
axies in a single observational pass, with- which requires high ionisation parameters
out any need to preselect targets. Even Since our blind emission line search tech- to be as strong as observed (Nanayakkara
with a single hour of observing time per nique is not bound to any photometric et al., 2019). We have characterised the
pointing, as adopted in the MUSE-Wide pre-selection, we are sensitive to finding global UV emission line properties of our
survey, we detect typically 11 LAEs in a objects with even extremely high high-redshift samples by stacking (Feltre

et al., 2020) and also object-by-object forming galaxies experience a dynamical environments directly. In addition, several
(Schmidt et al., 2021), finding several indi- transformation and lose their angular of the deep-field observations (including
cations of extreme star formation, young momentum, i.e., they become dispersion- cluster and galaxy group pointings)
ages and low gas-phase metallicities. dominated, before their morphological turned out to provide important new con-
transformation to passive galaxies. straints on the CGM — sometimes based
About a third of our blindly detected on serendipitous discoveries — over a
emission line sources are intermediate- Thanks to extreme depth of the MXDF we wide range of dark matter halo masses,
redshift [O II] emitters at z < 1.5, for which were able to probe the dark matter con- ranging from small (10 9) to large (1014)
MUSE also delivers full spectra, often tent in several galaxies within this single halo masses (illustrated in Figure 5). All
with additional emission lines apart from field, for the first time in the low-mass transverse sizes given in the following
the detected line. Exploiting the ionised regime at these intermediate redshifts refer to physical, not comoving, distances.
gas kinematics for spatially resolved (Bouché et al., 2022). Individual rotation
galaxies, we extended the Tully–Fisher curves up to three effective radii show Of key importance here is MUSE’s
Relation (TFR) to low stellar masses, that dark matter fractions are high, typically unprecedented sensitivity to low-sur-
showing a high scatter around this rela- around 60–95% (see Figure 4), contrary face-brightness signals, enabled by the
tion that is due to the frequent presence to what has been found in more massive winning combination of high instrument
of dispersion-dominated galaxies in this galaxies at higher redshifts. throughput, the advantage of having dis-
mass regime (Contini et al., 2016). How- persed data with very low background,
ever, the environment in which galaxies and the often very long exposure times.
reside does not have a significant impact Circumgalactic medium This has facilitated the detection of the
on the slope or zero-point of the TFR CGM in emission in a wide variety of envi-
(Abril-Melgarejo et al., 2021; Mercier et As a wide-field integral field unit with ronments, down to a surface brightness of
al., 2022). Moreover, we found that the exquisite sensitivity, MUSE is a very pow- 1 × 10 –18 (3 × 10 –20) erg s –1 cm –2 arcsec –2
regular stellar kinematics of disc galaxies erful line imager, and as such it turned in exposure times of 1 hr (140 hr).
observed in the local Universe was already out to be a game charger for studies of
in place 4–7 Gyr ago and that their gas the circumgalactic medium (CGM), both Our standard cosmological model pre-
kinematics traces the gravitational poten- for mapping it in emission and for study- dicts that the bulk of the baryons in the
tial of the galaxy, and therefore is not ing it with background sources. For these Universe should reside in a ‘Cosmic Web’
dominated by shocks and turbulent reasons, we dedicated several GTO pro- of intergalactic filaments at z = 3 which
motions even at sub-kpc scales (Guérou grammes specifically to improving our trace the overall mass distribution. By
et al., 2017; Patricio et al., 2019). understanding of the gas outside galax- specifically looking at a few overdense
ies. These programmes targeted quasars, regions within the MXDF, the deepest
The main sequence of star-forming galax- either to use them as background light MUSE-GTO field of 140 hours exposure,
ies in the low-mass regime follows a sources to probe the CGM in absorption such filamentary structures have been
sub-linear relation with a steeper slope and connect the absorption signal with revealed at very faint levels in Lyman-α
and higher scatter than in the high-mass foreground galaxies detected in MUSE emission (Bacon et al., 2021). By itself,
regime, in agreement with simulations (the MUSEQuBES and MEGAFLOW pro- UV fluorescence cannot explain the ob
implementing supernova feedback programmes), or to investigate the quasar served emission levels, and one possible
cesses in low-mass halos (Boogaard et
al., 2018). Mercier et al. (2022) further
showed that the main sequence is offset 1.0
Figure 4. Dark matter
fraction (within half-light
by ~ 0.2 dex in dense environments, sug-
radius) as a function of
gesting that the star formation activity is stellar mass surface
reduced by a factor of ~ 1.5 with respect 0.8 density for nine low-
to field galaxies at z ~ 0.7. mass star-forming gal-
axies in the MUSE
eXtremely Deep Field.
We further investigated the relationship 0.6 Error bars are 95% con-
between the angular momentum of disc
fDM (<Re )
fidence intervals, and

galaxies and their stellar masses, also open circles correspond
to the sample of Genzel
known as the ‘Fall relation’ (FR). Contini 0.4 et al. (2020). The shaded
et al. (2016) showed that the FR of star- (blue contours) histo-
forming galaxies at intermediate redshifts gram shows the location
forms a contiguous transition from spirals 0.2 of z ~ 1 central star-
forming galaxies in the
to ellipticals, according to the dynamical Bouché + 22 TNG100 simulations.
state of the gas. The redshift evolution of Adapted from Bouché et
the FR is consistent with simulations but Genzel + 20
0.0 al. (2022).
the scatter is also a strong function of the
dynamical state of the galaxies (Bouché et 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5
al., 2021). These results suggest that star- log∑ღ,1/2 (Mც/kpc 2)

Figure 5. MUSE detections of CGM nebular emission

at different mass scales, shown against the halo
mass function at z = 3 (red curve). From left to right:
101 extended Lyman-α gas emission around low mass
CGM in Low mass CGM in individual CGM in group- CGM around dwarf galaxies found in lensing clusters and ultra-deep
/ dwarf galaxies high-z galaxies scale haloes massive QSOs fields, anisotropic Mg II emission observed in individ-
ual galaxies identified through QSO absorption, diffuse
10 0 CGM gas found in the intra-group medium, Lyman-α
halo surrounding bright QSOs at high redshift.
dn / dlog Mh (Mpc –3)
10 –1
sion (Wisotzki et al., 2016; Leclercq et al.,
2017). Together with the high spatial den-
sity of high redshift galaxies detected,
10 – 2 this ubiquity of Lyman-α halos produces
an overall background of Lyman-α emis-
sion with almost 100% sky coverage
10 – 3 (Wisotzki et al., 2018; Kusakabe et al.,
2022). When compared to the statistics
of Lyman-α absorption against bright
10 – 4 background quasars, this result suggests
that most circumgalactic atomic hydro-
gen at these redshifts has now been
10 – 5 detected in emission.
10 8 10 9 1010 1011 1012 1013
Halo mass (log10 M h /M๬ ) Thanks to gravitational lensing by massive
galaxy clusters we managed to probe
even fainter galaxies and Lyman-α halos,
origin is a very large population of individ- deep MXDF field. At z = 0.7, Epinat et al. albeit in small volumes. We found that
ually undetected ‘extreme dwarf’ star- (2018) discovered a large gaseous structure the trends in CGM properties (scale radii,
forming galaxies with star formation rates in [O II] inside a group in the COSMOS surface brightness profiles) seen in the
per galaxy down to 10 –4 M☉ yr–1. region. The nebula has a radius of more general (unlensed) deep fields persist
than 150 kpc and contains over 1010 M☉ down to these low luminosities (Claeyssens
Investigating the Lyman-α emission of ionised gas. We also found several et al., 2022). Occasionally the magnifica-
around 17 quasars at z ≈ 3, we found very cases of extended ionised gas in massive tion is so strong that the galaxy is stretched
extended structures, sometimes stretch- structures surrounding bright quasars out into a giant arc in such a way that we
ing out over more than 100 kpc, in snap- (Johnson et al., 2018, 2022). could probe the CGM even at sub-kpc
shot observations of 1 hr exposure time scales, revealing the complexity of its
(Borisova et al., 2016). Remarkably, the On the scale of galaxies (M ≈ 1010 M☉), structure in morphological and spectro-
*
detection rate of such Lyman-α quasar Zabl et al. (2021) reported the detection scopic properties (Claeyssens et al.,
nebulae was 100%, very much in contrast of extended Mg II emission in a deep 2019). One of the most important results
to the results of previous (pre-MUSE) (11-hr) field around a highly inclined galaxy was the discovery of significant spatial
surveys using less sensitive instruments. which happened to be located only 40 kpc offsets between the continuum and CGM
These Lyman-α-bright structures gener- from a background quasar observed with emission, which possibly indicates the
ally have narrow line profiles, and the lack high-resolution spectroscopy. The Mg II presence of bright star-forming clumps or
of widespread extended He II and C IV emission is strongest around the pro- satellite galaxies surrounding the main
emission suggests that a large fraction of jected minor axis of the galaxy, consistent CGM halos (Claeyssens et al., 2022).
the gas around such massive halos is in with gas being ejected from the host by
the form of cold (T ~ 104 K), small (< 20 pc), a supernova-driven outflow. A probably Using targeted quasar sight-lines with
and metal-poor clumps (Cantalupo et al., related case was noted by Finley et al. strong metal absorption lines (Mg II with
2021). (2017) who found evidence for fluorescent rest-frame equivalent width > 0.5 Å), the
Fe II* emission in a galaxy at z = 1.29 which MEGAFLOW survey demonstrated that
On the scale of galaxy groups, Leclercq was also aligned with the minor axis. the metals are not distributed isotropically
et al. (2022) unveiled extended cold gas around galaxies (Zabl et al., 2019), but
shining as Mg II λ2800 emission in a Around low-mass galaxies (M ≈ 10 8 M☉), are instead concentrated around the
*
z = 1.31 compact group, distributed over one of the main results from deep MUSE polar and major axis of galaxies out to
scales of more than 30 kpc, including a observations is that essentially every 60–80 kpc. Furthermore, the metallicity
low-surface-brightness bridge between Lyman-α-bright high-redshift galaxy and/or dust content seems enhanced in
two galaxies which suggests that tidal shows an extended Lyman-α halo with a polar directions (Wendt et al., 2021), con-
stripping from galaxy interactions is characteristic scale ~ 10 times larger than sistent with the idea that supernova-driven
enriching the intragroup medium in the its corresponding stellar continuum emis- outflows play a major role in enriching the

CGM. Employing the power of MUSE to fields. Last but not least, all MUSE data Hashimoto, T. et al. 2017, A&A, 608, A10
Herenz, E. C. et al. 2017, A&A, 606, A12
find Lyman-α emitters, the MUSEQuBES including GTO are freely available via the
Herenz, E. C. et al. 2019, A&A, 621, A107
blind survey of fields around quasars with ESO Science Archive Facility. There is Johnson, S. D. et al. 2018, ApJL, 869, L1
high-quality spectra of the Lyman-α for- undoubtedly still much more science to Johnson, S. D. et al. 2022, ApJL, 940, L40
est revealed excess H I and C IV absorp- be conducted with those data, and many Kamann, S., Wisotzki, L. & Roth, M. M. 2013, A&A,
549, A71
tion near LAEs out to 250 kpc in the discoveries to be made.
Kamann, S. et al. 2018, MNRAS, 473, 5591
transverse direction and 500 km s –1 along Kerutt, J. et al. 2022, A&A, 659, A183
the line of sight (Muzahid et al., 2021). Krajnović, D. et al. 2018, MNRAS, 477, 5327
References Kusakabe, H. et al. 2022, A&A, 660, A44
de La Vieuville, G. et al. 2019, A&A, 628, A3
Abril-Melgarejo, V. et al. 2021, A&A, 647, A152 Leclercq, F. et al. 2017, A&A, 608, A8
Conclusion Bacon, R. et al. 2010, Proc. SPIE, 7735, 773508 Leclercq, F. et al. 2022, A&A, 663, A11
Bacon, R. et al. 2014, The Messenger, 157, 13 Maseda, M. V. et al. 2017, A&A, 608, A4
The GTO data collection phase is com- Bacon, R. et al. 2017, A&A, 608, A1 Maseda, M. V. et al. 2018, ApJL, 865, L1
Bacon, R. et al. 2021, A&A, 647, A107 Maseda, M. V. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 493, 5120
plete, but we still have a long way to go Bacon, R. et al. 2023, A&A, 670, A4 Mercier, W. et al. 2022, A&A, 665, A54
with exploiting the richness of our MUSE Bina, D. et al. 2016, A&A, 590, A14 Monreal-Ibero, A., Weilbacher, P. M. & Wendt, M.
data cubes. Analysis is going further for Boogaard, L. A. et al. 2018, A&A, 619, A27 2018, A&A, 615, A33
several of the above-mentioned endeav- Borisova, E. et al. 2016, ApJ, 831, 39 Monreal-Ibero, A. et al. 2023, A&A, 674, A210
Bouché, N. F. et al. 2021, A&A, 654, A49 Muzahid, S. et al. 2021, MNRAS, 508, 5612
ours, and that will keep us busy for some Bouché, N. F. et al. 2022, A&A, 658, A76 Nanayakkara, T. et al. 2019, A&A, 624, A89
years to come. The astronomical com- den Brok, M. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 491, 4089 Pagotto, I. et al. 2021, A&A, 649, A63
munity has also indirectly benefited from den Brok, M. et al. 2021, MNRAS, 508, 4786 Patrício, V. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 489, 224
our continued involvement in observing Cantalupo, S. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 483, 5188 Richard, J. et al. 2021, A&A, 646, A83
Charlot, S. & Fall, S. M. 1993, ApJ, 415, 580 Roth, M. M. et al. 2018, A&A, 618, A3
with MUSE. We have triggered repeated Contini, T. et al. 2016, A&A, 591, A49 Schaerer, D. 2002, A&A, 382, 28
upgrades of the MUSE Data Reduction Drake, A. B. et al. 2017, A&A, 608, A6 Schmidt, K. B. et al. 2021, A&A, 654, A80
System (Weilbacher et al., 2020), and Claeyssens, A. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 489, 5022 Spavone, M. et al. 2021, A&A, 649, A161
those have played a major role in making Claeyssens, A. et al. 2022, A&A, 666, A78 Urrutia, T. et al. 2019, A&A, 624, A141
Epinat, B. et al. 2018, A&A, 609, A40 Wendt, M. et al. 2021, MNRAS, 502, 3733
MUSE such a popular instrument. We Epinat, B. et al. 2023, submitted to A&A Weilbacher, P. M. et al. 2018, A&A, 611, A95
further invested significant effort into Erroz-Ferrer, S. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 484, 5009 Weilbacher, P. M. et al. 2020, A&A, 641, A28
developing advanced data analysis soft- Feltre, A. et al. 2020, A&A, 641, A118 Wisotzki, L. et al. 2016, A&A, 587, A98
ware specifically tuned for MUSE sci- Finley, H. et al. 2017, A&A, 605, A118 Wisotzki, L. et al. 2018, Nature, 562, 229
Genzel, R. et al. 2020, ApJ, 902, 98 Zabl, J. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 485, 1961
ence, most of it now in the public domain. Giesers, B. et al. 2018, MNRAS, 475, L15 Zabl, J. et al. 2021, MNRAS, 507, 4294
We have provided extensive catalogues Giesers, B. et al. 2019, A&A, 632, A3 Zoutendijk, S. L. et al. 2020, A&A, 635, A107
and user-friendly data access interfaces González-Torà, G. et al. 2022, A&A, 658, A117 Zoutendijk, S. L. et al. 2021a, A&A, 651, A80
for several of our deep field surveys and Guérou, A. et al. 2017, A&A, 608, A5 Zoutendijk, S. L. et al. 2021b, arXiv:2112.09374
Gunawardhana, M. L. P. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 497, Zoutendijk, S. L. 2022, PhD Thesis, Leiden University
will continue to do so for the remaining 3860
A photograph showing most of the telescopes that

make up ESO’s Very Large Telescope. At the centre,
to the right of the setting Sun, Unit Telescope 1
stands ready to observe. It started operating
25 years ago.

Astronomical Science DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5336
The VISTA Star Formation Atlas (VISIONS)
Stefan Meingast 1
ESO/Meingast et al. 2023a

João Alves 1
Herve Bouy 2
for the VISIONS collaboration
1
Institute for Astrophysics, University of
Vienna, Austria
2
Astrophysics Laboratory, University of
Bordeaux, France
VISIONS is a public survey that explores

five nearby star-forming molecular
cloud complexes. The observing pro-
gramme finished in March 2022, after
collecting more than one million individ-
ual images in the near-infrared pass-
bands J, H, and KS over a period of five
years. VISIONS aims to provide a com-
prehensive legacy archive similar to the
Two Micron All Sky Survey. In addition,
multi-epoch observations facilitate
proper motion measurements for
sources inaccessible to Gaia. VISIONS
addresses science cases related to the
identification of young stars, their 3D
motions, the evolution of embedded
star clusters, and the characteristics of
interstellar dust.
Scientific context
Stars form deep within cold, filamentary

molecular cloud complexes whose dust ID 090.C-0797A). The primary goal of these Figure 1. Colour images assembled from VISIONS
observations in the near-infrared bands J (blue chan-
content shrouds young stars from obser- earlier observations was to characterise
nel), H (green channel), and KS (red channel). The top
vation at visible wavelengths. As a conse- the young stellar object (YSO) population left panel displays the Lupus III molecular cloud. At
quence, ESO facilities in particular con- and the characteristics of dust in the the top right, the infrared source IRAS 11051-7706
tinue to play a pivotal role in deepening Orion A molecular cloud. VISIONS substan- is visible. HH 909 A in the bottom left features a
remarkable, cone-shaped reflection cavity. The bottom
our understanding of this intricate pro- tially expands this pilot programme, as
right depicts the Coronet cluster in the Corona Aus-
cess, offering as they do large-aperture regards both the scientific context and the tralis star-forming complex where it illuminates parts
telescopes together with state-of-the-art number of observed star formation sites. of the surrounding gas and dust.
instrumentation capable of high-resolution
infrared imaging. The star formation sites VISIONS targets a total of five nearby star-
in the solar neighbourhood have been forming complexes in the near-infrared
popular targets for observational studies (NIR) wavelength regime, using the VISTA regions inherit their names from the
since they provide the only environment telescope and the now decommissioned constellations against which they are pro-
where the star formation process can be infrared camera VIRCAM2 (Emerson, jected on the sky: Chamaeleon, Corona
physically resolved, thereby enabling the McPherson & Sutherland, 2006). Together, Australis, Lupus, Ophiuchus, and Orion.
study of individual sources. these sites harbour thousands of YSOs Figure 1 displays four RGB images assem-
(see, for example, Evans et al., 2009; bled from the NIR VISIONS data. These
VISIONS1,a (Meingast et al., 2023a,b) is a Dunham et al., 2015; Großschedl et al., examples showcase the Lupus III molec-
Cycle 2 Public Survey with the Visible 2019) which are themselves embedded in ular cloud (top left), the spectacular infra-
and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astron- more than a hundred thousand solar red sources IRAS 11051-7706 (top right)
omy (VISTA), which closely follows in masses of molecular gas and dust (see, and HH 909 A (bottom left) in Chamaeleon,
the footsteps of a previous ESO observ- for example, André et al., 2010; Lombardi, and the Coronet cluster (bottom right),
ing programme, the Vienna Survey in Alves & Lada, 2011; Alves, Lombardi & which is embedded in the Corona
Orion (Meingast et al., 2016; programme Lada, 2014). The targeted star-forming Australis molecular cloud complex b.

The primary goal of VISIONS is to establish tude. Results for about 30 000 sources characteristic of early YSO evolutionary
a NIR legacy archive, similar in structure are shown for both VISIONS data alone stages, are also accessible through the
and content to the Two Micron All Sky and the combination of VISIONS and high-quality NIR imaging data.
Survey (2MASS; Skrutskie et al., 2006). VHS data. For a robust estimation of
Particularly, the increased sensitivity limits errors, the ordinate in this figure displays Furthermore, with VISIONS it becomes
(~ 6 magnitudes fainter than 2MASS), the the standard deviation of the difference possible to explore cluster formation pro-
sub-arcsecond resolution, and the pro- between VISIONS and Gaia proper cesses and properties of the initial mass
vided absolute astrometry at the milli- motions, for sources detected in both function. The survey’s ability to detect
arcsecond level make VISIONS a valuable surveys. The figure not only reveals that young sources with masses of only a few
foundation for future observations con- using VHS data is crucial to the accuracy MJupiter allows for a robust sampling of all
ducted at ESO. In particular, ESO’s of the proper motion measurements, but star formation products, also enabling a
Extremely Large Telescope will also ben- also that in this experiment VISIONS study of regional variations in the mass
efit from the survey for photometric and delivers proper motions with errors below function at the lowest substellar mass
astrometric cross-calibration and for tar- 1 mas yr –1 only in an H-band magnitude ranges. Furthermore, the interplay between
get selection purposes. range from about 11 mag to 16 mag. The localised feedback effects and the pro-
cutoff at the bright end is a consequence duction of low-mass stars, and connec-
A key aspect of the survey relates to its of saturation, while the faint limit is given tion between the maximum stellar mass
design, that enables the proper motions by the single-exposure sensitivity limit. In and the cluster size can be investigated.
of deeply embedded young stars to be future we expect to reach similar preci-
measured, as well as sources with sion for proper motions of fainter stars Another integral aspect of the VISIONS sci-
sub-stellar masses in the vicinity of the when using stacked image data. We note entific objectives addresses the dust con-
observed regions. VISIONS is therefore here that the used VHS data were repro- tent of the observed molecular clouds. In
highly complementary to the Gaia mission cessed with the VISIONS pipeline for a this regard, the high-sensitivity NIR obser-
(Gaia Collaboration et al., 2016), which much improved astrometric solution. vations of the VISIONS programme enable
has already proven to be instrumental in a comprehensive census of the back-
our understanding of local star-forming Another central pillar of the VISIONS sci- ground field population and consequently
processes and the shape of the interstel- ence goals is related to the identification
lar medium on large scales (see, for and characterisation of YSOs. The excellent
example, Zucker et al., 2022 and refer- quality of the optical system, that together Figure 2. VISIONS proper motion performance as a
ences therein). Yet, owing to the nature of with the excellent observing conditions at function of H-band magnitude. The performance
metric σµ is calculated as the standard deviation of
Gaia’s optical observations, the 3D Paranal delivers images at sub-arcsecond the difference between Gaia proper motions and
dynamics of the most deeply embedded resolution, permits the meticulous investi- VISIONS measurements, which were obtained from
sources, which are still dynamically cou- gation of YSO morphology. In particular, single (unstacked) exposures. The black line depicts
pled to their natal molecular cloud, as well light scattered off nebulae surrounding σµ when calculated only from VISIONS data. The red
line shows the performance when VHS data, which
as of the low-mass stellar field population, YSOs can be a useful tool for confirming significantly extends the time baseline, are included.
remain largely unexplored as of today. their protostellar nature. Moreover, high- The cutoff at the bright end is due to saturation, the
velocity jets and outflows, which are faint end is limited by the signal-to-noise ratio.
As regards the difficulty of making
ground-based proper motion measure-
ments, VISIONS was designed to be VISIONS + VHS VISIONS
complementary to the VISTA Hemisphere
3
Survey (VHS; McMahon et al., 2013), a
previous-generation VISTA Public Survey
which covers the entire southern hemi-
sphere. Given that VHS observations
began in 2009, for some areas VISIONS
has access to a time baseline of more 2
than 10 years. Based on previous experi-
σμ (mas year –1)
ence (for example, Bouy et al., 2013),

VISIONS was designed to reach a proper
motion measurement precision on the
order of 1 mas yr –1 for bright sources 1
(H < 16 mag), corresponding to a physical
velocity of 0.5 km s –1 at a distance of
100 pc. Based on VISIONS data obtained
for a 1.5 × 1 degree large field in the
Corona Australis region, Figure 2 shows 0
the measured preliminary proper motion 10 12 14 16 18
accuracy as a function of H-band magni- H-band magnitude

Astronomical Science Meingast, S. et al., The VISTA Star Formation Atlas (VISIONS)
Wide Deep Control Science verification Figure 3. Spatial cover-

age of VISIONS. The
filled blue boxes repre-
sent individual VIRCAM
tiles in the wide subsur-
Ophiuchus
20° vey. These were revis-
ited a total of six times
over the course of the
survey. The red boxes
Lupus depict the pointings in
10°
Pipe the deep subsurvey,
which includes high-
Galactic latitude
sensitivity observations
of the regions with
0° the highest column-
densities. The green
boxes mark the control
subsurvey which targeted
– 10° areas with minimal dust
Chamaelon extinction for statistical
comparisons. Figure
Orion adapted from Meingast
– 20° et al. (2023a)
Corona Australis
0° 340° 320° 300° 280° 260° 240° 220° 200°

Galactic longitude
the construction of high-resolution extinc- between April 2017 and March 2022, one minute. Additionally, all observations
tion maps using well-established methods acquiring more than 19 TB of raw data within the wide subsurvey were carried
(for example, Lombardi & Alves, 2001). comprising more than a million individual out in the H band. In this way, these data
These maps will enable an unbiased and images. The total covered area measures are complementary to the J- and KS-band
well-sampled view of the clouds’ core more than 650 deg2 with a total on-sky VHS observations. The 5-sigma sensitiv-
mass functions for comparison with their exposure time of about 50 hours in the ity limit for these data was determined to
stellar counterparts. The maps will also NIR passbands J (1.25 µm), H (1.65 µm), be about 20 mag, albeit with a relatively
help with investigating properties of and KS (2.15 µm). large spread of about 0.5 mag, depend-
dense cores, establishing a connection ing on atmospheric conditions during the
between dense cores and YSOs, and The spatial coverage of the VISIONS sur- observations.
mapping their spatial distribution within vey is globally divided into three comple-
clouds. In this context, VISIONS also mentary subsurveys, referred to as wide, The deep subsurvey includes observa-
aims to examine the universality of the deep and control. Figure 3 displays the tions in the J, H and KS bands and tar-
NIR reddening law and the dust properties VISIONS coverage, separated into the gets areas with the highest column den-
of the molecular clouds. The targeted subsurveys, on top of Planck 857-GHz sities within the star-forming regions. This
regions are particularly well suited for this data (Planck Collaboration et al., 2011). subsurvey utilises long exposure times to
task, since they are largely isolated and The figure shows the survey setup for the reach a sensitivity limit that is similar to
found well outside the Galactic plane wide programme in blue, deep observa- that of the Orion A observations pub-
where multiple cloud complexes overlap tions in red, and control data in green. In lished by Meingast et al. (2016). The cov-
along the line of sight. Combining the addition, the Orion B VISTA science verifi- ered area amounts to about 36 deg2
extinction data with emission maps cation data, captured in 2009, are shown which is substantially smaller than for the
obtained by the Herschel and Planck in orange (Petr-Gotzens et al., 2011). wide observations. Moreover, to limit the
missions will also allow the ratio of the execution time of the observation blocks,
submillimetre dust opacity to the NIR The wide subsurvey comprises the bulk each deep field pointing was observed
extinction coefficient to be studied. of the VISIONS observing programme twice for a total exposure time of 10 min-
and covers the star-forming complexes utes. These observations typically reach
on scales of several degrees. This part of sensitivity limits six magnitudes fainter than
Survey overview the programme was executed six times 2MASS, or about 21.5 mag, 21 mag, and
during the survey in order to provide 19.5 mag in J, H and KS, respectively.
VISIONS observations include five promi- multiple epochs so as to facilitate meas-
nent star-forming molecular cloud com- urements of stellar proper motions. Finally, the control subsurvey was
plexes that are situated within a distance Owing to its large extent, the observations designed to map regions with minimal
of 500 pc (for example, Zucker et al., were designed to be carried out swiftly dust extinction, collecting data on
2020). The observations were carried out with an effective on-sky exposure time of unextincted stellar field populations for

statistical comparisons to the other Firstly, we employ a sophisticated resam- this graph, but instead aligns well with the
observations in VISIONS. The individual pling algorithm that uses Lanczos kernels, offset expected from the mean proper
field pointings were selected to collect in contrast to bilinear interpolation, as motion of this field (marked as dashed
data at the same galactic latitudes as the employed by the CASU workflow. This lines). Moreover, the standard deviation of
deep observations for each region, albeit leads to an improved resolution in the this distribution is on the order of 10 milli-
shifted in galactic longitude to map stacked data products where our meth- arcseconds for all sources (and about
largely extinction-free areas. With a cov- ods typically produce 20% narrower 3 milliarcseconds for bright sources),
erage of only about 16 deg2, the control point-source FWHMs. highlighting the extraordinary performance
observations comprise the smallest part of VISIONS astrometry.
of VISIONS. Secondly, the astrometric solution is
computed against an adaptive reference Thirdly, because of the slightly different
catalogue, generated from the Gaia DR3 filter systems, VIRCAM measurements
Data processing and data releases database. Before cross-correlating typically require a colour transformation
sources detected on the VIRCAM images to obtain photometry compatible with the
All data acquired within the VISIONS pro- with the Gaia reference catalogue, our 2MASS system (for example, Coccato,
gramme are processed with an optimised approach warps the reference frame to Freudling & Retzlaff, 2021). In contrast, our
pipeline package that was specifically the epoch of the observations, a method pipeline is principally designed to calibrate
developed for the requirements of this that has only recently become possible all photometric data against the 2MASS
survey. Details of the pipeline are given by thanks to the superb astrometric data source catalogue and also produces only
Meingast et al. (2023b). Here we provide quality provided by Gaia. In this way, our negligible residual colour terms (see Fig-
only an abbreviated overview of all proce- image products are not calibrated against ure 8 of Meingast et al., 2023b).
dures involved, particularly highlighting a specific mean epoch given by the refer-
the performance with respect to image ence catalogue (for example, approxi- So far, the VISIONS team has produced
quality, photometry and astrometry. The mately J2000 for 2MASS, or J2016.0 for two major data releases. Data Release 17
pipeline itself is implemented in Python Gaia DR3). Instead, the VISIONS source includes only the deep and control field
and relies heavily on vectorised computa- position epochs correspond to the actual data for the Ophiuchus field. Data
tions for the required performance and date of the observations. This not only Release 28 features an already substan-
on open source software, where, fore- enables a much more robust and precise tially larger data volume and was pub-
most, the AstrOmatic software tools are astrometric calibration, but also offers the lished in March 2022. This latest release
employed for source detection and extrac- possibility of considering our position includes all observed data in the three
tion, computation of astrometric solutions, measurements absolute. Figure 4 visual- subsurveys related to the Corona Austra-
and optimised image stacking (Bertin & ises this characteristic, which shows the lis complex. All data (images and source
Arnouts, 1996; Bertin 2010a,b). The pack- difference between source positions catalogues) are available through the ESO
age is publicly available on GitHub3 and (right ascension and declination) meas- Science Archive Facility. Details of the
can be easily accessed in a virtual envi- ured on the (fully calibrated) Corona contents of these releases are available in
ronment provided by a Docker image 4. Australis control field and Gaia DR3. the respective release documentation.
While Gaia DR3 positions refer to epoch
The pipeline is designed to work out of J2016.0, VISIONS recorded these spe-
the box with raw data downloaded from cific data at epoch J2018.36. This differ- Outlook
the ESO Science Archive 5. It also gener- ence of about two years becomes evident
ates its own calibration frames and in the offset of the shown distribution, The majority of the VISIONS observations
tables, including bad pixel masks, dark which does not centre on the origin in have yet to be published. At the time of
frames, flat fields, non-linearity coeffi-
cients, gain and read-noise tables, weight
maps, and illumination corrections. Fur- σΔα = 11.4 mas
thermore, Gaia DR3 (Gaia Collaboration Figure 4. Comparison of source coordinates as
σΔδ = 11.6 mas
et al., 2021) and 2MASS serve as astro- 100

determined by VISIONS and the Gaia DR3 catalogue
metric and photometric references, for the Corona Australis control field. The axes repre-
sent the differences in right ascension (y-axis) and
respectively. The science frames undergo 50 declination (x-axis) between the two datasets. All
a series of processing steps which largely astrometric solutions for VISIONS were calculated
Δδ (mas)
remove the instrumental signature and against a Gaia frame (J2016.0) adjusted to the epoch
employ a sophisticated multi-step back- 0 of the VISIONS observation (J2018.36). Conse-
quently, the distribution is not centred on the origin,
ground subtraction routine. In comparison
but aligns with the expected mean shift, marked by
to VIRCAM data products processed by – 50 grey dashed lines. The black histograms at the top
other pipeline environments (for example and on the right of the plot align well with a Gaussian
those provided by the Cambridge Astro- distribution (highlighted in red) that has a mean at
nomical Survey Unit6 [CASU]), we identify –100 the anticipated shift and a standard deviation that
matches the statistical error as reported during the
three major differences in our workflow. –100 – 50 0 50 100
astrometric calibration. Figure adapted from Meingast
Δα* (mas) et al. (2023b)

Astronomical Science Meingast, S. et al., The VISTA Star Formation Atlas (VISIONS)
writing the VISIONS team is simultaneously Acknowledgements Skrutskie, M. F. et al. 2006, AJ, 131, 1163
Zucker, C. et al. 2020, A&A, 633, A51
working on future data releases, as well
We thank the ESO Survey Team and the Archive Zucker, C. et al. 2022, arXiv, arXiv:2212.00067
as testing proper motion measurements. Science Group for their helpful and constructive
Specifically, the team plans to publish all feedback and collaboration during the preparation,
data for each star-forming region in sepa- execution, and data publication phases of the survey. Links
rate data releases, with Data Release 3
1
VISIONS homepage: http://visions.univie.ac.at
focusing on the Chamaeleon observa-
References 2
V IRCAM webpage: https://www.eso.org/sci/
tions. The order of subsequent publica- facilities/paranal/instruments/vircam.html
tions is currently set by the expected data André, Ph. et al. 2010, A&A, 518, L102 3
Pipeline GitHub repository: https://github.com/
volume, i.e., Lupus will follow Chamaeleon Alves, J., Lombardi, M. & Lada, C. J. 2014, A&A, smeingast/vircampype
(DR4), followed by Ophiuchus (DR5), and 565, A18 4
D ocker platform: https://www.docker.com/
Bertin, E. & Arnouts 1996, S. A&AS, 117, 393 5
ESO Science Archive Facility: http://archive.eso.org/
lastly the Orion data will be made public Bertin, E. 2010a, ascl.soft, ascl:1010.063 6
Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit (CASU):
(DR6). In addition, the VISIONS team Bertin, E. 2010b, ascl.soft, ascl:1010.068 http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk/
plans to reprocess the Orion A and B Bouy, H. et al. 2013, A&A, 554, A101 7
DR1 description: https://www.eso.org/rm/api/v1/
fields obtained by Meingast et al. (2016) Coccato, L., Freudling, W. & Retzlaff, J. 2021,
public/releaseDescriptions/123
The Messenger, 183, 20
and the VISTA Science verification efforts. Dunham, M. M. et al. 2015, ApJS, 220, 11
8
DR2 description: https://www.eso.org/rm/api/v1/
Furthermore, in addition to the data public/releaseDescriptions/190
Emerson, J., McPherson, A. & Sutherland, W. 2006, 9
C entre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
releases through the ESO archive, we The Messenger, 126, 41
https://cds.unistra.fr/
plan to reformat all source catalogues to Evans, N. J. et al. 2009, ApJS, 181, 321
Gaia Collaboration et al. 2016, A&A, 595, A1
match the 2MASS convention (with simi- Gaia Collaboration et al. 2021, A&A, 649, A1
lar quality flags, for example), reprocess Großschedl, J. E. et al. 2019, A&A, 622, A149 Notes
VHS observations with the VISIONS pipe- Lombardi, M. & Alves, J. 2001, A&A, 377, 1023
a
Lombardi, M., Alves, J. & Lada, C. J. 2011, A&A, V ISIONS programme ID 198.C-2009
line, and publish a band-merged cata- b
535, A16 T he RGB images displayed in Figure 1 were
logue via CDS 9. McMahon, R. G. et al. 2013, The Messenger, 154, 35 published as an ESO press release (ID eso2307;
Meingast, S. et al. 2016, A&A, 587, A153 https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2307/)
Meingast, S. et al. 2023a, A&A, 673, A58
Meingast, S. et al. 2023b, A&A, 673, A59
Petr-Gotzens, M. et al. 2011, The Messenger, 145, 29
Planck Collaboration et al. 2011, A&A, 536, A1
Despite its name, ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the
P. Horálek/ESO
VLT, is not a single telescope! It is in fact made up of
an array of four 8.2-metre-diameter Unit Telescopes
(UTs) (one of which is shown here) and four addi-
tional, movable, 1.8-metre-diameter Auxiliary Tele-
scopes (ATs) (three of which are visible on the right
side of this image).
Each UT has its own individual name in the Mapuche

(Mapudungun) language. The star of this image is
Antu (or UT1, the first of the UTs), and is pictured
here sitting atop Cerro Paranal in Chile. This poly-
chromatic image, taken by ESO Photo Ambassador
Petr Horálek, also captures the beautiful colours of
the cloudy night sky encircling Antu.
Many night-sky objects are visible here. Starting

from the left we see the pink California Nebula, the
Pleiades star cluster, the fiery river of the Milky Way,
the constellation of Orion and its famous Belt, the
looping Gum Nebula, the Carina Nebula and the
Southern Cross. The most curious features are the
green bands or stripes to the right of Antu’s enclo-
sure. They are atmospheric gravity waves, generated
by storms forming ripples in the greenish layer of
Earth’s airglow in the upper atmosphere. This image
also appeared in an ESOcast dedicated to Red
Sprites, which can occur under similar conditions as
gravity waves.

ESO. Acknowledgements: Flickr user hdahle70
This image from the Wide-Field Imager on the

MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope shows the starry
skies around a galaxy cluster named PLCKESZ
G286.6-31.3. The cluster itself is difficult to spot
initially, but shows up as a subtle clustering of
yellowish galaxies near the centre of the frame.
Telescopes and Instrumentation
E. Garcés/ESO. Acknowledgements.: N. Dubost
It might look like the opening scene from The Lion

King, but this stunning image was actually taken
in the Chilean Atacama Desert rather than the
African savannas. Taking centre stage is ESO’s
Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), or part of it,
at least.
The ELT’s steel dome is about 80 metres tall and

one day it will play host to the world’s biggest eye
on the sky. When finished, the dome will weigh
some 6100 tonnes and be capable of rotating
360 degrees on a set of 36 stationary trolleys.
Telescopes and Instrumentation DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5337
ERIS Science Verifications
Alice Concas 1 mirror and delivers diffraction-limited spa- of gravitational lenses, characterisation
Ric Davies 2 tial resolution with Strehl ratios of better of emission-line objects, for example
Monika G. Petr-Gotzens 1 than 0.6 for λ > 2 μm. The atmospheric young stars, and searches for exoplanets
Marianne Heida 1 turbulence can be sensed with either a using different high-contrast methods.
Harald Kuntschner 1 natural guide star, or a single artificial star Integral-field spectroscopy and high-
Bruno Leibundgut 1 generated with the Adaptive Optics Facil- contrast imaging were in high demand.
Michaël Marsset 1 ity (AOF). ERIS replaces and expands the
Robert J. De Rosa 1 capabilities of the decommissioned
Lowell Tacconi-Garman 1 Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System (NAOS) Observations
Zahed Wahhaj 1 – COudé Near-Infrared CAmera (CONICA)
Thomas Wevers 1 combination (together known as NACO) The ERIS SV nights were scheduled from
Diego Parraguez 1 and Spectrograph for INtegral Field 2 to 6 December 2022. In general, the
Israel Blanchard 1 Observations in the Near-Infrared (SINFONI) conditions were quite good, i.e. mostly
in a single instrument. A full description of photometric and clear. The first night had
ERIS can be found in Davies et al. (2023). poor seeing (up to 1.5 arcseconds), but
1
ESO substantially better observing conditions
2
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial were encountered during the following
Physics, Garching, Germany Proposal solicitation and submission three nights.
The call for ERIS Science Verification (SV) ERIS performed well, although some diffi-
The Enhanced Resolution Imager and proposals1 was issued on 16 September culties with the adaptive optics (AO) were
Spectrograph (ERIS) is the new near- 2022. With the call, the ERIS SV web- experienced during the first night. The
infrared instrument at the Cassegrain page2 was launched. Eighty-seven pro- third night suffered from a loss of time
focus of Unit Telescope 4 (UT4) of ESO’s posals were received by the deadline that was due to an instrument cryogenic
Very Large Telescope. Its Science Veri- on 14 October 2022 requesting in total alarm, which needed to be investigated.
fication (SV) was scheduled from 2 to 215 hours. This was the highest demand The beginning of the last night was
6 December 2022 during which time for recent instrument SVs. The SV team affected by a failure of the telescope
conditions were mostly good. Most of ranked the proposals according to scien- guide camera, which delayed the start
the planned SV observing programme tific interest and the final selection was of observing by one hour. Some pro-
could be accomplished. Out of 87 sub- discussed at a meeting on 3 November grammes were affected by glitches (for
mitted proposals 23 observing pro- 2022. Twenty-three projects were example errors associated with the
grammes were scheduled for a total of selected for a total of 40 hours of execu- Standards Platform for Adaptive optics
40 hours of observations. The allocation tion time. Two proposals were rejected Real Time Applications 3 (SPARTA); AO
had assumed observations in four nights entirely, and one target was rejected from loop opening) and only received partial
(eight hours each) and included a slight a third, because of conflicts with submit- data. The collaboration between the sci-
oversubscription. Five of the seven top- ted P111 proposals. The approved pro- ence operations on Paranal and the sup-
ranked proposals could be fully com- jects oversubscribed the available time port team in Garching (via the Garching
pleted, the other two received partial slightly to account for atmospheric condi- Remote Access Facility) worked well and
data. In total, eleven programmes could tions and target visibility. The proposers we also received technical support from
be completed, seven were partially were informed about the outcome of the the team at Arcetri Observatory who
observed and three programmes could selection on 8 November 2022. Owing to developed the AO subsystem for ERIS.
not be started. Some smaller technical a technical problem at the end of the last
problems with the adaptive optics commissioning run in November 2022, As in previous cases, ERIS SV provided
affected parts of the observations. NIX’s pupil wheel mechanism was left an excellent opportunity to test and
fixed in the imaging position. This pre- diagnose issues related to the operability
cluded the execution of any approved SV of the instrument, especially the acquisi-
Brief instrument description programme requesting use of the apo tion of faint targets and crowded regions.
dising phase plate coronagraph. Three Valuable lessons were learned and pro-
ERIS has two arms: SPIFFIER, the refur- projects were therefore not feasible, and vided the opportunity to implement fixes/
bished version of the Spectrometer for the PIs were informed accordingly on changes before the instrument started
Infrared Faint Field Imaging (SPIFFI), and 23 November. The Phase 2 deadline for regular operations with P111 (in April 2023).
the Near Infrared Camera System (NIX). the submission of the observing blocks
SPIFFIER is a medium-resolution integral was 25 November 2022.
field spectrograph covering the J to K Data processing
bands. NIX is capable of imaging between Proposed scientific topics included galaxy
the J and M bands, and offers corona- structures across redshift space, kine- All raw data are publicly available through
graphic and L-band long-slit capabilities. matic searches for signatures of stellar- the ESO science archive. The ERIS SV
ERIS is designed to be used in conjunc- mass black holes or binary supermassive webpage2 provides direct links to the raw
tion with UT4’s deformable secondary black holes in galaxy centres, observations data in the archive. A preliminary version

Telescopes and Instrumentation Concas, A. et al., ERIS Science Verifications
Outflows from forming stars
Forming stars drive jets and outflows.

These outflows are often detected in
optical emission lines that are excited in
shocks or molecules entrained in the
outflow. In massive star-forming regions,
jets and outflows are illuminated by exter-
nal UV photons that dissociate molecules
and ionise atoms, changing the observa-
tional picture. The template irradiated
outflow is HH 900, located in the Carina
star-forming region. The cold molecular
outflow is clearly seen inside its natal
H2 globule in CO with the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) but
~100 au Brγ ends abruptly at the edge of the globule
(Reiter et al., 2020). Outside the globule,
classic jet-sensitive lines like Hα and [S II]
seen with MUSE trace an ionised wide-
Figure 1. Two ERIS views of the planetary disc around the O-type star θ2 Ori A, was observed angle outflow that extends smoothly from
θ2 Ori A. The left image shows the Brγ emission in a
with two spaxel scales: the larger field of the end of the CO outflow and surrounds
field of view of 8 × 8 arcseconds, while the right
image shows details of the planetary disc in H2 in a view (8 x 8 arcseconds) covered the whole a collimated jet seen in [Fe II] (Reiter et al.,
field of view of 0.8 × 0.8 arcseconds. In both images object, and the smaller one (0.8 × 0.8 arc 2019). ERIS/SPIFFIER reveals the transi-
north is up and east to the left. seconds) zoomed-in to the central tion between the purely molecular and
protoplanetary disc. fully ionised components where molecules
in the outflow are rapidly dissociating (see
ERIS can resolve the various compo- Figure 2). Understanding this dissociating
of the ERIS data reduction pipeline was nents of the proplyd in greater detail and component is an important step towards
made available to the PIs through the SV better constrain their density and temper- accounting for the full mass-loss in irradi-
Web page. In the meantime, the ERIS ature than the instruments it replaces. ated jets and outflows. Results from this
pipeline has been released4. The observations with ERIS are comple- programme (Reiter et al., submitted to
mentary to those with the Multi Unit MNRAS) will guide the interpretation of
Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) and the
Some early SV results JWST and help to create a comprehen-
sive view of the structure and physical Figure 2. Outflow from the HH 900 tadpole at various
First results of some of the SV observa- conditions of 244-440. wavelengths.
tions are presented below. They have been
kindly provided by the research teams.
H 2 1–0 S(1) from ERIS – greyscale
– 59° 44' 18" CO J = 2–1 from ALMA – red/blue contours
Protoplanetary discs [Fe II] from HST – white contours
The evolutionary pathways of individual

protoplanetary discs can differ, depending 20"
on the surrounding environment, espe-
cially in the presence of massive stars
(see the review by Parker, 2020). The UV
radiation from O-type stars in massive 22"
clusters can photo-evaporate discs and
strongly affect their size, mass, and sur-
vival timescale (for example, Winter &
Haworth, 2022). 24"
ERIS/SPIFFIER obtained a spatially and

spectrally resolved image of the large
26"
irradiated protoplanetary disc (proplyd)
244-440 in the Orion Nebula Cluster
(Figure 1). The proplyd, illuminated by 10 h 45 m 20.0 s 19.5 s 19.0 s 18.5 s

three datacubes a total of 21 lines of produced datacubes in the K band pro-
[Fe II], eight lines of H2, two lines of [Ti II], viding the spatial and spectral diversity at
and one line each of [P II], He I and R = 5000 resolution needed to remove
Paschen β could be detected. Figure 3 the stellar halo, reveal the emission of the
shows the HH1 jet in the strong 1.6435 μm faint (K ≈ 17 mag) exoplanet (Figure 4),
line of [Fe II]. A series of five knots, con- and look for molecular absorptions (H2O,
nected by fainter inter-knot emission, is CO) in the atmosphere of the object. The
visible, extending in a north-westerly observations demonstrate the potential of
direction. The high spatial resolution of the instrument to capture images and
the image reveals that in fact there are spectra of substellar companions and cir-
two jets crossing each other in projection. cumstellar discs in the vicinity of stellar
The fainter HH501 jet becomes visible and substellar host stars.
just north of the HH1 jet and is crossing it
in projection. The series of knots along
these jets are resolved into small bow Lensed galaxy spectrum
shocks. The large number of iron lines
Figure 3. Image slice of the ERIS data cube in the and H2 lines enables a detailed analysis ERIS observed a strongly lensed hyper-
1.6435 μm emission line of [Fe II]. The knotty struc-
of the increasing extinction towards the luminous infrared galaxy, PJ0116–24,
ture of HH1 jet is clearly visible. It is crossed in pro-
jection by the fainter HH501 jet. The field of view is jet source VLA1 and of the excitation at z = 2.125 (Figure 5). The different gal-
8 × 8 arcseconds. North is up, and east is to the left. state of the outflowing jet gas with both axy images are aligned in a near-perfect
its atomic and its molecular components. circle. The galaxy has a magnified infra-
red luminosity of LIR ≈ 1 × 1014 L☉ and an
intrinsic star formation rate of SNR 1820
near-infrared observations of jets and Exoplanet characterisation ± 460 M☉ yr–1 (Kamieneski et al., 2023),
outflows in massive star-forming regions and it is a member of the rare class of
(for example with the JWST) and provide ERIS was operated in the LGS mode to hyper-luminous infrared galaxies that are
a template for the further development of resolve the young (~ 2.5 Myr) Taurus sys- usually thought to be extremely dust
models of irradiated jets and outflows (for tem 2M0347 consisting of a 0.15–0.18 M☉ obscured.
example, Estrella-Trujillo et al., 2021). star and a 3–5 MJup exoplanet. SPIFFIER
The prototypical jet HH1
Protostellar outflows play a crucial role in Radial profile

1.00
the formation and evolution of stars since
they remove excess angular momentum
from the star-disc system and return 2000 0.75
material into the surrounding cloud (Frank
et al., 2014). The Herbig-Haro 1 (HH1) jet
represents a prototypical Class 0 jet with 0.50
Δ Declination (milliarcseconds)
interesting kinematical features. It has

been traced in H2 2.121 μm (for example, 1000
Garcia Lopez et al., 2008) and [Fe II] 0.25
1.64 μm (for example, Erkal et al., 2021)
Flux (ADU)
as close as 1–2 arcseconds from its driv-

ing source VLA1, a deeply embedded 0 0.00
Class 0 protostar.
Observations were carried out with the –0.25

SPIFFIER arm of ERIS, using the laser –1000
guide star (LGS) mode with a nearby star –0.50
for tip-tilt corrections. The grating configu-
rations J_middle, H_middle, and K_middle Figure 4. Detection of a
were observed, giving spectral resolu- – 2000 –0.75 3–5 Jupiter-mass planet
tions of about 10 000, 10 400, and 11 200, around 2M0347. The
respectively. The 250-milliarcsecond image is the collapsed
–1.00 cube of a SPIFFIER
plate scale was used, giving spaxels of observation and will
125 × 250 milliarcseconds, and a total 1000 0 –1000
enable direct spectros-
field of view of 8 × 8 arcseconds. In the Δ Right ascension (milliarcseconds) copy of the planet.

Telescopes and Instrumentation Concas, A. et al., ERIS Science Verifications
1e–16 Wavelength (Ångstroms)

– 207 to 195 km s –1 20 000 20 250 20 500 20 750 21 000 21 250 21 500 21 750 22 000
2.5
2.0
1" (8.2 kpc)
Flux density
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
– 5000 0 5000 10 000 15 000 20 000
Velocity (km s –1)
Figure 5. Left: ERIS Hα line integrated intensity image Acknowledgements Reiter, M. et al. 2020, MNRAS, 496, 394
at a seeing-limited angular resolution with ~ 0.67 hours Winter, A. J. & Haworth, T. J. 2022, EPJP, 137, 1132
of on-source exposure in the K band. Right: ERIS We would like to thank Mari-Liis Aru, Megan Reiter,
K-band spectrum integrated over the highlighted area Thomas J. Haworth, Suzanne Ramsay, Pamela D.
in the left panel. Prominent Hα, (N II) and (S II) lines Klaassen, Anna F. McLeod, Dominika Itrich, Jochen Links
are observed with a wide line width indicating outflows. Eislöffel, Mickaël Bonnefoy and Daizhong Liu for
1
sharing their early results in this article. ERIS call for SV proposals: https://www.eso.org/
sci/publications/announcements/sciann17516.html
2
ERIS SV webpage: http://www.eso.org/sci/
Summary activities/vltsv/erissv.html
References 3
SPARTA: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/
ERIS operations started with P111 in April develop/ao/tecno/sparta.html
Davies, R. et al. 2023, A&A, 674, A207 4
VLT instrument pipelines: http://www.eso.org/sci/
2023. The SV data give an early indica- Erkal, J. et al. 2021, ApJ, 919, 23
Estrella-Trujillo, D. et al. 2021, ApJ, 918, 75 software/pipelines/
tion of what scientific topics can be
Frank, A. et al. 2014, in Protostars and Planets VI,
addressed with near-infrared integral field ed. Beuther, H., Klessen, R. S., Dullemond, C. P.
spectroscopy with SPIFFIER and the & Henning, T., (Tucson: University of Arizona
imaging provided by the NIX camera. It Press), 451
can be expected that ERIS will continue Garcia Lopez, R. et al. 2008, A&A, 487, 1019
Kamieneski, P. S. et al. 2023, arXiv:2301.09746
to build on the successful campaigns of Parker R. J. 2020, Roy. Soc. Open Sci., 7, 201271
NACO and SINFONI. Reiter, M. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 490, 2056
G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO
A panoramic view taken from the top of the dome of

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in early
August, 2023. When completed, the dome will be
80 metres high, weigh more than 6100 tonnes and
rotate 360 degrees on 36 trolleys.

The ESO Science Archive Facility: Status, Impact, and

Prospects
Martino Romaniello 1 which provides extended search capabili- Data content and access
Magda Arnaboldi 1 ties tailored to these data; it was recently
Mauro Barbieri 2 described by Stoehr et al. (2022). Over the course of the last 25 years, a
Nausicaa Delmotte 1 large fraction of the accessible sky has
Adam Dobrzycki 1 At the time of writing, the ESO Science been observed by ESO telescopes. The
Nathalie Fourniol 1 Archive contains, in a uniform and consist- density map coverage of the science raw
Wolfram Freudling 1 ent form, data from more than 30 instru- data available in the ESO Science Archive
Jorge Grave 1 ments (and counting), covering a wide as of June 2023 is shown in Figure 1.
Laura Mascetti 2 range of observing techniques, data types Given the wide variety of data distributed
Alberto Micol 1 and formats, and their metadata. It stores over such a large area, it may be a chal-
Jörg Retzlaff 1 all the raw science data and the related lenge to find the data needed. The Sci-
Nicolas Rosse 2 calibrations. A growing selection of pro- ence Archive provides several means to
Tomas Tax 2 cessed data is also available, on which do so, tailored to the different use cases.
Myha Vuong 2 science measurements can be readily
Olivier Hainaut 1 performed. The archive home page is at: The raw data can be queried by basic
Marina Rejkuba 1 archive.eso.org. User support and a instrumental, target, observing programme
Michael Sterzik 1 knowledgebase database are provided at and scheduling criteria through a unified
support.eso.org. form11. Specialised query forms for indi-
vidual instruments, which expose many
1
ESO ESO has a long tradition of fostering more detailed technical and scientific
2
Terma GmbH ‘Open Access’ to scientific data, and it search parameters, are also available12.
endorses the European EOSC initiative 6. Once a user has selected the raw sci-
As an overarching principle, ESO sub- ence data of interest, relevant calibration
Scientific data collected at ESO’s obser- scribes to the FAIR7 (Findable, Accessi- files can be associated automatically
vatories are freely and openly accessible ble, Interoperable, Reusable) guiding prior to download. The service is tuned to
online through the ESO Science Archive principles for scientific data management provide the calibrations as defined in
Facility. In addition to the raw data and stewardship (Wilkinson et al., 2016). the instrument’s Calibration Plan13. At this
straight out of the instruments, the ESO Access to the ESO Science Archive is stage, users can choose whether they
Science Archive also contains four million regulated by policy8. In general terms, the want raw and/or pre-processed master
processed science files available for Principal Investigators (PIs) of successful calibrations. They can also select to
use by scientists and astronomy enthu- proposals for observing time on ESO tel- include night-log information, such as
siasts worldwide. ESO subscribes to escopes, along with their delegates, have weather conditions and notes from the
the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interop- exclusive access to their scientific data observer. Once downloaded, users can
erable, Reusable) guiding principles for for a proprietary period, after which the process raw data along with the associ-
scientific data management and stew- data are accessible to all users in the ated calibrations to remove signatures
ardship. All data in the ESO Science worldwide community. The default propri- from the telescope, instrument and
Archive are distributed according to the etary period is set by the ESO Director Earth’s atmosphere, and to calibrate the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribu- General and communicated at the time of resulting data products in physical units.
tion 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). proposing for observing time 9. It is typi- For this, dedicated software tools to
cally one year, but may depend on the process and organise the data and the
observing programme type, as detailed in execution sequence are made available14.
Introduction the policy (for example, Public Survey raw At this point, the data are ready for
data are immediately public). Processed extraction of the science signal and its
The science data collected at ESO’s data distributed via the ESO Science subsequent analysis.
La Silla Paranal Observatory (LPO) are Archive retain the same proprietary pro-
accessible through the ESO Science tections as the raw data they were The current era in astronomy research is
Archive Facility (SAF). The observatory derived from. All data in the ESO archive characterised by an abundance of data
comprises three sites in northern Chile’s retain ESO’s copyright and are distributed and the need to combine them across
Atacama region, namely La Silla1, Paranal2 according to the terms of the Creative facilities, wavelengths, and messengers.
and the Chajnantor plateau (the Atacama Commons Attribution 4.0 International It is, therefore, imperative to lower as
Pathfinder EXperiment, or APEX tele- licence (CC BY 4.010). The use of ESO much as possible the user’s access bar-
scope 3). Data from the Atacama Large data, for example in publications, either rier to the data. The goal is to reach as
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) downloaded directly from the ESO Sci- wide an audience as possible, providing
observatory4 are also directly accessible ence Archive or via third parties, must be a complete overview of the content of the
from the ESO Science Archive, so that acknowledged 8. archive, while requiring as little overhead
they can be conveniently queried together as possible on the part of the researcher.
with the data from LPO. In addition, ESO To this end, the ESO Science Archive
also hosts and operates the European copy provides access to processed data. Via
of the dedicated ALMA Science Archive 5, this route, users can download data that

Telescopes and Instrumentation Romaniello, M. et al., The ESO Science Archive Facility: Status, Impact, and Prospects
105 Figure 1. Sky density

– 90 map of the raw data
180 content of the ESO
180 60 60
Science Archive Facility
as of June 2023. Popu-
104 lar locations on the sky,
such as the Galactic
centre or the Magellanic
30 30 System, clearly stand
out, as do the footprints
Density (deg–2)
1000 of some of the Public
Surveys. The few obser-
240
120
300
60
0 0 vations close to the

0
Celestial North Pole are

clearly the result of errors
100 in metadata content.
–30 –30
10
–60 –60
180
180
– 90 1
have already gone through most of the way to give data, and their authors, Stewardship of science data product:
processing needed in preparation for enhanced visibility and citeability. To this the Phase 3 process
extracting the science signal and are thus end, each data collection in the ESO Sci-
free from atmospheric and instrumental ence Archive is assigned a unique persis- At the time of writing, the ESO Science
effects and are calibrated in physical tent Digital Object Identifier17 (DOI). Its Archive contains four million processed
units. The main science files are accom- processing is tailored to the science science files from nearly 80 data collec-
panied and complemented by ancillary case(s) of the originating observing pro- tions, covering virtually all data types and
ones that provide additional information grammes, and results are often described observational techniques enabled by the
useful to their exploitation (for example, and used by the team in refereed publica- slew of more than 30 instruments that
2D calibrated spectra are often provided tions. Typical data products include cali- ESO operates at LPO. They cover a corre-
with the main 1D product to allow a cus- brated deep and/or mosaicked images spondingly large range of observing tech-
tom spectrum extraction; and white-light and data cubes, stacked spectra, and niques, data types, formats, and metadata.
images go with data cubes). Each data flux maps. In several cases, these are
collection comes with extensive textual used to generate source catalogues. Without science-oriented data steward-
documentation in the form of a Release These are the highest-level processed ship, curation and homogenisation, the
Description. In most cases, processed data and contain directly the physical archive would be just a big bucket of bits
data from the archive are directly ready parameters of the celestial sources. and bytes, where finding data would be
for science analysis. exceedingly hard and reserved to a few
The other main channel of influx of pro- experts. Therefore, before ingestion into
There are two main sources of such processed data for the Science Archive is the archive, the processed data undergo
cessed data. One is provided by users carried out at ESO. Here, the data histo- an auditing process for completeness,
who carried out the processing, typically, ries of instruments, or instrument modes, compliance, consistency, and documen-
but not always, for their own projects, are processed as consistently and as tation18 (Arnaboldi et al., 2011). This pro-
and returned the results to the SAF. This completely as possible and ingested into cess is a collaborative effort between
is mandatory for observing programmes the SAF. By its very nature, this data the data provider and ESO and is called
that require large, coordinated amounts processing is not tailored to any specific Phase 3, reflecting the fact that it closes
of telescope time, namely Public Surveys15 science case, but is focused on removing the loop after the solicitation and handling
and Large Programmes16, as well as for the instrumental and atmospheric signa- of observing proposals (Phase 1) and the
Hosted Telescopes where there is a tures and on calibrating in physical units observation preparation and execution at
signed agreement with ESO for this. In large, coherent datasets. The tools used the telescope (Phase 2).
these cases, generating data, both raw in-house to process the data are the
and processed, with a long-lasting legacy same ones that are made publicly availa- To ensure data consistency and accessi-
value is an important criterion in the pro- ble14. The impact of archival processed bility throughout this broad variety of
gramme selection process. Voluntary data is discussed further below. archive holdings, the Phase 3 process
contributions from individual users are enforces the use of the ESO Science
much encouraged; this provides a great Data Product Standard19, an interface

document that defines the data format Upon request, individual datasets can be programmatic access22. It too makes
and metadata (content and definition) for explored in detail through previews that extensive use of VO protocols, thus
the various types (images, spectra, cubes, are customised by data type. As an ensuring interoperability and a high level
interferometric visibilities, catalogues, and example the preview of a Multi Unit of standardisation. Extensive documenta-
so on). It specifies how to encode the Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) datacube tion and example ADQL and TAP queries,
level of calibration, scientific quality, origi- is shown in the right panel of Figure 2. Python scripts and Jupyter notebooks
nating files (provenance), ancillary data are provided to guide users in their first
and product versioning. Its content is A dedicated web interface is available to steps, and throughout some more com-
continuously evolving to reflect the evolving query source catalogue data 21. Once plex cases.
data landscape, for example to incorpo- users select the catalogue they are inter-
rate new data types produced by different ested in, they can constrain the search A forum platform is available for archive
observing techniques and facilities. The on any combination of its columns. researchers to exchange ideas and
ESO Science Data Product Standard questions23.
incorporates accepted Virtual Observatory Repetitive or otherwise particularly
(VO) standards, making ESO data inter- demanding tasks can be coded and
operable with the other VO resources. automatised by using the provided
Compliance with the standard is a funda-
mental requirement which ensures that
data can be easily located among the
broader ESO holdings and in the general
global data scenario. This is a must in the
current era of multi-instrument, multi-
wavelength, multi-messenger astronomy.
The Archive Science Portal
An important driver for the metadata

curation and homogenisation ensuing
from the Phase 3 process is that data
can be presented and queried uniformly
across collections, independently of their
origins and specificities. We have built
different ways to browse the processed
data in the SAF, namely web interfaces,
and programmatic and scripted access.
The web interfaces offer a low-barrier

access by presenting the data and meta-
data in an intuitive graphical interface20.
Query parameters are represented by
elements in the page that have the dual
function of visually expressing the content
of the archive and rendering the user’s
choices. The results are then rendered on
the backdrop of the celestial sphere and
included in a tabular form, which summa-
rises their main characteristics (see Fig-
ure 2, top panel). Given the underlying
compatibility with VO protocols, the
results can be sent to VO-aware tools,
such as, for example, TOPCAT or Aladin.
Figure 2. Top panel: The landing page of the web

interface to the ESO Archive Science Portal20.
Bottom panel: Example of the web page where
individual datasets can be explored in detail. In this
case, the file is a MUSE datacube.

Telescopes and Instrumentation Romaniello, M. et al., The ESO Science Archive Facility: Status, Impact, and Prospects
600 Figure 3. The differential

Number of 4-monthly unique IPs
3000 Products overall number of unique IP

Products generated at ESO 500 addresses as a function
2500 of time from which pro-
Products contributed
cessed files (left panel)
2000 Raw w/ P3 400
and source catalogues
(right panel) in the ESO
1500 300 Science Archive are
accessed. The IP
1000 200 addresses are a proxy
for the number of users,
500 100 with each using on aver-
age 1.5 IPs. Resorting to
0 0 IP addresses as a proxy
for users is made neces-
22
22
20
20
23
21
16
16
19
18
13
15
18
12
14
14
17
sary by the fact that the
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
vast majority of down-
Year Year loads are anonymous.
The impact of the ESO Science Archive satisfaction with the archives was con- In addition to maintaining support for the
Facility firmed in the discussions during the Phase 3 process for data provided by
meeting, as well as in the Committee’s internal and external users, we are also
All of the assets in the ESO SAF, i.e., report26, which is based on a poll of the exploring new ways of collaborating with
raw data and products generated at ESO science community. the community that are not linked to
or contributed by the community and specific observing programmes. Promi-
catalogues, are in great and increasing nent examples include the data stream
demand. This is shown in Figure 3, where What’s next for the Precision Integrated-Optics Near-
the number of unique IP addresses, a infrared Imaging ExpeRiment (PIONIER;
proxy for the users downloading data, is As discussed above, the availability of Le Bouquin et al., 2011), and the VISTA
plotted as a function of time for processed processed data has led to a tangible EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS;
files and source catalogues (left and right boost to the access and usefulness of Spiniello & Agnello, 2019) and Ultraviolet
panel, respectively). Interestingly, the the ESO Science Archive. The engage- and Visual Echelle Spectrograph Spectral
increase in the download of processed ment of the community at large in provid- QUasar Absorption Database (UVES
data did not come at the expense of the ing reduced data has been very success- SQUAD; Murphy et al., 2019) collections.
access to raw data, just as the fast ful, and the archive now provides more We have established a collaboration with
increase in the number of users of data than 60 out of 80 collections secured in the High Contrast Data Center27 (HC-DC,
processed by ESO has not hindered the this way. This number is, of course, previously the SPHERE Data Center)
need for data generated externally (bot- poised to increase as the policy mandat- in Grenoble. Data from the Spectro-
tom panel in Figure 3). The different types ing the delivery of processed data for Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet
of data are, then, highly complementary. new Public Surveys, Large Programmes REsearch instrument (SPHERE) are regu-
and Hosted Telescopes/Instruments con- larly processed there, leveraging the con-
Figure 4 shows the contribution of the tinues and will also include data from siderable science expertise available, and
SAF to the science output of LPO. This is ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) delivered to ESO for wide dissemination
expressed in terms of the fraction of ref- in the future. (a public archive copy is also maintained
ereed papers using LPO data that made
use of the archive (a referred paper is
classified by the ESO Library as archival if 45 45
PI + Archive
there is no overlap between its authors 40 40
Archive only
Fraction of archive paper (%)
and the members of the original observ- 35 35

ing proposal24). There is a clear upward
trend since the inception of the ESO 30 30
Science Archive in its current form at 25 25
the end of the 1990s. Currently, about
20 20
4 papers out of 10 utilising LPO data
Figure 4. The fraction of
make use of the ESO Science Archive. 15 15
refereed publications
10 10 using La Silla Paranal
The ESO Science Archives, both LPO data that made use of
and ALMA, featured as a Special Topic 5 5 the archive, entirely
(dark orange bars) or
at the 47th meeting of the ESO Users 0 0 partially (light yellow
Committee, which was held on 20 and 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 bars). Source: ESO
21 April 202325. The high level of user Year Telescope Bibliography24.

at the HC-DC). The first data products as possible a single experience where 11
ESO raw data query form: http://archive.eso.org/
eso/eso_archive_main.html
were published in December 2022 in currently different interfaces are in place 12
ESO instrument-specific query forms:
the ESO Science Archive Facility and (for example for processed data 20 and http://archive.eso.org/cms/eso-data/instrument-
include imaging data from the InfraRed source catalogues21). With the latter, we specific-query-forms.html
Dual Imaging and Spectrograph (IRDIS) instead aim to provide query capabilities 13
ESO instrument calibration plan: https://www.eso.
subsystem, observed during the ESO that are closer to the science questions org/sci/observing/phase2/SMGuidelines/
CalibrationPlan.generic.html
Periods 103 and 104, i.e., acquired that archive users have. In both cases, 14
ESO VLT instrument pipelines:
between April 2019 and March 2020. the overarching objective is to help https://www.eso.org/sci/software/pipelines
Both the time and the instrumental modes scientists to get quickly, efficiently and 15
ESO Public Surveys: https://www.eso.org/sci/
covered will expand in future releases. accurately to the data of interest among observing/PublicSurveys/sciencePublicSurveys.
Similarly, a new collaboration is being set the millions of assets that are stored and html
16
ESO Large Programmes: https://www.eso.org/sci/
up with the Very Large Telescope Inter- preserved in the treasure trove which is observing/teles-alloc/lp.html
ferometer (VLTI) Expertise Centres of the the ESO Science Archive. 17
ESO Science Archive DOIs: https://archive.eso.
OPTICON Radionet Pilot28. In this case, org/wdb/wdb/doi/collections/query
the processing of GRAVITY data up to 18
ESO Phase 3 process: https://www.eso.org/sci/
calibrated visibilities is performed at ESO, Acknowledgements observing/phase3.html
19
ESO Science Data Products Standard: http://www.
while the Expertise Centres provide sci- The list of people who have made possible the eso.org/sci/observing/phase3/p3sdpstd.pdf
entific guidance and quality control. growth and success of the ESO Science Archive 20
ESO Archive Science Portal: http://archive.eso.org/
Facility goes far beyond the authors of this article. scienceportal
The evolution of data generated internally We would like to extend our thanks to the ESO col- 21
ESO catalogue query: https://www.eso.org/qi
leagues who have worked with us throughout the 22
ESO Science Archive programmatic access:
at ESO for publication in the archive will years, especially the software development and test- http://archive.eso.org/programmatic
be along two main directions. Firstly, ing team (Vincenzo Forchì, Ahmed Mubashir Khan, 23
ESO archive community forum: esocommunity.
we are working towards making the pro- Uwe Lange, Stanislaw Podgorski, Fabio Sogni, userecho.com
cessed data for the new instruments M algorzata Stellert, and Stefano Zampieri). The 24
ESO Telescope Bibliography: https://telbib.eso.org
work, time and dedication of colleagues from the
available much sooner than was possible scientific community who have provided processed
25
ESO Users Committee 47th meeting:
in the past. The goal is to do so at the https://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/
data to the ESO Science Archive is gratefully
committees/uc/uc-47th.html
same time as the raw data first become acknowledged: their contributions represent a truly 26
ESO Users Committee report of 47th meeting:
public, typically about a year after the invaluable science resource. This article is dedicated
https://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/
to the memory of our colleague Jörg Retzlaff. His
start of science operations. This initial hard work, dedication and talent were fundamental
committees/uc/uc-47th/UC47_2023_UCreport.pdf
delay is determined by the need to char- in making the ESO Science Archive Facility the pow-
27
High Contrast Data Center:
acterise the data calibration and process- erful science resource for the whole community that https://sphere.osug.fr/spip.php?rubrique16&lang=en
28
it is today. It was an honour and a pleasure to work OPTICON RadioNet Pilot: https://www.orp-h2020.eu
ing well enough to provide products of
with him, he will be fondly remembered.
known and documented quality and
accuracy. And secondly, to increase
the quality of the data processed at ESO References
we are implementing a more extensive
Arnaboldi, M. et al. 2011, The Messenger, 144, 17
in-depth quality control aimed at identify- Le Bouquin, J.-B. et al. 2011, A&A, 535, A67
ing ways to improve the products. This Murphy M. T. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 482, 3458
is complementing the reprocessing Spiniello, C. & Agnello, A. 2019, A&A, 630, A146
of entire data streams in case of signifi- Stoehr, F. et al. 2022, The Messenger, 187, 25
Wilkinson, M. D. et al. 2016, Sci. Data, 3, 160018
cant improvement of the pipeline
and/or calibrations.
Links
With the data content increasing in quality, 1
ESO La Silla: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-
quantity and complexity, the archive tools instr/lasilla
to browse and access them must evolve 2
ESO Paranal: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-
too. As an example, the spectroscopic instr/paranal-observatory
surveys with the 4-metre Multi-Object 3
APEX: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/apex
4
Spectrograph Telescope (4MOST) alone ESO ALMA webpage: https://almascience.eso.org
5
ESO ALMA Science Archive:
will return each year more than three
https://almascience.eso.org/aq
times as many individual processed files 6
EOSC website: https://eosc.eu
as we have collected in the last ten years. 7
FAIR principles: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-
The main drivers for this evolution are principles
towards a unification of the web query 8
ESO Science Archive data access policy: http://
archive.eso.org/cms/eso-data-access-policy.html
interfaces to the data, and towards query- 9
ESO Phase 1 Call for Proposals:
ing the archive content by (selected) https://www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase1.html
physical properties of the astronomical 10
CC BY 4.0 attribution: https://creativecommons.
sources. The former aims to reduce the org/licenses/by/4.0
complexity for users by providing as far

Telluric Correction of VLT Spectra: The New Graphical

Interface to Molecfit
John Pritchard 1 called ‘telluric absorption lines’, contami- not observed at the same time as the sci-
Lodovico Coccato 1 nate the spectra of the observed sources. ence exposures, so any changes in the
Wolfram Freudling 1 The correction of these telluric absorption atmosphere will introduce artifacts in the
Alain Smette 1 features is a crucial step in the reduction corrected source spectrum.
of spectroscopic data. This is particularly
relevant for near- and mid-infrared obser- The second strategy is to generate a
1
ESO vations, where the depth, number and model of the atmospheric transmission
density of telluric absorption features are starting from measurements of humidity
high and significantly contaminate the and pressure and the column densities of
The removal of absorption features due spectrum, blending with the intrinsic the molecules that shape the telluric fea-
to Earth’s atmosphere is a fundamental spectroscopic features in the spectrum of tures. The last of those can be obtained
and delicate process in the reduction of the object. Figure 1 shows the atmospheric by measuring specific absorption features
spectroscopic observations, in particu- transmission from 0.3 mm to 2.6 mm. on a reference spectrum, which could be
lar in the near- and mid-infrared. In this either a telluric standard star or the sci-
paper we present the new graphical ence target itself if it is bright enough.
user interface of Molecfit, a package Telluric correction The advantage of this strategy is that, in
that aims to model the full atmospheric principle, dedicated telluric standard star
transmission by fitting key absorption There are two main strategies to remove observations can be avoided, or at least
features in spectra. telluric absorptions from a spectrum. The minimised. The disadvantage is that the
first is to observe a source (a telluric method relies on the goodness of the
standard star) with no intrinsic features. underlying physical ingredients (such as
Some of the light from astronomical The spectrum of the telluric standard star, correct treatment of the molecules and
sources is absorbed by Earth’s atmos- normalised to its continuum level, can be how they interact with each other, and how
phere. The atmosphere is completely used to remove the atmospheric signa- the pressure, temperature and humidity
opaque in some regions of the spectrum, tures from other spectra taken under the vary with altitude) and instrument-related
where the signal from the source is there- same conditions and with the same components such as the line spread
fore unavailable to ground-based tele- instrument and instrument setup. The function and the goodness of the wave-
scopes. In other regions, however, the advantage of this method is that it deliv- length calibration.
absorption occurs only at specific wave- ers a telluric transmission convolved with
lengths and a series of absorption lines, the same spectral resolution as the scien-
tific target(s). The main disadvantages are Molecfit
that it requires taking dedicated observa-
Figure 1. Atmospheric transmission in the optical tions close in time to the scientific tar- ESO provides a general tool, named
and near-infrared (from Smette et al., 2015). get(s) and that the telluric standards are Molecfit (Smette et al., 2015; Kausch et
H 2O H 2O H 2O
Chappuis ozone absorption bands
1
Transmission
0.8
0.6 H 2O
O 3 (Huggins bands)
0.4 O2
0.2 (γ band) O 2 (B band)
0
O 2 (A band)
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Wavelength (μm)
H 2O H 2O H 2O H 2O
1
Transmission
0.8
0.6 CH4
0.4 CO 2
0.2 O2
0
CO 2 CO 2 CH4
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6

Wavelength (μm)

Figure 2. Interactive window of the Molecfit model.
The left-hand panel shows the input reference spec-
trum (blue), the typical transmission curve for H 2 O
and O 2 (orange), the best fit model (red), the telluric
corrected spectrum (grey), and the wavelength
regions used in the fit (green). The right-hand panel
allows the user to change the recipe parameters.
al., 2015), which aims to remove telluric

absorptions using the modelling approach.
Molecfit was released on 1 April 2014 as
three stand-alone ‘executables’ and a
graphical user interface (GUI) that guides
the user through the process of removing
telluric features.
As Molecfit was created to be used

with most spectrographs, it includes a
large number of user parameters. How-
ever, although well-tuned to the underly- The first version of Molecfit to be released workflows, the input directories are
ing executables, the way the original as a pipeline package and EsoReflex scanned and files in them are classified.
GUI was coded made it difficult to main- workflow (version 3.0.0) was released in For each science spectrum to be cor-
tain and to integrate with the ESO pipe- 2020. As the focus of that release was rected the ‘closest-in-time’ telluric
line environment. the implementation of the underlying standard (if present) observed with the
modelling engine, many of the more user- same instrumental setup is associated.
Therefore, to facilitate future develop- friendly aspects of the GUI of the original – the reference spectrum for the model.
ments and maintenance and to improve version were not implemented in the first The user can decide to fit the atmos-
compatibility with existing ESO data and version of the workflow. pheric model on the science file to
instrument pipelines, Molecfit has been correct itself (this strategy works best
integrated into the ESO data processing Since then the underlying engine has for spectra of high signal-to-noise),
infrastructure as a pipeline package1. The been updated and improved and the or on the associated telluric standard
original stand-alone code is still distrib- Molecfit workflow has been overhauled, (if present).
uted, but is not supported anymore2. so that it now includes advanced features – the instrument the data were taken
that enhance the user’s experience of with. The workflow currently recognises
Like the original suite, the new version of making an efficient telluric correction; data from five instruments (ESPRESSO,
Molecfit consists of three ‘recipes’: this is the topic of this paper. GIRAFFE, UVES, VISIR, and X-shooter)
molecfit_model fits — possibly small — and automatically adapts the output
regions of a spectrum, accounting for the The most critical aspect of Molecfit is to files of the ESO pipelines of these
shape of the continuum in these regions, determine the various parameters that instruments into Molecfit-compatible
spectral resolution and systematics in the accurately reproduce the transmission formats (if necessary). It sets robust
wavelength scale, and derives the col- spectrum of the atmosphere as seen by recipe parameters for these instruments
umn densities of the molecules included the spectrograph: the column densities of and their configurations, such as mole-
in the atmosphere; molecfit_calctrans the various molecules contributing to the cules and wavelength regions to con-
constructs the atmospheric transmission telluric features, the parameters of the sider in the fit. The user can change
over the whole spectral range of the input line spread function of the spectrograph, them through the interactive windows
spectrum taking account of the atmos- the coefficients of the polynomial repre- that will pop up during the analysis.
pheric composition determined by the senting correction of the wavelength cali- Data from other instruments, including
previous fit, adapting it to the spectrum to bration, and a good representation of the non-ESO instruments, can also be cor-
be corrected by taking account of any continuum in the selected regions to be rected. However, in such cases adapt-
difference in airmass between the spec- modelled. The workflow overhaul there- ing the input files to Molecfit-compatible
trum used to derive the model and the fore concentrated on the GUI associated formats (if necessary) and the setup of
spectrum to be corrected; and molecfit_ with the molecfit_model recipe. the recipe parameters are left to the
correct applies the above mentioned cor- user, either interactively when running
rection to a scientific spectrum. These Before starting the workflow, the user the workflow, or by implementing a set
recipes can be executed, like any other must set some basic parameters, such as: of Python methods specific to the
ESO recipe, from the command line with – the directories where the data are instrument in question. Support for
the esorex command or via an EsoReflex located and where the final products more (ESO) instruments is under
workflowa (Freudling et al., 2013). will be stored. As for all EsoReflex development3.

Telescopes and Instrumentation Pritchard, J. et al., Telluric Correction of VLT Spectra
be stored and re-used for other datasets

from the same instrument configuration.
Once an optimal model has been com-

puted, the workflow uses the model to
construct the telluric correction for the
target spectrum. If the reference spec-
trum used for the model was a telluric
standard, Molecfit accounts for the air-
mass and Precipitate Water Vapour dif-
ference between the two spectra.
Optionally, the user can provide a func-
tion describing the instrumental line
spread function at each wavelength,
which will be considered when construct-
ing the transmission curve. Finally, the
spectrum is corrected. The products of
the workflow reflect the format of the
input data: if the input spectra comply
with the format of the ESO archival stand-
Figure 3. Zoom-in of Figure 2. Note that the cor- therefore to include or exclude it from the ard (known as the phase3 standard), so
rected spectrum (grey) has the telluric lines removed
model. The wavelength regions can be do the products.
(blue) even in this wavelength region that was not
included in the fit. The power of the method is that defined and edited with the mouse.
one can consider only strong telluric features to Although there are still more than 100
determine the model for the entire wavelength range parameters that control every aspect of References
of the data, minimising the contamination from noise
the model, they have been grouped into
or the intrinsic features of the source. Freudling, W. et al. 2013, A&A, 559, A96
several tabs by experience level to guide Kausch, W. et al. 2015, A&A, 576, A78
users from novice to expert. Smette, A. et al. 2015, A&A, 576, A77
To correct each dataset, the workflow
first presents the molecfit_model GUI, Once happy with the initial recipe parame-
Links
with which the user can fine tune the ters, the user can run the molecfit_model
parameters and their initial guesses to recipe to compute the fit. Upon completion 1
ESO Pipelines: https://www.eso.org/sci/software/
use in the first execution of the molecfit_ of the recipe, the GUI is presented again, pipelines/
model recipe. The GUI shows the refer- this time also displaying the fitted model 2
M olecfit: http://www.eso.org/sci/software/
ence spectrum together with pre- or and residuals. It displays the computed pipelines/skytools/molecfit
3
M olecfit Experimental Version: https://support.eso.
auto-defined wavelength regions and corrected spectrum over the full wave- org/kb/articles/molecfit-experimental-version
pre- or auto-defined molecules to fit. The length range of the input spectrum (Fig-
user can display a typical transmission ures 2 and 3), allowing the user to further
curve for each molecule to evaluate fine tune parameters and rerun the recipe Notes
whether it has an impact on the telluric as many times as necessary to obtain an a
Integration with the GASGANO GUI, however, has
absorption in the reference spectrum and optimum model. The parameter setup can not been implemented, neither is it foreseen.
ESO/P. Horálek
The bright light in the centre of this picture, shining Very Large Telescope (left) and VISTA (right) in the
below the Milky Way’s dark, pinkish belt, is the Atacama Desert in Chile.
planet Jupiter. It is flanked by two hills hosting ESO’s

Ultra-wideband Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers:

a Cool and Crucial Component for Future Submillimetre
Radio Telescopes
Isaac López-Fernández 1 the wish list of radio astronomers has frequency, the intermediate frequency
Juan Daniel Gallego 1 been to enlarge the instantaneous band- (IF), which is typically below 20 GHz,
Carmen Diez 1 width processed by the instruments, and which can be more easily amplified
Inmaculada Malo 1 which is intrinsically linked to an increase before being sampled and quantised by
Ricardo I. Amils 1 in observation efficiency. For continuum room-temperature electronics to estab-
Gie Han Tan 2 (total power) observations this means lish a digital representation of the input
increasing the sensitivity or needing less signal. The mixing and first stages of IF
integration time, since fluctuations in amplification are carried out by devices
1
Yebes Observatory, Spain power measurements diminish in propor- developed specifically for this application
2
ESO tion to the square root of the bandwidth. and cooled to cryogenic temperatures to
For spectral-line observations a wider fre- minimise the self‑generated noise.
quency range is accessible at once so
This article reports on the evolution in more lines or transitions of the same spe- The sensitivity of the receiver is directly
designing state-of-the-art cryogenic, cies can be observed in less time, and impacted by the noise generated in
wideband, low-noise amplifiers as used blind redshift observations are facilitated. the signal chain. The cascaded noise
in the intermediate frequency stages of In the submillimetre wavelength range, performance is given by the expression
ALMA receivers. The most recent where ALMA stands out, this allows delv- (Friis, 1946):
designs are presented which demon- ing deeper into the origins of galaxies and
strate exceptional bandwidth and noise performing much faster astrochemical TIF1 TIF2
performance; those are crucial in ena- surveys of a spectrum plagued with a for- TRX = TSIS + + + ...
bling the planned ALMA Wideband est of lines which provide invaluable infor- GSIS GSIS × GIF1
Sensitivity Upgrade. mation about the physical-chemical con-
ditions in the objects observed. Where TSIS, TIF1, ... and GSIS, GIF1, … repre-
sent the equivalent noise and gain respec-
Introduction The major millimetre radio telescopes, tively of the components in the signal
including the Institute de Radioastronomie chain of Figure 1. The formula provides
For radio telescopes like the Atacama Millimétrique (IRAM) Northern Extended insight into how the noise contributions of
Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array it is Millimetre Array (NOEMA) and the Sub those components close to the input are
crucial to optimise performance parame- millimeter Array (SMA), are implementing dominant. Considering that the typical
ters such as sensitivity and observation this increased bandwidth upgrade. The submillimetre-wave mixing devicesa
bandwidth in order to keep pace with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter attenuate the incoming signal (GSIS < 1),
developing needs of the astronomical Array (ALMA) will also follow this strategy, the noise contribution of the first IF low-
user community. Since current receiver as set out in its Development Roadmap noise amplifier (LNA) becomes even more
systems at these short wavelengths 2030 (Carpenter et al., 2019) and detailed pronounced and should be minimised to
already demonstrate very low noise per- in the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade obtain a more sensitive receiver.
formance, on the order of a few times the (WSU) initiative (Carpenter et al., 2022).
quantum limit hn/k, further improvement The other crucial parameter, the instan
of that parameter is practically very lim- Figure 1 is a generic, simplified block taneous bandwidth, is very much deter-
ited. An alternative way to enhance sensi- diagram of a typical receiver architecture mined by the components in the analogue
tivity is to increase the instantaneous as used in submillimetre radio telescopes signal chain, in particular the IF amplifiers
bandwidth. This must be achieved across like ALMA bands 3 and up. It is based on
the entire astronomical signal chain, both the heterodyne principle whereby the Figure 1. Generic block diagram of a typical
the analogue signal path and the digital incoming submillimetre radio frequency submillimetre heterodyne receiver signal chain.
signal processing, interfaced by suitable (RF) signal is down‑converted to a lower There is usually one channel per polarisation.
high-speed digitisers (Quertier et al.,
2021). In the analogue section of the
receiver, a humble but critical component ANALOGUE DIGITAL
in this respect is the intermediate-
frequency cryogenic low-noise amplifier. SIS MIXER IF1ISOL IF1LNA IF2 LNA ADC CORRELATOR
In this article we report on the latest
developments that enable further
increase of the instantaneous bandwidth.
4 –20K
Maximising the instantaneous
bandwidth
LO
Almost since the beginning of radio
astronomy one of the permanent items in

Telescopes and Instrumentation López-Fernández, I. et al., Ultra-wideband Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers
2SB MIXER ½ RF-H 0º
RF HYBRID LSB-H
½ (USB 0º + LSB 0º) IF HYBRID 4–20 GHz
RF-H
USB-H
½ (USB 90º + LSB –90º) 4–20 GHz
½ RF-H 90º
LSB-V
IF HYBRID 4–20 GHz
POL.
DIPLEXER RF-V
VERTICAL POLARISATION 2SB MIXER
USB-V
4–20 GHz
Figure 2. Simplified block diagram of a submillimetre two mixers and two quadrature hybrid that time) goal of 4 GHz per channel. A
receiver front-end based on 2SB mixers. The RF and
couplers which introduce selective 90º few years later, in 2005, an even more
IF quadrature hybrid couplers introduce a 90º phase
delay in the coupled paths. USB and LSB refer to the phase delays to finally cancel the unde- ambitious target of twice that value (8 GHz
upper and lower IF sidebands respectively. Note that sired sideband in each channel. The per channel) was established for ALMA
the instantaneous bandwidth available to be processed ALMA upgrade aims for a 64-GHz band and most bands still retain that value.
is four times the IF bandwidth, totalling 64 GHz.
to be processed in the correlator (2 polar-
isations × 2 sidebands × 16 GHz). The LNA laboratories at Yebes Observa-
and the analogue-to-digital converters tory have promoted this evolution, devel-
(ADCs). oping, among others, the cryogenic
State of the art and requirements amplifiers that set the standards in the
Analogous to the visible spectrum, which aforementioned instruments. ALMA
extends over one octave, the maximum The struggle to increase instantaneous bands 5, 7 and 9 are equipped with cryo-
RF bandwidth that can be processed by bandwidth has been going on for the last genic LNAs (CLNAs) designed in Yebes
the input mixer is usually limited in prac- few decades. Figure 3 shows how the (López-Fernández et al., 2006). Although
tice to less than one octave in frequency instantaneous bandwidth of the most a significant number were manufactured
by the physical constraints of the compo- advanced instruments at each epoch has in its labs, most of the production was
nents (waveguides, for example). The been evolving. In the 1990s the typical completed by a firm that received exper-
problem with a heterodyne receiver that value for the first IRAM receivers was of tise and technology transfer from Yebes.
is intended to cover a large bandwidth, the order of 1 GHz. The development of
comparable to that which could be the HIFI submillimetre receivers for ESA’s However, to be effective the LNA band-
handled by the input mixer, is that the Herschel mission set the ambitious (at width expansion should be accompanied
number of octaves to be processed at by other performance benchmarks. Obvi-
the IF can be prohibitively high and this ously the noise temperature of the ampli-
becomes a challenge for the design of 20
fier has to be as low as possible, given
the components in the IF chain. Bandwidth of IF vs Year its prominent role in the overall receiver
ALMA-WSU sensitivity. Its gain must be high enough
15
The ALMA strategy to multiply by four the that the contribution to the receiver noise
IVS
present instantaneous bandwidth consists from warm electronics is negligible (fol-
Bandwidth (GHz)
of (a) doubling the present maximum 10 lowing equation 1) and sufficiently flat to
ALMA
8 GHz bandwidth per IF channel to achieve cope with the limited dynamic range of
16 GHz, and (b) extending the use of the ADCs. The power dissipation is
5
sideband separating or 2-sideband (2SB) HIFI restricted by the cooling power of the
mixers to all ALMA bands b. Figure 2 pre- refrigerator. This fact is especially critical
0
sents a block diagram of a submillimetre 1990 2000 2010 2020 for submillimetre-wave receivers with
receiver front-end based on 2SB mixers. Year superconducting mixers which only oper-
This scheme can separate the upper and Figure 3. Evolution of the typical instantaneous
ate below 4.2 K, or in case of focal-plane
lower sidebands generated in the mixing bandwidth of state-of-the-art radio telescopes over arrays (multipixel receivers) with a large
process into two IF channels by means of the last 30 years. number of cryogenic amplifiers.

Finally, a crucial but frequently overlooked revolves around making a number of cas- Over the past five years we have focused
parameter is the degree to which the ampli- caded stages of these devices operate on the development of transistors for the
fier is matched to its input and output as close as possible to their optimum to IF range, trying to improve the noise per-
loads, usually measured by the reflection obtain their maximum gain and minimum formance and to solve the chronic prob-
coefficients. A poorly matched amplifier added noise. Other cryogenic amplifying lem of very high-frequency oscillations.
would reflect a relevant fraction of the technologies with near quantum‑limited This issue tends to be worse for the best
incident power, producing standing waves noise are either intrinsically narrowband devices and it is aggravated at cryogenic
along the input line which will translate (solid-state masers) or still not sufficiently temperatures. Through a slow iterative
into a ripple in the output noise tempera- mature (travelling-wave kinetic inductance process, changes in the epitaxial material
ture and power. This problem was tradi- parametric amplifiers). and the layout structure were proposed,
tionally solved by introducing an isolator implemented, and tested. On-wafer cryo-
between the mixer and the CLNA, as in Since the turn of the century the devices genic noise measurements of transistors
most of the current ALMA bands (see of choice for extremely low-noise amplifi- are not accurate enough, hence the
Figure 1). However, ultra-wideband isola- cation at microwave frequencies are devices were evaluated and modelled by
tors (Zeng et al., 2018) are critical compo- either GaAs or InP high-electron-mobility testing them in the first stage of a well‑
nents to avoid in cryogenic receivers, as transistors (HEMTs), a type of field-effect known LNA in the Yebes labs. The result-
they are bulky and introduce significant transistor based on heterostructures with ing optimised devices are clearly less
losses, degrading the system noise tem- enhanced electron transport properties. prone to auto-oscillation, avoiding the
perature. Additionally, a 2SB mixer InP is an exotic material that is difficult to need to only use certain stable bias
scheme relies heavily on a well-matched handle and not easily available commer- points that are not necessarily the best in
amplifier to achieve a high image rejection cially. The mainstream GaAs HEMTs were other respects. Furthermore, a very con-
ratio (IRR), that is, a proper cancellation developed first, and there is a prosperous siderable reduction in noise temperature
of the image (upper or lower) frequency semiconductor industry mass-producing was confirmed, between 15% and 20%
band, as illustrated in Figure 2. them for many commercial and military depending on the frequency. An additional
applications at an affordable cost. How- advantage of these improved devices is
When ESO, in the framework of its ever, the very best results we need are that the optimum noise is reached at a
Technology Development Programme, consistently reported using InP technol- lower bias setting, thus dissipating less
set the goals for the next generation of ogy. Cooling these transistors to cryo- power. It is typical of well-behaved tran-
ALMA CLNAs, it became clear that some genic temperatures further boosts elec- sistors to display their best performance
trade‑offs would be necessary, as the tron transport and reduces the thermal for lower drain currents. These results put
requirements far exceeded the state of noise generated by parasitic elements, Diramics at the forefront of InP transistor
the art. The challenge was not only to and when combined with a careful development for IF, ahead of the tradi-
design a CLNA with twice the maximum design, enables an order of magnitude tionally superior American foundries.
bandwidth of the current generation improvement in the equivalent noise tem-
ALMA amplifiers, but also to do so with perature of the amplifier (see the excellent Figure 4 shows a picture of an optimised
numbers for noise temperature, gain review by Pospieszalski, 2005). device with a gate geometry appropriate
flatness and input reflection typical of for use in the first stage of the ultra-wide-
narrower-band cryogenic amplifiers. A breakthrough in cryogenic amplifier per- band amplifier (the first stage is the most
formance such as demanded by ALMA is important in terms of noise). It is pre-
The most competitive published ultra-wide- not possible without a substantial devel- sented in die form, suitable for wire bond-
band cryogenic amplifier results with opment of the present InP HEMTs. Very ing and independent testing.
similar noise temperature lack sufficient few foundries in the world are capable of
bandwidth and, moreover, have their producing InP devices. All current ALMA
Achilles heel in a poor input reflection: amplifiers feature transistors from the two LNA design
see, for example, Nilsson et al. (2014) for US foundries (Northrop Grumman Space
the 6–20-GHz band, later improved by Systems and HRL Laboratories). With the As regards the fabrication and assembly
the Low Noise Factory AB in Sweden, or aim of having an independent, flexible, technology used, microwave amplifiers
Cha et al. (2018) for the 0.3–14-GHz band. and accessible supplier of InP transistors can be implemented in hybrid circuits
These two conflicting requirements, namely in Europe (without the severe import (also known as ‘chip & wire’) or in mono-
noise and input reflection, are possibly the restrictions on US InP technology), Yebes lithic microwave integrated circuits
most difficult to meet in a wide-band LNA. Observatory began a partnership with the (MMIC). The former make use of micro-
Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute (ETH) wave substrates and chip passive com-
25 years ago that has found its natural ponents interconnected by bond wires to
Transistor development continuation with Diramics AG, a spin-off achieve the matching of the different tran-
from ETH that produces InP transistors sistor stages and to realise the DC bias
The key component in any modern micro- using the same facilities. This collabora- circuits, while the latter integrate most of
wave amplifier is the active semiconduc- tion was initially financially supported in this circuitry in a single chip. The MMIC
tor device, which is usually some type of part by several ESA projects and more option has advantages, especially at the
transistor. A successful amplifier design recently by ESO. higher microwave frequencies, where size

Telescopes and Instrumentation López-Fernández, I. et al., Ultra-wideband Cryogenic Low Noise Amplifiers
mise was found in the 4–20-GHz band. A picture of the final prototype is provided
Note that this represents an FBW of in Figure 5, where it is compared with the
133% or 2.3 octaves. three times bulkier CLNA used in ALMA
bands 5 and 7. Nevertheless, the identi-
The problem of matching is pivotal in the cal assembly processes, the use of
design of an ultra-wideband CLNA. The similar microstrip substrates, similar con-
conditions required by the first stage nectors and equivalent gold-plated alu-
transistor to minimise the reflected power minium modules make them quite alike.
and deliver the minimum possible noise
are different and the strategies for design-
ing a matching network that transforms Results in the 4–20-GHz band
and brings them together are frequency-
dependent and fail in such wide bands. The results shown in Figure 6 demon-
Therefore, to address the stringent strate that it is possible to achieve state-
requirements for noise and input reflec- of-the-art noise temperature in a 16-GHz-
tion, the first-stage transistor gate size wide band with an input reflection low
was carefully selected to favour the enough to guarantee excellent matching
Figure 4. Microphotograph of the 350 × 350 × 100 matching in the 4–20-GHz band, and a with the mixer and high IRR without the
µm die of the Diramics InP HEMT with 2 × 100 µm
very simple input network was devised. need for an isolator, which would penalise
gate finger in 100-nm technology. This device is
used in the first stage of the 4–20-GHz amplifier and A progressive compromise for the noise the system in complexity and sensitivity.
was the outcome of a long term joint development mismatch at the lower band end must be
effort between Diramics and Yebes. The transistor tolerated to ensure an acceptable noise Noise temperature is compared at 15 K
terminals (gate, drain and source) are labelled with
performance at the higher end. The other ambient with the current ALMA CLNAs.
their initials. Note the five air bridges connecting the
source pads. stages can compensate the gain rolloff; The measurements at 5 K ambient are
nevertheless, it is difficult to separate the more representative of the operating con-
role of each stage in this design, as ditions of the amplifier, which will be
is a problem owing to the parasitics, and opposed to narrower-band amplifiers. placed in the 4-K stage of the cartridge,
for applications for which a large number and yield an average of 3.7 K, below the
of units is demanded. However, for our The intensive use of simulation tools goal of 4 K. It is remarkable that compa-
prototype it is much more convenient to required was supported by a systematic rable noise values are obtained for an
rely on a hybrid design because it is and painstaking process of selection upper passband frequency extending to
cheaper and faster to produce, modify and modelling of components at cryo- frequencies two to four times higher than
and tune (an MMIC requires a complete genic temperature. current band 9 and 5/7 amplifiers, and
iteration cycle with the foundry). It also with an input reflection below –15 dB, to
allows different transistor technologies to The bias networks feed the extremely our knowledge never before achieved in
be used for each stage and presents lower sensitive HEMT devices with DC power this frequency range. The noise results
losses in the critical input matching circuit, and protect them from electrostatic were confirmed using two independent
usually implemented by microstrip lines. discharge. They also contribute to the methods. Yebes Observatory has a long
stability of the transistors with high-value history as a reference lab for cryogenic
Another important design choice is where resistors that usually dissipate a signifi- noise measurements, a slippery field
to place the targeted 16-GHz-wide band. cant amount of power. We have been where all too often numbers coming from
At the present development stage of the able to reduce this fraction to just 15% different institutions differ significantly
ALMA WSU (Carpenter et al., 2022) we while still ensuring that the amplifier is because of the difficulty of performing
are still on time to influence this system‑ unconditionally stable. accurate measurements.
level decision. On the one hand, the
upper band limit is constrained by the
noise temperature achievable, since it
increases almost linearly with frequency.
On the other hand, the lower band limit
restriction comes from the maximum
fractional bandwidth (FBW, defined as the
ratio between the central frequency and
the bandwidth, usually expressed as a
percentage) that permits matching at the
level required for this project. The input
impedance of HEMT devices is very reac-
tive at low frequencies. Matching in a Figure 5. Comparison of the newly developed 4–20- installed in ALMA band 5 and 7 cartridges (right). Both
wide band becomes increasingly difficult GHz CLNA prototype for the next generation of ALMA are made of gold-plated aluminum and their sizes
for large FBWs. A reasonable compro- receivers (left) with one of the 4–8-GHz CLNAs actually are 21 × 20 × 9 mm and 46 × 29 × 9 mm, respectively.

20 40 0
Tamb = 15 K Tamb = 15 K
35 –5
GAIN
15 30 –10
Noise temperature (K)
Input reflection (dB)

nG ALMA 4–20 GHz (Tav = 4.9 K) 25 –15
Gain (dB)
B9 ALMA 4–12 GHz (Tav = 5.2 K)
10 B5&7 ALMA 4–8 GHz (Tav = 3.5 K) 20 – 20
15 – 25
NOISE
5 10 – 30
nG ALMA 4–20 GHz
5 – 35 B9 ALMA 4–12 GHz
B5&7 ALMA 4–9 GHz
0 0 – 40
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
Figure 6. Performance at 15 K ambient of the proto- Receivers” within which we plan to References
type developed in the 4–20-GHz band (in thick blue)
advance Diramics MMIC technology and
compared with a typical current 4–8-GHz CLNA of Carpenter, J. et al. 2019, arXiv: 1902.02856
ALMA bands 5 and 7 (in dashed red) and 4–12-GHz translate the current design into a mono- Carpenter, J. 2022, ALMA Memo 621
CLNA of ALMA band 9 (in solid red). Left: noise tem- lithic circuit. If successful, the resulting Cha, E. et al. 2018, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory &
perature and gain. Right: input reflection. Average chips could be useful for a prospective Techn., 66, 4860
noise temperature at 5 K ambient is 3.7 K. The noise Friis, H. T. 1946, Proc. IRE, 34, 254
production phase of ALMA receivers.
performance of the new amplifier is similar, despite López-Fernández, I. et al. 2006, IEEE MTT-S Int.
its much wider bandwidth and being designed to Furthermore, considering our recent and Microw. Symp. Digest, 1907
achieve excellent input reflection. promising results of performance with Nilsson, P. A. et al. 2014, IEEE Compound Semicond.
ultra-low power dissipation, they could Integr. Circuit Symp., 1
enable the implementation of ultra-wide Pospieszalski, M. W. 2005, IEEE Microw. Mag., 6, 62
Quertier, B. et al. 2021, The Messenger, 184, 20
The prototype also met the expectations band focal plane arrays. Tan, G. H. et al. 2004, The Messenger 118, 18
in power dissipation (8 mW), gain flat- Zeng, L. et al. 2018, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory &
ness (< 1.8 dB pp) and output reflection Techn., 66, 2154
(< –15 dB). Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by ESO Collabora- Notes

tion Agreement 79226/17/81324/ASP and in part by
Future prospects the Multiregional Operational Programme for Spain a
Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS)
2014-20 (ERDF) under project ICTS-2018-01-CNIG-11. tunnel junction mixers.
b
ESO has recently awarded Yebes Presently, ALMA bands with 4-GHz IF channels
This study is part of the ESO Technology Development have 2SB mixers, while bands with 8-GHz
Observatory its proposal of a new ALMA Programme (ESOblog - Shaping the future | ESO). channels have classical DSB mixers. The total IF
Development Study for the “Development We are indebted to the Programme Manager, Norbert band to process is 16 GHz in both cases. See Tan
of InP MMIC based Wideband Low-Noise Hubin, for his continued support and encouragement. et al. (2004).
Amplifiers for the Next Generation ALMA
This image from the

ESA/NASA
NASA/ESA Hubble
Space Telescope shows
the central region of the
rich globular star cluster
NGC 3201 in the south-
ern constellation Vela
(The Sails).
A star that has been

found to be orbiting a
black hole with four
times the mass of the
Sun lies close to the
centre of this picture.

VIRCAM Operations End at VISTA
Jim Emerson 1 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic telescope as part of the UK’s in-kind con-
Valentin D. Ivanov 2 Telescope (4MOST) working in the visi- tribution when the UK joined ESO in
Thomas Szeifert 2 ble region. Here we look back and sum- 2002. This played a key financial role in
Boris Haeussler 2 marise the experience gained and the enabling the UK to realise its long-held
Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos 2 great legacy of VIRCAM. wish to join ESO. As the VLT Survey Tele-
Marina Rejkuba 2 scope (VST) was being built for ESO sur-
Magda Arnaboldi 2 veys in the visible wavelength regime it
Monika G. Petr-Gotzens 2 Introduction was decided to forego the visible camera
Michael Hilker 2 on VISTA in favour of using funds to fill
Mike Irwin 3 The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope more of the field of view in the IR camera.
Nick Cross 4 for Astronomy (VISTA) was conceived
in the UK and in late 1998 a consortium
of UK universities, led by Queen Mary Building VIRCAM
1
Queen Mary University of London, UK University of London (PI: J. Emerson),
2
ESO successfully applied for funding from the VISTA was designed, at the UK’s Astron-
3
Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit, UK’s Joint Infrastructure Fund. The origi- omy Technology Centre at the Royal
University of Cambridge, UK nal proposal envisaged constructing Observatory Edinburgh, not as a general
4
Wide Field Astronomy Unit, Royal VISTA, equipped with interchangeable purpose telescope, but rather was opti-
Observatory Edinburgh, UK infrared (IR) and visible-light cameras, mised to host a wide-field near-infrared
near Gemini South at Cerro Pachón in camera, the VISTA InfraRed CAMera
Chile. It later became clear that Cerro (VIRCAM), operating in the J, H and Ks
The VISTA InfraRed CAMera (VIRCAM) Paranal, also in Chile, was a better option filters. It turned out that the system
at the Visible and Infrared Survey for the location of VISTA. ESO was origi- response was also good at shorter wave-
Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) made nally prepared to host VISTA for the UK lengths so Z and Y filters were later added,
its last observation on the night of 5/6 university consortium, in exchange for tele- along with NB118 for the UltraVISTA
March 2023 after more than a decade of scope time. As interactions with ESO
infrared surveys. Its place at VISTA’s progressed very well the consortium later
focal plane is soon to be taken by the agreed that VISTA could became an ESO Figure 1. VIRCAM insertion into M1 of VISTA.

ultra-deep survey. VIRCAM was built at many hundreds of similar Observation Observations
the Space Science division at the UK’s Blocks (OBs) as well as implementing
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and machine-readable observing strategies VISTA was designed to enable high survey
arrived at Paranal on 28 January 2007. It with concatenated, grouped or time- speed in the near-IR and most of its time
is described by Dalton et al. (2010), and, linked observations, new observation was dedicated to large-scale public sur-
more accessibly along with the tele- preparation and short-term scheduling veys. The Public Survey Panel (PSP), com-
scope, by Emerson et al. (2004) (design) tools were developed by ESO (Arnaboldi posed of experts from the community,
and by Sutherland et al. (2015) (as built). et al., 2008). These tools, originally imple- recommended an initial set of six such
mented on VISTA, were subsequently surveys to the Observing Programmes
Although almost everything else was ported to also support operations at Committee (OPC), which were then
ready to start system integration and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and scheduled by ESO for execution: VVV, a
testing, the polishing of VISTA’s 4-metre the VLT Interferometer and were further multi-purpose, multi-epoch survey of the
primary mirror (M1), in Russia, took very developed, adding programmatic interfaces inner Milky Way; VMC (VISTA near-IR
much longer than advertised, mainly and new services (Beccari et al., 2022). YJKs survey of the Magellanic Clouds
because it was the most curved large system); VHS (the VISTA Hemisphere
mirror that had ever been polished. It Many changes in the day and night oper- Survey); VIKING (the VISTA Kilo-degree
finally arrived in Paranal on 27 March ations were implemented to allow on-site INfrared Galaxy survey); VIDEO (VISTA
2008, during the making of the James operations with only one telescope instru- Deep Extragalactic Observations); and
Bond movie A Quantum of Solace. After ment operator shared between VISTA UltraVISTA, an ultra-deep survey with
the M1 had been coated and installed, and the VST. Telescope presets for short VISTA. See Arnaboldi et al. (2007) for a
the camera was mated to the telescope observations, such as for the VVV (VISTA brief description.
(Figure 1). The first infrared light for Variables in the Via Lactea) survey, which
VIRCAM followed on 24 June 2008. requires six presets in less than five min- ‘Dry run’ observations of these public
Finally the UK team integrating, testing, utes, were then executed automatically. surveys started on 4 November 2009; the
and commissioning the whole VISTA The connection of the scheduler to the survey teams were told that in the first
system could begin its year-long task of atmospheric site monitor enabled further months ESO would be further optimising
dealing with the various issues, mostly streamlining of survey operations. To do the instrument and telescope (hence ‘dry
mechanical, that arose during testing. that the scheduler automatically reads run’), training staff and implementing
Following reviews of the operation of all ambient conditions and filters executable operations processes and tools to make
parts of the system, and closing off all observations for the current conditions, efficient survey operations. Nevertheless,
the outstanding actions, the UK team’s ranking the OBs such that the most difficult it was expected that the time would be
final task was to ensure that ESO had all observations that fulfill all the constraints used to start advancing the survey
the necessary information to successfully are scheduled first. The top-ranked OB observations.
operate VISTA. gets automatically pulled and its acquisi-
tion starts as soon as the previous OB is The first night VISTA was operated after
System verification was carried out by ESO executed. On-the-fly automatic analysis being “provisionally accepted by ESO and
in August–September 2009 and Science of the resulting data allows the telescope handed over by STFC to ESO on Decem-
Verification between 15 October and instrument operator to assess whether the ber 10” was 11 December 2009. The offi-
3 November 2009 (Arnaboldi et al., 2010). conditions requested by the PI were met. cial start of public survey operations was
The first VIRCAM data in the ESO Sci- in P85 (April 2010), but effectively several
ence Archive are from Science Verification VIRCAM created very little work on day- hundreds of hours (per survey) had been
on the night of 15/16 October 2009. time operations, requiring only a mini- observed before then. P85 was the first
mum of additional calibrations. The only time VISTA was also offered to the com-
necessary data taken were some dome munity for shorter ‘normal’ programmes.
Impact on ESO operations flats and a linearity test once a week. Over the years these amounted to around
Named ‘barbecue flats’ since they were 9% of VISTA time.
VISTA’s surveys required new observing taken parallel to the weekly barbecue
concepts to be developed for the survey on Sundays, they became a tradition and In 2015, as the initial set of six public
telescopes (Bierwirth et al., 2010). To fixed point in the weekly schedule on surveys approached its sixth year of
define the pointings of tiles that create a Paranal. operations and some surveys were
contiguously surveyed area of the desired approaching completion, ESO issued a
shape, and efficiently identify suitable VISTA’s large data volumes were a call for Letters of Intent for the second
stars for guiding and active optics correc- strong driver for the installation of a fast cycle of public surveys with VIRCAM@
tions, the VISTA project developed the fibre data link to Paranal through the VISTA. Following a competitive process
Survey Area Definition Tool. This tool was EU-funded EVALSO programme. This with Letters of Intent and then review of
subsequently adapted to enable quick enabled VISTA’s raw data to be shipped proposals by the PSP, the OPC recom-
tiling of large areas with the OmegaCAM to Garching each night over the internet mended extending VVV (as VVVx) and
camera at the VST as well (Arnaboldi et instead of being shipped on hard disks UltraVISTA and adding five new surveys,
al., 2008). To enable the generation of (Comerón et al., 2012). as described by Arnaboldi et al. (2017).

Telescopes and Instrumentation Emerson, J. et al., VIRCAM Operations End at VISTA
The second set of surveys included: By the end of VIRCAM operations in transferred to the Cambridge Astronomi-
GCAV (Galaxy Clusters at VIRCAM), VEILS March 2023 all public survey observa- cal Survey Unit (CASU). At CASU a pipe-
(VISTA Extragalactic Infrared Legacy tions had been completed. line reduced and calibrated all VIRCAM
Survey), SHARKS (Southern H-ATLAS data, both for public surveys and any
Regions Ks-band survey), VISIONS (VISTA other observations, using all the knowl-
Star Formation Atlas), and VINROUGE Data products edge gained from processing all data
(VISTA Near infrared Observations produced by the instrument. This pipeline
Unveiling Gravitational wave Events). VIRCAM was always intended to produce was developed by CASU’s Jim Lewis
large-scale surveys with continuing archi- who also delivered and maintained a ver-
The sky coverage, in any filter, of each val value. Whilst the JHKs 2MASS survey sion based on ESO’s Common Pipeline
survey is shown in Figure 2 which, unsur- has a much more uniform three-band Library for ESO’s VIRCAM Quality Control
prisingly, shows that VHS has the great- sky coverage to its (shallower) survey and health monitoring process. The
est coverage by area in both J and Ks. depth, VIRCAM surveys at VISTA go much calibration method is described by
Other surveys have targeted smaller deeper and have higher image quality. González-Fernández et al. (2018). The
areas to greater depth and sometimes Therefore, for many purposes users may reduced calibrated data were routinely
in more filters, with the UltraVISTA survey find much more useful data in the
going deepest on the smallest area VIRCAM archives.
Figure 2. VIRCAM public surveys coverage (any filter)
of just one fully covered field of view of in Aitoff projection. For a breakdown of coverage by
VIRCAM. All VIRCAM raw data are in the ESO filter, or for a different projection, see CASU’s survey
archive and were also automatically progress page1 or the ESO Science Archive 3.
STD VVV VIKING VMC VHS VIDEO UltraVISTA
VVVx GCAV VEILS SHARKS VISIONS VINROUGE
90°
60°
30°
–30°
–60°
–90°
Observing dates: 20091015–20230305
Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit
R.A. (2000.0)

150 VIRCAM is soon to be replaced by the
4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Tele-
VIRCAM
scope (4MOST; de Jong et al., 2019). For
100 HAWKI now, VIRCAM is kept as a backup instru-
ment for VISTA, but once 4MOST is in full
operation, it is hoped that VIRCAM will
N
become its own legacy and will be put on

50
display for visitors to Paranal, showcasing
and highlighting large-scale surveys,
which form an important part of astron-
0 omy research these days and are often
0 5 10 15 20 forgotten about at a time when many tele
150 scopes concentrate on more detailed
OmegaCam views of galaxies/objects, with small
fields of view.
100 WFI
VIMOS VIRCAM has been a great success and
the legacy of its infrared imaging data will
N
continue to be mined for many years.

50
4MOST will finally deliver the V in VISTA’s
name and is shaping up to make a big
impact (see articles in The Messenger
0 175 and 190).
0 5 10 15 20
Years after first publication
References
Figure 3. VIRCAM’s publication history compared Subject to resource availability, calibrated Arnaboldi, M. et al. 2007, The Messenger, 127, 28
with another ESO IR imager (upper) and some visible
images and catalogues may be provided Arnaboldi, M. et al. 2008, The Messenger, 134, 42
wide-field cameras (lower).
for individual VISTA pawprints and tiles Arnaboldi, M. et al. 2010, The Messenger, 139, 6
not included in the public survey releases, Arnaboldi, M. et al. 2017, The Messenger, 168, 15
Beccari, G. et al. 2022, Proc. SPIE, 12186, 121860N
on request to [email protected] or Bierwirth, T. et al. 2010, Proc. SPIE, 7737, 77370W
uploaded to the VISTA Science Archive [email protected] Comerón, F. et al. 2012, The Messenger, 147, 2
(VSA)2 at the Wide Field Astronomy Unit Dalton, G. B. et al. 2010, Proc. SPIE, 7735, 77351J
at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh where Emerson, J. et al. 2004, The Messenger, 117, 27
de Jong, R. S. et al. 2019, The Messenger, 175, 3
it is archived. The VSA worked with five of Publications González-Fernández, C. et al. 2018, MNRAS, 474,
the six first-generation VISTA surveys to 5459
help deliver their data products to ESO’s At the time of writing there are 1029 refer- Minniti, D. et al. 2010, New Ast., 15, 433
Science Archive 3, and also to external eed publications using VISTA data in the Sutherland, W. et al. 2015, A&A, 575, A25
archive sites like VizieR4. ESO’s list of ESO Telescope Bibliography system 6
public VISTA survey data releases 5 is the Most come from the original six public Links
route to finding reduced observations, surveys with two having over 250 publi-
1
and in some cases object catalogues, to cations each (VVV 316, UltraVISTA 266). V ISTA public surveys progress:
http://casu.ast.cam.ac.uk/vistasp/overview
download. UltraVISTA and some of the Figure 3 shows that the annual number 2
V ISTA Science Archive: http://vsa.roe.ac.uk
second-generation public surveys have of publications (N) from VIRCAM com- 3
ESO Science Archive: http://archive.eso.org/
done their own data processing. pares well with those from related ESO scienceportal/home
imaging instruments. The most cited 4
VizieR archive: https://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/
The final images and catalogues for the VIRCAM paper, with nearly 800 citations, 5
O verview of Phase 3 data Releases: www.eso.org/
rm/publicAccess#/dataReleases
public surveys can be downloaded by is by Minniti et al. (2010), describing the 6
ESO Telescope Bibliography: https://telbib.eso.org
users from the ESO archives and the VVV survey. 7
A Decade of ESO Wide-field Imaging Surveys
VISTA science archive. workshop: https://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2023/
surveys.html
Although all the VIRCAM public surveys The future
have finished taking data, several of the
teams are continuing to work on the data ESO is organising a workshop entitled A
releases. Thus, although raw data are Decade of ESO Wide-field Imaging Sur-
publicly available immediately, more and veys7 from 16 to 20 October 2023 with
more data products, including higher- invited talks covering all VISTA (and VST)
level catalogues are becoming available public surveys, which will further explore
in the ESO archive. the legacy of VIRCAM.

Astronomical News
This image shows Aurelio Barrera, a staff member

at APEX, appearing to embrace the Milky Way as it
arches above the Atacama desert.
C. Duran/ESO
The spectacular dark skies at the APEX site allow

unsurpassed astronomical observations, and per-
mit such stunning details of the Chilean night sky
to be photographed.
Astronomical News DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5342
Celebrating 25 Years of Remarkable Science and

Engineering with the VLT
Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo 1 remarkable scientific achievements have visitors to present the evolution and state
Michael Hilker 1 been recognised with two Nobel prizes. of the art of nine different science topics
Bruno Leibundgut 1 The VLT’s exceptional instrumentation included in the time capsule: the Galactic
played a crucial role in establishing the centre, exoplanets, degenerate stars,
accelerated expansion of the Universe distant supernovae, microlensing, chemi-
1
ESO and confirming the existence of a com- cal evolution of the Galactic disc, galactic
pact object at the centre of our own X-ray sources, gravitational lensing and
Galaxy. Additionally, the VLT achieved the nearby radio galaxies.
Twenty-five years ago, on 25 May 1998, groundbreaking feat of capturing the first
a significant milestone was reached for direct image of an exoplanet and it has In addition, experts in lasers and adaptive
ESO and for European astronomy as the significantly contributed to our under- optics provided a historical summary of,
Very Large Telescope (VLT) captured standing of the diverse architectures of and a forward look at, one of the most
its first images. On the occasion of its exoplanetary systems. significant technical achievements at the
first light, the 8-metre Unit Telescope VLT. Live presentations were given from
UT1 offered impressive images of our As part of the commemorative activities Vitacura, Paranal and Garching on the
Universe. These included a successful to acknowledge the construction of the achievements and current status of
tracking test in the globular cluster VLT, on 4 December 1996 President VLT Science Operations and Data Flow,
Omega Centauri, detailed images of the Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle of the Republic respectively. The event commenced
central region of another globular clus- of Chile deposited a time capsule within with a brief summary of the historical first-
ter, Messier 4, the fine structure of the the walls of VLT Enclosure 1 (Giacconi, light event by the ESO VLT Programme
Butterfly Nebula, high-velocity ejecta 1997). This capsule, filled with nitrogen Scientist, the current ESO Director for
near Eta Carinae, and a captivating pic- gas and hermetically sealed, contained Science Bruno Leibundgut. The closing
ture showcasing stars, dust, and gas outstanding scientific papers from every remarks from the Director General Xavier
in Centaurus A. ESO member state, the host country Barcons highlighted the significance of
Chile, and ESO itself, intended to be pre- the VLT and its leadership position in the
served for an extended period1. context of international astronomy. He
Over the past 25 years the VLT has made emphasised the human aspect, the con-
an extensive and outstanding contribu- To celebrate the 25th anniversary2 of tribution of logistics and administration,
tion to scientific research. More than this significant moment for ESO and the the international cooperation needed to
10 000 scientific publications have been VLT the Offices for Science in Chile and make the programme a reality, the opera-
published to date, utilising data collected Germany organised an internal event tional model, data flow, technical devel-
from these telescopes. The VLT facility on 26 May 2023, inviting all ESO staff. opment, cutting-edge instrumentation,
has been continuously developed, with This event aimed to reflect on the remark- and continuous updates that have made
the addition of new instruments, the com- able achievements of the VLT in scientific,
bination of the unit telescopes to form a technical, operational, logistic, and human
powerful interferometer, the addition of aspects throughout these two and a half Figure 1. A lot can change in more than two dec-
adaptive optics with lasers and the expan- decades of teamwork. For this occasion, ades — just take a look at these pictures of ESO’s
Very Large Telescope (VLT)! On the left we see the
sion of the end-to-end operations model. a group of ESO Students and Fellows VLT when it was still under construction atop Cerro
All VLT data are available through the on both sides of the Atlantic teamed up Paranal in Chile, while on the right we see it in all its
ESO Science Archive Facility. Several with ESO staff astronomers and science glory as it stands today.

Astronomical News de Gregorio-Monsalvo, I. et al., Celebrating 25 Years of the VLT
the VLT one of the most productive tele-

scopes on Earth.
The VLT’s remarkable contribution to

science through superb instruments
More than three decades ago the discov-

ery of the first Type Ia supernova at high
redshift (z = 0.31) with the Danish 1.5-
metre telescope on La Silla was reported
in the journal Nature. These supernovae,
identified as standard candles for esti-
mating cosmological distances, have
been extensively studied with the VLT.
In 2011 the Nobel Prize in Physics was
awarded “for the discovery of the accel-
erating expansion of the Universe through
observations of distant supernovae,” in
which the 8.2-metre VLT telescopes at
Paranal, the 3.6-metre and the New
Technology Telescope (NTT) on La Silla
and ESO staff played a major role.
Observations of the proper motions of

stars near the centre of the Milky Way
have provided evidence in recent dec-
ades for the existence of a supermassive
black hole at the Galactic centre. Over
the course of 26 years, observations car-
ried out with sensitive instruments at the
NTT at La Silla and at Paranal, such as
the Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System – Instruments like the Spectro-Polarimetric Figure 2. This splendid colour image of a famous
southern Planetary Nebula, NGC 6302 or the Bug
COudé Near-Infrared CAmera combina- High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instru-
Nebula (sometimes nicknamed the Butterfly Nebula),
tion (NAOS–CONICA, or NACO) and the ment (SPHERE) have revealed a variety was obtained by combining blue, yellow and red
Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observa- of exoplanet architectures, including the images obtained on May 22, 1998, with 10 minute
tions in the Near-Infrared (SINFONI) at the first-ever image of two planets orbiting exposures and an image quality better than
0.6 arcseconds.
VLT, and the GRAVITY instrument at the a Sun-like star. The new Echelle SPectro-
VLT Interferometer, contributed signifi- graph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable
cantly to the Nobel Prize in Physics in Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO)
2020. These observations, including 16 instrument is focused on determining the scopes, including the VLT, characterised
years of tracking stars orbiting Sagittarius composition of exoplanet atmospheres, the first visible counterpart of a gravita-
A*, provided empirical evidence for the paving the way for future studies with tional wave source.
existence of the supermassive black hole ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).
at the centre of our galaxy. GRAVITY has The combined capabilities of the VLT and
been fundamental in studying at high- the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Advanced engineering systems: adaptive
precision orbits of stars near Sagittarius Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, optics and laser guides at the VLT
A* and testing general relativity, providing and the forthcoming ELT, will make ESO
images 20 times sharper than those from a unique observatory with the ability to The technology of the VLT has been con-
individual VLT telescopes. study the formation and evolution of plan- tinuously adapted and improved. The VLT
ets and their atmospheres in unprece- Interferometer employs larger individual
The VLT has played a leading role in the dented detail. telescopes than any such instrument
direct detection and characterisation of anywhere in the world and combines the
exoplanets. In 2004 the adaptive optics- Entering the era of gravitational wave light from them better. New instruments
supported NACO facility provided the astronomy, multi-epoch data from the have provided new observing capabilities
first image of a planet outside our Solar Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectro- and the facility has grown to include
System. To date more than 5000 exo graph (FLAMES) enabled the discovery adaptive optics with natural guide stars
planets have been discovered and there of a stellar-mass black hole in the Large and artificial stars created by powerful
are over 4000 known planetary systems. Magellanic Cloud. In 2017 ESO’s tele- laser beams.

ESO has remained at the forefront of next major astronomical endeavour and mission by scientists all the way to the
adaptive optics and laser guide star tech- which is already halfway through its com- final storage of the collected data in the
nologies in astronomy for the past three pletion process. ESO Science Archive Facility.
decades. The adaptive optics technique
plays a crucial role in correcting the distor- The remarkable achievements of the VLT
tions introduced by atmospheric turbu- Operations model and end-to-end over the past 25 years were the result of
lence in real time, rapidly adapting the data flow the team spirit, dedication, and interna-
mirror shape to counteract the blurring tional collaboration at ESO. Together, we
effect caused by the atmosphere. To Science operations have played a crucial have pushed the boundaries of astro-
achieve this, a bright star close to the role in the success of the VLT. Over 25 nomical exploration. As we look to the
astronomical target is required as a refer- years the facilities have continuously future with the construction of the ELT,
ence. However, such bright stars may evolved, requiring the management of the enhancement and future develop-
not always be available in the vicinity, three different generations of instruments ment of ALMA and another suite of new
necessitating the creation of ‘artificial’ at the observatory, all adhering to the instruments for the VLT, exciting times
stars using lasers. highest standards. As complexity has lie ahead, which will ensure the success
increased over time, science operations of ESO as a world-leading observatory.
By exciting sodium atoms in the meso- have adapted to new needs and circum-
sphere, approximately 90 kilometres stances, including the challenges posed
above Earth’s surface, lasers generate by the COVID-19 outbreak, which led to References
artificial stars. Initial experiments in this the only long-term suspension of science Giacconi, R. 1997, The Messenger 87, 1
area commenced in 1998, with the first operations at Paranal in 25 years.
light of the single laser guide star in UT4
in 2006. In 2016 the VLT further enhanced The VLT Data Flow System effectively Links
its Adaptive Optics Facility by installing manages the complexity of handling mul- 1
ESO Time Capsule Press Release:
the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility, each laser tiple instruments and observing modes. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso9710/
producing 22 Watts of power. This cutting- This closed-loop software system con- 2
VLT 25th anniversary Announcement:
edge facility will serve as a crucial test- sists of various subsystems that ensure a https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/
ann23009/
bed for the ELT, which represents ESO’s smooth flow of data, from proposal sub-
This photograph cap-

tures the Unit Telescope 4
of ESO’s Very Large
Telescope, located in
Chile’s Atacama Desert,
and its four-laser sys-
tem, which is used to
excite sodium atoms in
the atmosphere. The
atoms excited by the
lasers emit light that is
affected by the atmos-
phere in the same way
as the light emitted by
real stars. The emitted
light is collected by the
telescope and can be
used by the adaptive-
optics system to measure
the distortions intro-
duced by the atmos-
phere and then to correct
for them. This advanced
system, combined with
the excellent dark-sky
conditions of the
Atacama Desert, ensure
the telescope can obtain
extremely sharp images.

Report on the ESO workshop
VLTI and ALMA Synthesis Imaging Workshop

held at ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 9–12 January 2023
Fabrizia Guglielmetti 1 Their data require extensive processing intelligence, astrophysical parameter esti-
Antoine Mérand 1 and analysis to align and combine the mation and feature extraction, data vis-
Markus Wittkowski 1 signals from multiple telescopes so as to ualisation and exploration, analysis and
Lukasz Tychoniec 1 produce high-quality images. Both obser- interpretation. It is worth mentioning that
Gemma González-Torà 1 vatories deliver high-resolution imaging assessing the quality of the images is
Martin A. Zwaan 1 of celestial objects and multi-wavelength highly relevant to bench-marking image
Paola Andreani 1 observations. VLTI and ALMA data alone reconstruction algorithms. However, so
Carlos De Breuck 1 have provided breakthroughs in astron- far no systematic studies have been con-
omy, widening our knowledge of the ducted on the selection of a robust metric
Universe in regards to several hot topics, for quality assessment, and no studies
1
ESO such as the formation of stars and have been conducted that include similar
extra-solar planets, the distribution of algorithms applied to both optical/infra-
molecular gas in the Universe, the evolu- red and radio/millimetre data sets.
Supported by the EU-funded Opticon tion of galaxies, and the high-redshift
RadioNet Pilot (ORP), the VLTI and Universe. Over the past five years interest In the optical/infrared regime, experience
ALMA Synthesis Imaging Workshop has grown within the scientific community of using Bayesian imaging techniques has
was held at ESO Headquarters on in employing VLTI and ALMA data to been accumulated (for example, Buscher,
9–12 January 2023. The hybrid format derive high-impact results (for example, 1994; Baron, Monnier & Kloppenborg,
of the workshop allowed one hundred Bohn et al., 2022). 2010; and see Thiébaut & Young, 2017
registered participants from six conti- for a review), and they are now routinely
nents to gather, bringing with them a Because of the low information content applied. In the radio/millimetre, only the
wide range of expertise: theorists, of interferometric data, the generation of maximum entropy method of Cornwell &
observers and data scientists. The need images is a complicated and, in some Evans (1985) has been employed within
for such a broad range of skills origi- cases, poorly defined procedure. VLTI the ‘tclean’ task in the Common Astron-
nates in the workshop’s focus on inter- images are typically reconstructed by omy Software Applications package
ferometric image-reconstruction algo- minimising a cost function that includes (CASA; Casa Team et al., 2022). Other
rithms applied to data from instruments both the data and some prior information Bayesian estimation methods for imaging
across the optical/infrared and millime- on the object brightness distribution. are advancing, and some packages
tre/radio domain, allowing the diverse ALMA data are characterised by a higher based on artificial intelligence applied to
communities to build synergies and sampling of the uv plane compared to ALMA (for example, Di Mascolo et al.,
explore innovative techniques applica- the VLTI, given the larger number of inter- 2023; Delli Veneri et al., 2023; Tychoniec
ble to both regimes. The three-day ferometric elements. ALMA’s strategic et al., 2022) show promising results and
workshop was organised into six topics, design and location and its ability to track are suited to the new generation of ALMA
each followed by discussion. Four dis- phases more accurately than the VLTI (Guglielmetti et al., 2022). One of the
tinguished lecturers established a allow for a higher information content in goals of this workshop was to explore the
shared understanding of data analysis the images. Nonetheless, images are usability of such techniques in situations
processes (including data characteris- reconstructed by converting the cali- with very sparse sampling of spatial fre-
tics, handling and reduction) and pre- brated visibility data, often with iterative quencies (for example, Arras et al., 2022),
sented innovative techniques employing deconvolution algorithms to remove arte- which is typically the case with optical
artificial intelligence used by the two facts and to enhance the resolution of the interferometry observations, but also
communities. Traditional imaging meth- final image. Challenges in image decon- extends to the radio and millimetre, where
ods, as well as techniques for morphol- volution include preventing thresholding the challenges lie mostly in reaching a
ogy fitting and other popular tools and in the deconvolution algorithm, contin- high image dynamic range. In addition,
methods, were presented and dis- uum subtraction, the detection and developing procedures for speeding up
cussed by keynote speakers. Given the deconvolution of extended emission, the deconvolution algorithm is essential,
nature and goals of the workshop, most separating point-like sources from diffuse especially for future facilities such as the
of the speakers were invited. ORP sup- emission, and weak signal detection. Square Kilometre Array (Dewdney, 2009)
ported a number of speakers as well as and the forthcoming ALMA upgrade
students to allow growth within a young The VLTI and ALMA Synthesis Imaging (Carpenter et al., 2023).
community in the rapidly evolving area Workshop 3 emphasised strengthening
of image analysis. the links between the optical/infrared and The objectives of the workshop were met.
radio/millimetre communities, with the Collaboration was fostered among com-
aim of improving and exploring algorithms munities addressing similar problems and
Motivation which allow imaging enhancements in employing similar techniques, yet having
both wavelength regimes, and which limited practical overlap. The exchange
The Very Large Telescope Interferometer1 can be applied to multiple facilities. With of recent technical and scientific advances
(VLTI) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/ this scope, sessions were structured was facilitated, promoting knowledge-
submillimeter Array2 (ALMA) are two lead- around subject areas, including image sharing and cross-pollination of ideas.
ing facilities employing synthesis imaging. deconvolution and enhancement, artificial Lively discussions about collaborative

initiatives were encouraged, leading to atmospheric distortions, resulting in fast-switching phase referencing to miti-
the identification of opportunities for joint clearer and sharper images. gate the atmospheric phase fluctuations
efforts and endeavours. The groundwork (atmospheric phase correction).
for collaborative progress and mutual ALMA is equipped with 54 12-metre and
benefit in the field of synthesis imaging 12 7-metre antennas located on the
was laid and algorithms applicable to Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama Complexities of image analysis
both regimes were identified. Desert. The plateau has an extension of
about 10 square kilometres, and the According to the Rayleigh criterion, the
12-metre antennas are sited on ‘pads’ — angular resolution, q, of an imaging sys-
Introduction to the VLTI and ALMA individual antenna stations that provide tem (i.e., its ability to distinguish objects
power, signal and network connection in on the sky separated by some angular
The VLTI and ALMA observe in the wave- addition to a stable foundation — such distance) is directly proportional to the
length ranges of about 0.002–0.013 millime- that they can be moved into different observed wavelength (l) and inversely
tres and 0.3–8.6 millimetres, respectively. configurations. The dimensions of the to the antenna’s diameter (D), such that
most extended and most compact config- q ~ 1.22 λ/D. Therefore, for a given
The VLTI is composed of four 8.2-metre urations are 16 kilometres and 160 metres, telescope size, higher resolutions are
Unit Telescopes, supplemented by 1.8- respectively. The longest baseline allows obtained in the optical/infrared regime
metre movable Auxiliary Telescopes, at a resolution as sharp as 20 milliarcsec- than at millimetre/radio wavelengths. To
Paranal Observatory. The maximum dis- onds to be achieved at a wavelength of obtain images at higher angular resolu-
tance (baseline) achievable by the Unit 1.3 millimetres. The fields of view of the tion, signals from several telescopes are
Telescopes is about 130 metres, while 12-metre and the 7-metre antennas are
the Auxiliary Telescopes support a 200- about 19 arcseconds and 33 arcsec-
Figure 1. The VLTI is located on top of Cerro Paranal,
metre longest baseline. These longest onds, respectively, at a wavelength of in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The 8.2-metre UTs
baselines allow us to detect astronomical 1 millimetre. Mosaicking is used to are visible at the image centre. On the right of the
objects with milliarcsecond resolution. achieve uniform sensitivity over larger UTs, the 1.8-metre ATs are in their characteristic
The fields of view of the Unit and Auxiliary regions. Atmospheric distortions are cali- spherical dome shells. The ATs are movable and can
be relocated on 30 different observing stations. To
Telescopes are 30 arcminutes and brated with water vapour radiometers perform interferometry, the signals from the several
4 arcseconds, respectively. Adaptive that measure the amount of water in the telescopes are combined with varying array configu-
optics technology is used to correct for line of sight, and a technique known as ration and number of telescopes.
J.L. Dauvergne & G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO

Astronomical News Guglielmetti, F. et al., Report on the ESO Workshop “VLTI and ALMA Synthesis Imaging”
combined through interferometry, emulat- function. Specifically, the geometrical (or estimate the complex amplitude of the
ing a telescope with a larger diameter time) delay of the signals from the pair of visibility function, which contains both the
(aperture synthesis). Coherence theory, antennas is compensated for before amplitude and the phase information of
i.e. a statistical description of the electro- reaching the correlator using a technique the correlation between the antennas.
magnetic radiation, is used to analyse the known as delay tracking. The correlator is The amplitude of the complex visibilities
degree of correlation between pairs of a device capable of multiplying together is proportional to the brightness of the
measurements. Note that for N tele- the signal voltages produced by the object being observed, while the phase is
scopes, there are N(N–1)/2 of those antennas and time-averaging the signal, related to the position of the object in the
measurements, one for each baseline. thereby producing the interferometer sky. In the main, point sources of known
The spatial coherence (correlation) of the fringe pattern. The correlator output is flux density and position are used during
signals illuminating telescope pairs is proportional to the complex visibility the observation to allow the determina-
given by the van Cittert–Zernike theorem function, which is the Fourier transform of tion of the instrumental parameters for
that provides a relation between the sky the sky brightness integrated over the calibrating the visibility measurements.
brightness and the spatial coherence sky. Calibration procedures are applied to
Since the van Cittert–Zernike theorem
provides the mathematical relationship
between the detected complex visibility
Alma Observatory, Guy Wenborn
and the brightness distribution of the

celestial source, this pivotal theorem
forms the basis of Fourier synthesis imag-
ing. It uses the inverse Fourier transform
of the calibrated complex visibilities (in
units of Jy, in the case of ALMA) to pro-
duce an image of the source brightness
distribution (flux density per unit solid
angle, or beam volume in the case of
ALMA). An array of several antennas (or
telescopes) measures the visibility func-
tion for each baseline. The sampling of
the visibility function is limited by the
number of antennas or telescopes, the
observing time and the pervasive pres-
ence of noise in the measurements a. The
inverse Fourier transform of the sampled
(and noisy) visibility function provides an
image ID (the dirty image) that is cor-
rupted by the instrumental point spread
function, known as the dirty beam b. The
sky brightness distribution, which is
affected by the antenna’s primary beam,
can theoretically be obtained by decon-
volving ID from the dirty beam. However,
to control image formation, the sampling
function is traditionally (density) weighted
and tapered to constrain the shape of
the dirty beam. While tapering implies
smoothly weighting down the highest
spatial frequencies to suppress sidelobe
effects, the density weigthing is employed,
for example, to optimise the density
Figure 2. ALMA is located on the Chajnantor Plateau

in Chile’s Atacama Desert. At the bottom-center of
the image, one can see a set of the fifty-four 12-m
atennas. To the left, in the bottom-center, the
Atacama Compact Array (ACA) is composed of
twelve 7-m antennas and four 12-m antennas. Trian-
gular antenna stations are visible in the image. Each
of the 192 available stations can house an antenna,
allowing for several array configurations.

Others
Students Female
astronomical challenges. Further themes
Postdocs Male included traditional reconstruction meth-
Staff Rather not say
100 100
ods, advanced statistical methodologies,
model fitting and tools at the interface
80 80 between the data and imaging.
60 60
Frequency
Frequency Half-day sessions comprised talks

40 40 followed by 30–60-minute moderated
discussions that all participants were
20 20
invited to contribute to. The participants
0 0
engaged in a hybrid format, and a dedi-
cated Slack workspace facilitated further
irs
irs
s
rs
rs
rs
rs
C
nt
nt
LO
SO
LO
SO
ke
ke
ke
ke
ha
ha
pa
pa
discussions, exchanges of ideas, and

ea
ea
ea
ea
C
C
ci
ci
sp
sp
sp
sp
r ti
r ti
Pa
Pa
ed
ed
sharing of material. Synergies between

te
te
v it
v it
bu
bu
In
In
tr i
tr i
on
on
different teams were forged and plans for

C
collaborative surveys were developed.

Figure 3. Demographic distributions of the career The interpretation of aperture synthesis
stage (left) and gender (right) between participants,
data is a complex process, in which the
invited and contributed speakers, Chairs, LOC and
SOC. uncertainties associated with image Summaries of talks and highlights from
reconstruction are always present. sessions
Sparse sampling, instrumental responses
of sparse sampling (long baselines) with and the pervasive presence of noise Five sessions were organised over three
respect to the dense sampling at the affect the data. The inverse problem days on a comprehensive range of topics.
short baselines contributing to ID. This of extracting astrophysically interesting
uniform weighting scheme allows one to information from the observed sky bright- Machine learning (ML) applications on the
achieve an improved angular resolution ness is ill-posed, in the sense that the VLTI and ALMA were shown to success-
compared to employing no density solution is not unique, or is not stable fully reconstruct high-resolution images
weights (a natural weighting scheme). under perturbations in the data. Pertur- from sparse and incomplete measure-
Often tapering occurs at schemes in bation caused by noise can create large ments. The CASSINI-Automap technique
between these two extremes. Gridding is deviations in the solution being sought. exploits the compressibility of a signal
frequently used to calculate ID as discrete with neural networks. The networks are
representations in image pixels. The designed with adaptive activation func-
visibility measurements (sampled and Major theme tions to find an optimal mapping system
weighted) are interpolated to a regular between the infrared interferometric data
grid employing the Fast Fourier Transform On the first day of the workshop, proced- and the reconstructed images. The
algorithm, providing an estimate of ID ings were led by two keynote speakers, ORGANIC method utilises generative
(the dirty map). The ill-posed problem in Urvashi Rao Venkata and Jean-Philippe adversarial networks for the reconstruc-
image reconstruction is summarised by Berger, who delivered an extensive retro- tion of objects from VLTI data. This class
the measurement equation ĨD = B ∗ I + n, spective of image reconstruction methods. of deep learning models is used to learn
where B, I and n are the dirty beam, the Their presentations aimed to foster the underlying distribution of the object
true sky representation and the additional mutual understanding and facilitate the being imaged from the interferometric
noise, respectively. Additional imaging development of expertise in synthesis data, while an input astrophysical prior is
intricacies include, for example, the heter- imaging within the two communities. used for regularisation. DeepFocus is a
ogeneous sensitivity of the instruments high-performance and deep-learning
to point sources and extended emissions, Because of the significant influence this pipeline, whose strength is shown when
chromatic aberration, azimuthal smearing, groundbreaking research and its devel- applied to ALMA cubes. By integrating
and position-shift as a result of distortion opments have had on various scientific images captured at different frequencies,
across the field of view. domains, artificial intelligence was allo- DeepFocus effectively speeds up the
cated two specialised sessions. Each of deconvolution process and performs
Sparse sampling complicates the imaging these sessions commenced with a key- source detection and characterisation. It
process because of gaps in the visibility note introductory talk aimed at offering is capable of obtaining sharper and more
measurements. For this reason, VLTI a comprehensive grasp of machine learn- detailed images of objects at different
measured visibilities are used to derive ing and information field theory. Both spatial frequencies. The ML algorithms
closure phases, combinations of phase Giuseppe Longo and Torsten Enßlin have the potential to enhance the quality
differences between three or more tele- demonstrated the evolution of the field and fidelity of object reconstruction in
scope elements of the array. The closure over the past decade and emphasised interferometric imaging, enabling better
phases are used as constraints in the the importance of developing data understanding and analysis of astronomi-
image reconstruction process with the aim scientists as an invaluable and essential cal data.
of improving image accuracy and quality. resource for addressing contemporary

Astronomical News Guglielmetti, F. et al., Report on the ESO Workshop “VLTI and ALMA Synthesis Imaging”
ML was shown to be used mostly as a GRAVITY and direction- and time-de- deconvolution. The advancement of
supervised algorithm to infuse knowledge pendent self-calibration. IFT came out as machine learning has played a pivotal
of the astrophysical object into the image a strong candidate for a general algorithm role in fostering the development and
reconstruction using mainly synthetic applicable to VLTI and ALMA data. applications of GPUs in astronomical data
datasets generated from astrophysical analysis. GPUs are known to improve
simulations. A striking advantage resides The last day session was dedicated to the speed of image processing thanks to
in the increase in computation speed with popular tools (such as TP2VIS) and new their performance in several concurrent
respect to other methods. methods. The TP2VIS software package calculations and to memory optimisation
is designed to effectively merge and ana- when handling large datasets. The first
Following this session, participants lyse data from different observational published application of GPUs on ALMA
delved into traditional imaging techniques techniques to achieve a more compre- imaging is from Delli Veneri et al., 2023.
along with the latest developments in hensive view of astronomical sources. A The application of GPUs to VLTI data for
these historical methods: POLCA, very interesting assessment of imaging image reconstruction is not a novelty (see
OImaging, CASA, GILDAS, SQUEEZE quality and parametric modelling for Baron & Kloppenborg, 2010).
are well-established numerical methods ALMA data showed valuable insights for
and integrated into user-friendly tools. VLTI data as well. The workshop con-
Aspects of these techniques have been cluded with applications of advanced sta- Main conclusions and ways forward
found to have usability in both regimes tistical techniques to ALMA data. In a
and to allow for the sharing of information serendipitous search of high-z quasars in The workshop was successful in bringing
and knowledge between communities, as ALMA cubes, multiple algorithms are together two communities working on
OImaging can be customised for the use used and evaluated to detect and differ- related topics, but with few connections.
of ALMA, opening the doors for further entiate faint spectral lines employing a The meeting exposed some methods
implementations with other algorithms. blind search technique. Moreover, the used by one community which could be
use of SupReMo enables the study of the used by the other, with artificial intelligence
The subsequent half-day was specifically early evolution of galaxy clusters using techniques playing a significant role. For
allocated to model fitting, an image sparse data; supported by multiwave- instance, regularised maximum likelihood
reconstruction approach tailored for length observations, SupReMo recon- has been used for 20 years in optical
highly sparse data. During this session, structs the cluster properties, such as interferometric image reconstruction and
various forward modelling algorithms mass, velocity dispersion, and density provided popular imaging tools in multi-
were discussed, including PMOIRED, profile, with the goal of improving our wavelength astronomy. During the work-
uvmultifit, RHAPSODY, and other tech- understanding of cluster evolution. shop, an efficient regularised maximum
niques designed to address the chal- Lastly, a regularised maximum likelihood likelihood approach applied to ALMA
lenges posed by interferometric data. approach to continuum data highlighted continuum observations was presented.
These methodologies enable precise fit- the significance of employing Graphics The technique made use of GPUs for fast
ting of models to the data, offering valua- Processing Unit (GPU) for ALMA image image reconstruction. Prior information
ble insights and enhanced reconstruction
capabilities for sparse datasets. Also in
this case, discussions revealed the
potential for algorithms applicable to both
observatories. The remaining day was Germany 40.00%
fully reserved for information field theory
(IFT), an artificial intelligence methodology
to recover field-like quantities from finite
and noisy data. IFT is based on Bayesian
inference in the context of field theory.
The Numerical Information Field Theory
(NIFTy) library was shown to be a power- Sweden 1.00%
ful computational tool, designed to han- South Africa 1.00%
Poland 1.00%
dle and analyse numerical data within the France 11.00%
Netherlands 1.00%
IFT framework. This valuable resource Mexico 1.00%
Japan 1.00%
provides a comprehensive set of function- Iran 1.00%
alities to enable signal processing, includ- Haiti 1.00%
Spain 2.00%
ing data manipulation, numerical opera-
Philippines 2.00%
tions, and advanced statistical modelling.
China 2.00%
Several presentations followed, on a large USA 10.00%
Belgium 2.00%
variety of applications: VLBI, ALMA, Austria 2.00%
UK 3.00%
India 7.00% Chile 5.00%
Figure 4. Geographical representation of attendees,
highlighting the international diversity of the conference. Italy 6.00%

Figure 5. Participants at the VLTI and ALMA Synthesis
Imaging workshop.
working opportunities. We attribute this

success both to the compelling nature
of the subject matter, which draws
researchers at all career stages, and to
the generous support that kept the cost
of attendance relatively low.
Acknowledgements
We wholeheartedly thank Elena Zuffanelli and Nelma

Silva for their invaluable support and dedication to
making this a successful workshop. We are grateful to
Michiel Hogerheijde (Leiden Observatory) for his key
contribution and insight as chair on key discussion
sessions. Last but not least, it is a great pleasure to
was incorporated in the image recon- expertise from different communities to thank Michele Delli Veneri (INAF) for setting up the
struction process as a regularisation term address the complex problem of image Slack workspace, allowing for many fruitful discus-
to improve quality and reliability. The analysis and explore new paths to gener- sions. This event received funding from the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation pro-
maximum likelihood approach has the ate innovative solutions. For each of the gramme under grant agreement No 101004719 [ORP].
advantage of providing a point estimate six sessions, a reviewer led the discus-
and its uncertainty, but in a parameter sions to promote a climate of creative col-
space of moderate size. Conversely, IFT laboration and to support open-minded References
(a Bayesian based technique) has the exploration of ideas. A well-balanced par- Arras, P. et al. 2022, Nature Astronomy, 6, 259
advantage of expanding the solution to a ticipation, including senior scientists, Baron, F. & Kloppenborg, B. 2010, Proc. SPIE, 7734,
multi-dimensional parameter space and it postdocs and students, was designed. 7734D
is applicable to large data volumes. IFT Female participation and contributions Baron, F., Monnier, J. D. & Kloppenborg, B. 2010,
Proc. SPIE, 7734, 77342l
computes the volume under the estimated reflected the overall demographic of the Bohn, A. J. et al. 2022, A&A, 658, A183
parameters from which the covariance field — 31% of the participants, 20% of Buscher, D. F. 1994, IAUS, 158, 91
matrix is estimated to provide a robust invited speakers, 30% of session chair- CASA Team et al. 2022, PASP, 134, 114501
uncertainty quantification. The IFT approach persons — and the distribution of speak- Carpenter, J. et al. 2023, Proc. of the 7th Chile-
Cologne-Bonn Symposium, 304,
has been successful in radio imaging ers between young researchers, post- arXiv:2211.00195
and can potentially be applied to optical docs and staff was well balanced (see Cornwell, T. J. & Evans, K. F. 1985, A&A, 143, 77
data. Dissemination of ideas and methods Figure 3). The attendees exhibited a Delli Veneri, M. et al. 2023, MNRAS, 518, 3407
can be achieved by fostering data format diverse demographic composition, span- Dewdney, P. E. et al. 2009, Proc. IEEE, 97, 1482
Di Mascolo, L. et al. 2023, Nature, 615, 809
unification or developing data converters. ning five continents, with the following Guglielmetti, F. et al. 2022, Phys. Sci. Forum, 5, 50
These efforts would streamline the percentages (see Figure 4): Thiébaut, É. & Young, J. 2017, JOSAA, 34, 904
exchange of reference datasets and ena- –6 9% Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Tychoniec, Ł. et al. 2022, Phys. Sci. Forum, 5, 52
ble straightforward comparison of results. UK, Austria, Belgium, Spain, the
The advent of machine learning techniques Netherlands, Poland, Sweden) Links
requires large learning and control data- –1 3% Asia (India, Japan, Iran, China,
sets and having fewer data formats ensures Philippines) 1
V LTI webpage: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/
that datasets can be re-used in that con- –1 2% North America (US, Haiti, Mexico) paranal/telescopes/vlti.html
2
A LMA webpage: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/
text. Fewer data formats also make sure –5 % South America (Chile)
alma.html
data challenges can be easily organised. –1 % Africa (South Africa) 3
Workshop website: https://www.eso.org/sci/
meetings/2023/VLTI-ALMA-IW.html
The workshop had a high level of partici-
Demographics pation during each session, with 100 par-
Notes
ticipants in total (Figure 5). Most of the
The Scientific Organising Committee in-person participants came from a
E arth’s atmosphere may introduce phase errors,
aimed at having a fair representation from European countries, the extremes overall especially at longer wavelengths. ALMA mitigates
the two communities in terms of speak- being 40% from Germany and 1% from this effect by employing atmospheric calibration
and phase referencing. Other sources of random
ers and genders, as well as including a Japan. The workshop was held in the noise limiting the accuracy of the amplitude and
wide range of techniques and research second week of January, limiting face-to- phase information are thermal noise, shot noise,
methodologies developed for aperture face international participation. However, environmental noise, quantum noise, digitisation
synthesis and their impact on scientific the hybrid format of the workshop allowed and crosstalk in addition to systematics.
b
T he dirty beam considers the source as a point of
results. The cross-disciplinary programme for a level of global participation that
unit amplitude at the phase tracking centre and the
was designed to combine insights and enriched the overall discussion and net- visibility function is unity everywhere.

Report on the ESO workshop
Disks and Planets across ESO Facilities

held at ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 28 November – 2 December 2022
Antoine Mérand 1 Polarimetric High-contrast REsearch research topic. The new frontiers lie in
Michele Cirasuolo 1 instrument (SPHERE). One of the land- multi-band studies and increasing the
María Díaz Trigo 1 mark results of the Atacama Large sample of observed discs. Future direc-
Bruno Leibundgut 1 Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) tions require larger samples: expanding
was the stunning image of the dusty disc to fainter discs, more compact ones
around HL Tau 3 in 2014, revealing unex- (where the dust has settled inwards) or
1
ESO pected ring structures that were inter- discs in star-forming regions with more
preted as a signature of ongoing planet common environmental conditions. This
formation (ALMA Partnership, 2015). requires more observing time via commu-
The observation of protoplanetary nity organisation of surveys, as well as
discs and exoplanets is a relatively Beyond these historical achievements, higher sensitivity (which is in part covered
recent and rapidly evolving research what is the future of observations of discs by the ALMA2030 development plan 5)
field. Many questions are still being and planets using ESO facilities? What and higher angular resolution.
posed, driven by both observations and are the latest theoretical developments?
theoretical developments. Discs and How can they be addressed observation- Protoplanets are hard to find because
exoplanets now constitute a central ally? How are ESO facilities transitioning they are embedded in the discs. Only the
observational field in astrophysics, and from making the first discoveries to sur- exceptional case of PDS 70, where the
one of the main motivations for ESO veying large populations? What are the protoplanets lie in an inner cavity, pro-
and its community to build the Atacama latest observational techniques? How do vides an observational example of inter-
Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array ESO facilities play against and/or comple- play between the disc and the forming
and the Extremely Large Telescope. ment other facilities? What does the near planets. This system has been discovered
They are also behind many recent and future hold, in particular with the Extremely and observed by many ESO facilities:
future developments at the Paranal Large Telescope (ELT) on the horizon? SPHERE, NACO, the Multi Unit Spectro-
and La Silla observatories. A workshop scopic Explorer (MUSE; at the VLT), and
was held at ESO Headquarters in Following a recommendation by the Sci- GRAVITY (at the VLTI), as well as with
November/December 2022 to reflect on entific Technical Committee (STC), the ALMA, showcasing the suite of instru-
the role of ESO facilities (present and four ESO programme scientists (for the ments ESO provides to its community. A
future) in this landscape. ELT, ALMA, the VLT and the VLT Interfer- promising technique to detect more pro-
ometer) organised the workshop Disks toplanets with ALMA is via perturbations
and Planets across ESO Facilities4 held at in the Keplerian velocity field of a disc.
Introduction ESO’s Headquarters from 28 November
to 2 December 2022, in order to address Obtaining a complete census of exoplanet
Observations of protoplanetary discs and these questions and invite community demographics requires many observa-
exoplanets have always profited from pro- contributions. The workshop was organ- tional techniques and facilities beyond
gress in observational techniques: spec- ised in eight half-day sessions, each con- even the rich palette offered by ESO. ESO
troscopic and photometric stability, sisting of an invited review, contributed has been at the forefront of planet dis-
high-contrast and high-resolution imag- talks and a moderated discussion. The covery by radial velocity measurements
ing, interferometry in the infrared and workshop focused on the following top- and direct imaging. Remaining competi-
submillimetre and so on. ESO facilities ics: Protoplanetary discs and evolution; tive requires observing time for large sur-
played a key role in early observations Disc chemistry; Protoplanet detection; veys and/or advances in instrumental
of discs and planets. In 1996, newly avail- Planet atmospheres; Planet detection; technology. The current ESO operational
able infrared sensors behind a corona- Biosignatures; ESO opportunities; and model does not seem to be a limitation
graph and adaptive optics on the 3.6- Synergies with space missions. as it offers the possibility of large observ-
metre telescope allowed the first images ing programmes and public surveys. The
of beta Pic and its disc1. ESO has been at The workshop showed that the commu- role of ESO facilities as discovery and/or
the forefront of large-scale searches for nity is currently in a privileged situation follow-up machines was also discussed:
exoplanets by velocimetry with the High with access to a unique infrastructure for some observations with ESO telescopes
Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher ground-based astronomy at the global can lead to the discovery of discs or
(HARPS) since 2003 (Pepe et al., 2004), level with facilities like ALMA, the VLT, the planets which can better be character-
and with the Echelle Spectrograph for VLT Interferometer (VLTI) and the ELT. ised by complementary facilities, in par-
Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectro- ALMA has revolutionised the study of ticular in space (the JWST, the CHaracter-
scopic Observations (ESPRESSO) since discs in the submillimetre by improving by ising ExOPlanet Satellite [CHEOPS] etc.)
2018 (Nielsen & Seidel, 2022). The first an order of magnitude or more the sensi- and vice-versa: other facilities (such as
direct image of an exoplanet was tivity and angular resolution of disc Gaia) can provide candidates which can
obtained by the Nasmyth Adaptive Optics images. Since the first stunning image of be then observed more deeply with ESO
System – COudé Near-Infrared CAmera gaps in the HL Tau disc, ALMA has pro- facilities. There is no single recipe and
combination (NACO) at the Very Large vided insights into the architecture of ESO facilities have a significant role to
Telescope (VLT) in 20052, followed by gas and dust interaction. Understanding play in both discovery and follow-up.
several more, recently with the Spectro- these observations is still an active

The search for biosignatures in the upstream critical developments to Figure 1. Group photo of the in-person workshop
participants.
atmospheres of temperate rocky remain competitive and to prepare the
exoplanets is a major science driver in development of ALMA, the VLT/I and
astronomy today. This, however, requires particularly the ELT. These elements are
very demanding instrumentation. Two already present in current developments Acknowledgements
main avenues are being pursued: trans- (for example, ALMA2030 5 or VLT2030;
We thank Christophe Lovis for helping with the
mission spectroscopy for transiting plan- Mérand & Leibundgut, 2019), and will preparation of this report.
ets, and spatially-resolved spectroscopy continue for future exercises.
for non-transiting planets. The JWST is
References
currently pushing the limits of transit The workshop took place at ESO
spectroscopy towards habitable-zone Headquarters in Garching, as well as ALMA Partnership et al. 2015, ApJL, 808, L3
planets, specifically in the TRAPPIST-1 online. The Scientific Organising Committee Mérand, A. & Leibundgut, B. 2019, The Messenger,
system. Our next-best opportunity will (SOC) was composed of the four ESO 177, 67
Nielsen, L. D. & Seidel, J. V. 2022, The Messenger,
likely come from reflected-light spectros- programme scientists and eminent mem-
187, 8
copy using ground-based instrumenta- bers of the discs and exoplanets commu- Pepe, F. et al. 2004, A&A, 423, 385
tion. Several ideas were proposed to nities (including from ESO and the STC).
enable the characterisation of the atmos- Particular care was taken to balance
Links
pheres and surfaces of habitable-zone gender, seniority and geographical origin
planets in the next decade. of the SOC members, the eight invited 1
Beta Pictoris image: https://www.eso.org/public/
speakers and the 68 contributors. In all, news/eso9714/
Finally, workshop contributions showed 135 participants registered and at any 2
First exoplanet image: https://www.eso.org/public/
that the environment of technological given time there were about 100 work- news/eso0515/
3
HL Tauri image: https://www.eso.org/public/news/
and instrumental developments is a fast shop participants present: 50 people in eso1436/
growing and rapidly evolving field, par- the conference room (Figure 1) and 50 4
Workshop webpage: https://www.eso.org/sci/
ticularly in the context of integral-field online (some attendees only participated meetings/2022/disks_and_planets_at_ESO.html
spectroscopy, high spectral resolution, in the discs or planets sessions). 5
ALMA Development Roadmap:
high-contrast imaging and interferometry. https://almaobservatory.org/en/publications/
the-alma-development-roadmap/
This requires the ability to support

Fellows at ESO
Julia Bodensteiner than actually steering a boat: I mainly KU Leuven Mercator telescope on the
tried to pass the first-year exams. The Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma,
Who would have thought that raspberry third year of my bachelor’s degree, Spain. I went as often as I could, and
ice cream made with liquid nitrogen as a however, I spent at the Universidad so far I have spent more than 50 nights
high school student would pave the way Complutense de Madrid in the context observing in different observatories. This
for me to become an astronomer. Cer- of the ERASMUS programme, which is was also one of my main drivers to apply
tainly not me at the time, but it is true. where I had my first astronomy lecture. I for the ESO fellowship: the strong con-
loved it, and when I came back I searched nection to the observatory, the proximity
Although it is often a cliché for astrono- for a bachelor thesis about an astronomy to telescopes, and the development of
mers, it is true for me that I’ve always topic. Specifically, I worked on massive new instruments. Now, working at ESO,
enjoyed the night sky. Its vast scope and stars in the high-energy group of the I have been able to visit Paranal and
tranquillity continually inspire me, despite Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial spend several nights at the telescope.
only being able to see a handful of twin- Physics (MPE) in Munich. It was not only This allowed me to gain invaluable insight
kling stars from Munich, Germany, where my interest in the topic, but also the wel- into telescopes and how they work, and
I grew up. I’ve also always enjoyed being coming, warm atmosphere in the group to better understand the observations
outside, surrounded by nature, for exam- at MPE that made me stay on as a job themselves. Additionally, I think that
ple hiking or cycling. When I was a child, I student. In collaboration with a second Paranal is a really magical place.
often went to the mountains with my fam- supervisor at ESO, I continued there to
ily. The highlight for me and my brother do my master’s thesis project investigat- What I really enjoy about the scientific
would always be when we camped out- ing circumstellar nebulae around massive environment, not only at ESO but also
side at the foot of a mountain, where the stars. Because massive stars, and in any other institute or research centre I’ve
view of sky was so much better than from particular binaries, always interested me, visited so far, is the international environ-
the city of Munich. I sought a PhD position in observational ment I am exposed to every day. This
stellar astrophysics and was successful: not only allows me to talk to and interact
Unfortunately, during high school the phys- I got a position to work on spectroscopic with many different people from different
ics curriculum was not particularly inspiring. observations of massive binaries at the countries and diverse backgrounds, but
Physics is also usually not seen as the Institute of Astronomy at KU Leuven, also to learn more about other cultures.
‘cool’ subject, and kids who enjoy physics Belgium. Most importantly, my research career has
are often labelled as the weird ones, or the taught me openness and has provided
nerds. On top of that I was strongly lacking A highlight of my career has been visiting me with a better understanding of differ-
a female role model. Luckily, my parents La Silla observatory in Chile to observe ent ideas and perspectives. In general,
kept nudging me towards my scientific during my time at MPE. I fell in love with I’ve always enjoyed travelling, which is
interests, for example by gifting me books the scenery of the Atacama Desert, the another aspect that I like about the scien-
written by female astronomers. friendliness of the people working at the tific environment. Going to conferences
telescopes, and of course the stunning or meetings at different institutes always
Despite my interest in physics and night sky. So I was very happy when dur- means meeting new people and getting
astronomy, I never imagined that one day ing my PhD I could go observing to the to know the world.
I would actually make a career out of it.
And that brings me to one of the impor-
tant milestone in my youth — a Germany-
wide ‘Girl’s Day’ for girls between 14 and
18, which I participated in. Instead of
going to school, I spent the day at a
solid-state physics lab in the Technical
University of Munich (TUM). Not only did I
learn a lot about microscopy and the sur-
faces of materials — but we also had fun
doing it. One activity was making rasp-
berry ice cream with liquid nitrogen. From
this I realised two things: that physics can
actually be really fun, and that ‘real’ physics
is very different from what is taught in
schools. I enjoyed the atmosphere of being
surrounded by others, mainly girls, and
I did not feel judged. So after high-school
I decided to study physics at the TUM.
In all honesty, the first years of university

felt more like I was more drifting in a river

Something I am particularly grateful for is of light that value (no more, no less)?” and science was also channelled early on
the scientific freedom afforded me so far I find these questions great fun to by my wonderful maths teacher, who set
in my career. I’ve always been able to fol- explore, which is lucky given that I am me additional challenges. In the end, I
low my own curiosity and work on the also often asked such mind-boggling was as ambitious academically as athleti-
questions that I find the most interesting. questions when I do outreach. They cally and threw myself into my final years
During my master’s thesis, I wanted to are the kind of questions I thought about of high school to obtain a scholarship
work on a topic that was not particularly as a child, when I read books like Brian that would pay off my bachelor’s degree.
the focus of my supervisor. Instead of tell- Greene’s A Fabric of the Cosmos. At that
ing me to change it, he encouraged me time, astronomy was a form of escapism After school I dived into an ‘accelerated’
to gain a second supervisor complemen- for me — beyond this tiny blue dot was science degree at the Queensland Uni-
tary in expertise for that topic. Similarly, an incredibly vast and wondrous Universe versity of Technology. The challenge
during my PhD, when I devised a new that had no concept of us humans and of the degree and interaction with like-
project halfway through my PhD, my our insignificant problems! minded people made me want to pursue
supervisor motivated me to follow my astrophysics more seriously. I also realised
own interests and gave me the opportu- Astronomy may have been an early inter- during this time that I enjoyed outreach
nity to work on new things that were orig- est, but it was not my first career goal. and I started to host astronomy work-
inally not planned. As an ESO fellow, I I moved from Germany to Brisbane shops for high school students as part
enjoy similar scientific freedom: I applied (Australia) aged five and started swim- of my first paid job — as a STEM ambas-
to the ESO fellowship programme with ming, which quickly turned into an obses- sador. Astronomy was looking more
my own project. My focus is the study of sion. A few years later, it was clear that like a serious career, whereas sport was
a particular type of massive star, classical I was far more talented at running. Later, becoming the hobby. So I had to find a
Be stars, which are interesting because in high school, I also started cycling seri- place where I could learn how to do
they are rapidly rotating and surrounded ously, leaving Wednesday school sport astronomical research. Knock knock the
by a disc of gaseous material. During my for my cycling session on the nearby Australian National University (ANU) in
fellowship at ESO, I am investigating cycling/criterium track. Obviously, I was Canberra, where I spent the next two,
whether their rapid rotation is linked to going to be a triathlete... but alongside hugely formative, years undertaking my
previous interactions in a binary system. the focus on endurance sports, I also master’s.
For this, I am using spectroscopic obser- loved learning about astronomy. Luckily,
vations with both ESO telescopes and the my parents were incredibly supportive of The ANU’s Research School of Astronomy
HERMES spectrograph on the Mercator both my sport and my education — even and Astrophysics on Mt Stromlo is a
telescope, which I analyse in collabora- moving close to a high school with a magical place — a friendly astronomical
tion with an international team of people. focus on aviation. My passion for maths community atop a hill that is home to
Given my fondness for nature, I called our
collaboration HONEYBeeS (which stands
for HERMES ObservatioNal survEY of
BeOe Stars).
Now my career has brought me back to

Munich, where it all began, and I still
enjoy going to the mountains in south
Germany and looking up at the night sky.
I look forward to an exciting future, build-
ing on my experience in Germany and
Belgium. My favourite flavour of ice cream
may have changed, but I think back to
that important milestone of how rasp-
berry ice cream made me pursue a
career in physics and astronomy. Today,
I am grateful to have the opportunity to
be involved in the Girl’s Day from the
other side, where I hope to inspire many
girls to pursue a career in astronomy.
Melanie Kaasinen
Recently, my Dad asked me “What hap-

pens when light reaches the edge of the
Universe? And anyway, why is the speed

Astronomical News Bodensteiner, J., Kaasinen, M., Berton, M., Fellows at ESO
hundreds of vibrant birds and a few kan- My excitement was well placed. Since gravitational mass from the Ha rotation
garoo mobs (including the local alpha coming to ESO, I have worked on unex- curve. That was the turning point: obser-
male, Bruce). Working with Lisa Kewley pected new projects, like searching for vational astronomy truly was the right
(my supervisor, now director of the CfA), evidence of a z ~ 13 galaxy candidate in path for me.
Brent Groves (now ICRAR) and Fuyan ALMA data with my ESO colleagues
Bian (now ESO staff), I studied the (spoiler alert — no evidence found). I The city of Padova, near Venice, is home
conditions within the ionised interstellar have been lucky enough to help prepare to one of the oldest universities in the
medium (ISM) of z ~ 1.5 star-forming for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope world, with a tradition of astronomy dat-
galaxies. This was a hot topic in galaxy (ELT), working on finding faint new sky ing back to Galileo Galilei himself. The
evolution at the time; rest-optical lines at lines in VLT/CRIRES observations with university offers a bachelor’s and mas-
z ~ 2 had only recently become observa- fantastic colleagues I never would have ter’s program entirely focused on astron-
ble and there was much debate over the worked with otherwise. I have also omy: I couldn’t have found a better place
source of the ‘more extreme’ line ratios observed for the first time at a submillimetre to pursue my interests. Having the oppor-
being observed. By analysing Keck/ telescope. Muchos gracias to Carlos De tunity to study the nature of various astro-
DEIMOS and Subaru/FMOS observa- Breuck for enabling my trip to APEX! It physical objects was simply amazing to
tions, I showed that these high line ratios was incredible to be part of this tight-knit me, and I soon realised that active galax-
arose in part from the high electron den- community, to explore other people’s ies interested me the most. These accret-
sities and ionisation parameters associ- data as it came in (what are these coming supermassive black holes, shining
ated with the high specific star formation plex multi-peaked line profiles?!) and to brighter than an entire galaxy, became the
rates of z ~ 2 galaxies. Alongside my see APEX and ALMA in person. Those subject of both my bachelor’s and mas-
master’s, I also continued doing astron- antennas are simply surreal in that land- ter’s theses. Initially, I analysed the physi-
omy outreach (night-sky tours, for exam- scape. I was also lucky enough to visit cal properties of ionised gas in a sample
ple) and of course sport. After all, at the Paranal for a whole week and receive a of nearby active galaxies using archival
bottom of the hill there is a perfect cycling tour of the ELT site! data. However, for my master’s, I finally
circuit and cross-country running track! had the chance to use new data from a
Being an astronomer has been an amaz- real telescope, the 3.6-metre Telescopio
Having relished the supportive science ing adventure and I cannot wait to see Nazionale Galileo. While I managed to
environment of my master’s, I was now where it takes me next. Thankfully, I still earn my degree, it was only after an
serious about becoming an astronomer. have the same sense of wonder about incredibly challenging effort. For the first
I had heard about the exciting results the Universe that I had when I was a child. time, I doubted my decision: did I truly
coming from ALMA and was keen to But now I am fortunate enough to be able want to wrestle with data analysis for the
jump on board. Luckily, I snagged a PhD to share this wonder with others and rest of my life? I had to step back and
with the supervisory dream team: Fabian answer a few of their burning questions. seriously consider my options. Everyone,
Walter and Simon Glover, the first an take note: pursuing a career in astronomy
expert on radio astronomy, and the sec- is not a decision to be taken lightly!
ond an expert on the chemistry of the Marco Berton
cold ISM. So, I moved across the world It took nearly two years for me to clear my
to the stunningly picturesque city of I loved science since I was a kid. When mind once and for all, but my PhD adven-
Heidelberg — where I again worked at a I was twelve, after watching a documen- ture finally began on 1 January 2013. The
vibrant institute atop a gorgeous, forest- tary on Italian television, I became cer- topic? Active galactic nuclei (AGN), of
covered hill (perfect to cycle and run up). tain: I wanted to become an astronomer. course! My advisors were Stefano Ciroi in
During my PhD, I helped to accurately By the end of middle school, I had read Padova and Luigi Foschini at the Brera
constrain the amount and distribution of the astronomy section of the science Astronomical Observatory, and I couldn’t
molecular gas and dust in galaxies at textbook so many times that I had mem- have asked for better advisors. Working
z = 1.5–2. Yes, I was still stuck at Cosmic orised all the orbital parameters of the with them, I had the opportunity to delve
Noon, but I was studying a different gas (back then) nine planets. I chose my high into the physics of jetted AGN across all
phase and delving into VLA, NOEMA and school because it offered basic astron- wavelengths, from radio waves up to
of course ALMA data — gaining experi- omy classes in the fifth and final year. Of gamma rays. I stayed in Padova for five
ence in millimetre- to radio-wavelength course, over time, my conviction wasn’t years, completing my PhD and my first
interferometry. I also continued with as strong as when I began. However, in postdoc. During that time I spent over
astronomy outreach, giving planetarium my last year of high school, I had the 250 nights observing with the Asiago
shows and public talks (this time in chance to participate in a project organ- telescopes, mainly to obtain optical spec-
German) at the Haus der Astronomie. ised by the Department of Astronomy at tra for my own work but also for other
the University of Padova, called Il cielo research groups. I also had my initial
Ten months before the end of my PhD, come laboratorio (The sky as a labora- experiences of living abroad, with two
and during one of the worst lockdowns, tory). Over three observing nights at the periods at Purdue University and the
I wrote my application for the ESO fellow- Asiago 1.22-metre telescope, we col- University of California Santa Barbara in
ship. And a few days before Christmas... lected the optical spectrum of the spiral the USA. These were enriching experi-
I GOT THE ESO FELLOWSHIP! galaxy NGC 2748 and determined its ences that introduced me to new people

and allowed me to grow not only as a sci-
entist but also as a person. In terms of
research, I continued to study a unique
class of AGN known as narrow-line
Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies. While some
of them do harbour relativistic jets, unlike
‘normal’ radio galaxies with black hole
masses around a billion solar masses,
NLS1s are powered by black holes a
thousand times smaller that are rapidly
accreting matter. In NLS1s, typically
hosted in spiral galaxies, the AGN coex-
ists with relativistic jets, star formation,
and outflows of ionised and neutral gas.
This uniqueness makes them valuable
sources, possibly representing an early
evolutionary phase in the AGN life cycle.
Given the relatively unexplored radio
properties of these objects, I undertook
the largest and deepest survey in this
wavelength range using the Very Large
Array in New Mexico. As a fan of the
movie Contact, having the opportunity
to use such a massive array of 28 anten-
nas was an unparalleled feeling. this only for half of my time there, as the for the ESO life has grown, and I’m now
pandemic emerged. Nevertheless, even grateful to be part of the expansive and
In 2018 I eventually left Padova. I secured during those challenging times, taking diverse Paranal community, along with
a fellowship at the Finnish Centre for walks in the woods provided a stress- the dynamic scientific atmosphere at
Astronomy with ESO and worked at relieving escape. ESO Vitacura. Presently, when I’m not
the Aalto University Metsähovi Radio studying AGNs in Santiago, I work as a
Observatory for three years. I cherished As the pandemic neared its end, the time night astronomer on the UT4. With its
every moment spent there. Finland, for another move approached. I accepted advanced adaptive optics system, it’s the
renowned as the happiest country in the a position as an ESO fellow in Paranal and closest approximation we currently have
world for good reason, offered wonderful relocated to Chile. Honestly, this wasn’t to the ELT. Specifically, I now serve as
people and nearly untouched natural an easy decision: I had never worked in the second instrument scientist for MUSE,
beauty. Metsähovi, situated 30 kilometres such a large observatory before, and the arguably the world’s best integral-field
from Helsinki in the heart of a forest, prospect of spending 80 nights a year at spectrograph. The journey that brought
often led to encounters with deer and Paranal initially seemed daunting. How- me here was long and winding, but I
even moose during my commutes to the ever, it took only a few months for me to would retrace each step. I now eagerly
office. Unfortunately, I could fully enjoy realise how fortunate I am. My enthusiasm await what the future holds.
This photograph
ESO/H. Heyer
shows the European

Southern Observatory’s
Headquarters in
Garching, near Munich,
Germany. This is the
scientific, technical and
administrative centre for
ESO’s operations, and
the base from which
many astronomers con-
duct their research. The
scientists, technicians
and administrators who
work here come from
many different back-
grounds, but all have
one thing in common:
a passion for astronomy.

This drone image, taken in late September 2023,
captures an aerial view of ESO’s Extremely Large
ESO/G. Vecchia
Telescope (ELT) dome at night-time. It already has

the recognisable spherical shape of a telescope
enclosure with the construction of the frame well
on its way to being completed by the end of 2023.

The Messenger 191

Uploaded by

Document Informationclick to expand document information

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Messenger 191

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Messenger 191

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sixty Years of Engagement Between ESO and Chile

Scientific Highlights from Ten Years of the MUSE Collaboration

Unless otherwise indicated, all images in

2 The Messenger 191 | 2023

Sixty Years of Engagement Between ESO and Chile:

The Messenger 191 | 2023 3

4 The Messenger 191 | 2023

This spectacular picture of the Sh2-284 nebula has

The Messenger 191 | 2023 5

Ten Years of ALMA: Achievements and Future Perspectives

In 2001 representatives from Europe,

The many superlatives of ALMA

ALMA has a long history of records as an

6 The Messenger 191 | 2023

The Messenger 191 | 2023 7

Figure 3. A photograph of an Atacama Large

medium (ISM) and resolve molecular

Complementary efforts to those linking the

8 The Messenger 191 | 2023

The Messenger 191 | 2023 9

The southern part of the spectacular N44 H II

Scientific Highlights from Ten Years of the MUSE

About 20 years ago we proposed building

The Messenger 191 | 2023 11

HST Flux Muse V (km s ) –1

V (km s –1) σ (km s –1)

12 The Messenger 191 | 2023

The Messenger 191 | 2023 13

invested observing time was focused on 18 Figure 3. Magnitude–

low-redshift sources are

14 The Messenger 191 | 2023

fidence intervals, and

The Messenger 191 | 2023 15

Figure 5. MUSE detections of CGM nebular emission

16 The Messenger 191 | 2023

A photograph showing most of the telescopes that

The Messenger 191 | 2023 17

The VISTA Star Formation Atlas (VISIONS)

ESO/Meingast et al. 2023a

VISIONS is a public survey that explores

Stars form deep within cold, filamentary

18 The Messenger 191 | 2023

ence (for example, Bouy et al., 2013),

The Messenger 191 | 2023 19

Wide Deep Control Science verification Figure 3. Spatial cover-

0° 340° 320° 300° 280° 260° 240° 220° 200°

20 The Messenger 191 | 2023

et al., 2021) and 2MASS serve as astro- 100

The Messenger 191 | 2023 21

Despite its name, ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the

Each UT has its own individual name in the Mapuche

Many night-sky objects are visible here. Starting

22 The Messenger 191 | 2023

This image from the Wide-Field Imager on the

E. Garcés/ESO. Acknowledgements.: N. Dubost

It might look like the opening scene from The Lion

The ELT’s steel dome is about 80 metres tall and

ERIS Science Verifications