1.
Very Large Telescope
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The Very Large Telescope is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The VLT consists of four telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m across. The four separate optical telescopes are known as Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun, the telescopes form an array which is complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes of 1.8 m aperture. The VLT operates at visible and infrared wavelengths.001 arc-second and this is equivalent to roughly 2 meters resolution at the distance of the Moon. In single telescope mode of operation angular resolution is about 0.05 arc-second, the VLT is the most productive ground-based facility for astronomy, with only the Hubble Space Telescope generating more scientific papers among facilities operating at visible wavelengths. The VLT consists of an arrangement of four large telescopes with optical elements that can combine them into an astronomical interferometer, the interferometer also includes a set of four 1.8 meter diameter movable telescopes dedicated to interferometric observations. The first of the UTs started operating in May 1998 and was offered to the community on 1 April 1999. The other telescopes followed suit in 1999 and 2000, thus making the VLT fully operational, four 1. 8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes have been added to the VLTI to make it available when the UTs are being used for other projects. These ATs were installed between 2004 and 2007, today, all four Unit Telescopes and all four Auxiliary Telescopes are operational. The VLTs 8. 2-meter telescopes were designed to operate in three modes, as a set of four independent telescopes. as a single large coherent interferometric instrument. This mode is used, only for observations of relatively bright sources with small angular extent. As a single large incoherent instrument, for extra light-gathering capacity, the instrumentation required to bring the light to a combined incoherent focus was not built. Recently, new proposals have been put forward for making this observing mode available. Multiple telescopes are sometimes independently pointed at the object, either to increase the total light-gathering power. In particular, the VLT has several adaptive optics systems, which correct for the effects of atmospheric turbulence, providing images almost as sharp as if the telescope were in space. In the near-infrared, the adaptive optics images of the VLT are up to three times sharper than those of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the resolution is many times better than Hubble. The VLTs are noted for their level of observing efficiency. The 8.2 m-diameter telescopes are housed in compact, thermally controlled buildings, the principal role of the main VLT telescopes is to operate as four independent telescopes
2.
VLT Survey Telescope
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The VLT Survey Telescope is the latest telescope to be added to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed in an immediately adjacent to the four Very Large Telescope Unit Telescopes on the summit of Cerro Paranal. The VST is a survey telescope with a field of view twice as broad as the full Moon. It is the largest telescope in the designed to exclusively survey the sky in visible light. The VST program is a cooperation between the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy, and the European Southern Observatory that began in 1997, vSTcen was founded and directed by Prof. Massimo Capaccioli of the VST project, and hosted at the OAC. ESO and VSTceN collaborated in the phase, while ESO was responsible for the civil engineering works. The telescope has now started observations and ESO is solely responsible for managing its operations, the VST is an alt-azimuthal wide-field survey telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 2.65 meters that was constructed from 2007–2011 at the ESO Cerro Paranal Observatory, in Chile. Together with its camera OmegaCAM, the VST is able to obtain a high angular resolution, the telescope has two mirrors, the primary and a smaller secondary mirror, which reflect light from the sky down to the OmegaCAM camera. Both mirrors are made from a ceramic material called Sitall. The VST primary mirror is the larger of the two, with a diameter of 265 cm and a thickness of 14 cm, the secondary mirror is less than half the size of M1 with a diameter of just 93.8 cm and a thickness of 13 cm. VSTs original optical components were manufactured at the Lytkarino Glass Factory, a computer-controlled active optics system controls the shape of M1 and the position of M2. This technology preserves the image quality by keeping the mirrors perfectly positioned at all times. M1 is continuously reshaped by a network of 84 axial motors distributed under the mirror surface and 24 radial dislocated laterally. The secondary mirror is controlled by a deformable platform able to tilt the mirror during exposure. The active optics system also includes a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, mounted under the primary mirror cell together with the guide system. These systems give the VST the capability to be autonomous in terms of guiding, tracking, design features of OmegaCAM include four auxiliary CCD cameras, two for auto-guiding and two for on-line image analysis. Up to 12 filters can be used, ranging from ultraviolet to near-infrared, the entire detector system operates in vacuum at about -140 degrees Celsius behind a large dewar window. This window not only protects the detectors from air and moisture, the primary function of the VST is to support the Very Large Telescope by providing surveys – both extensive, multi-colour imaging surveys and more specific searches for rare astronomical objects
3.
European Southern Observatory
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The European Southern Observatory is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities, the organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile, ESO has built and operated some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array observes the universe in the millimetre and submillimetre wavelength ranges and it was completed in March 2013 in an international collaboration by Europe, North America, East Asia and Chile. Currently under construction is the European Extremely Large Telescope and it will use a 39. 3-metre-diameter segmented mirror, and become the worlds largest optical reflecting telescope when operational in 2024. ESOs observing facilities have made discoveries and produced several astronomical catalogues. Its findings include the discovery of the most distant gamma-ray burst, in 2004, the VLT allowed astronomers to obtain the first picture of an extrasolar planet orbiting a brown dwarf 173 light-years away. The idea that European astronomers should establish a large observatory was broached by Walter Baade. It was pursued by Oort, who gathered a group of astronomers in Leiden to consider it on June 21 that year, immediately thereafter, the subject was further discussed at the Groningen conference in the Netherlands. On January 26,1954, an ESO declaration was signed by astronomers from six European countries expressing the wish that a joint European observatory be established in the southern hemisphere. At the time, all reflector telescopes with an aperture of 2 metres or more were located in the northern hemisphere. The decision to build the observatory in the southern hemisphere resulted from the necessity of observing the southern sky, although it was initially planned to set up telescopes in South Africa, tests from 1955 to 1963 demonstrated that a site in the Andes was preferable. On November 15,1963 Chile was chosen as the site for ESOs observatory, the decision was preceded by the ESO Convention, signed 5 October 1962 by Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Otto Heckmann was nominated as the organisations first director general on 1 November 1962, a preliminary proposal for a convention of astronomy organisations in these five countries was drafted in 1954. Although some amendments were made in the document, the convention proceeded slowly until 1960 when it was discussed during that years committee meeting. The new draft was examined in detail, and a member of CERN highlighted the need for a convention between governments. The convention and government involvement became pressing due to rising costs of site-testing expeditions. The final 1962 version was adopted from the CERN convention
4.
Chile
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Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a South American country occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres of Antarctica, the arid Atacama Desert in northern Chile contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes, the southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands. Spain conquered and colonized Chile in the century, replacing Inca rule in northern and central Chile. After declaring its independence from Spain in 1818, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic, in the 1960s and 1970s the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. The regime, headed by Augusto Pinochet, ended in 1990 after it lost a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a coalition which ruled through four presidencies until 2010. Chile is today one of South Americas most stable and prosperous nations and it leads Latin American nations in rankings of human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. It also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile, another theory points to the similarity of the valley of the Aconcagua with that of the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a town and valley named Chili. Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a locally known as trile. The Spanish conquistadors heard about this name from the Incas, ultimately, Almagro is credited with the universalization of the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho valley as such. The older spelling Chili was in use in English until at least 1900 before switching over to Chile, stone tool evidence indicates humans sporadically frequented the Monte Verde valley area as long as 18,500 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, migrating Native Americans settled in fertile valleys, settlement sites from very early human habitation include Monte Verde, Cueva del Milodon and the Pali Aike Craters lava tube. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army, the result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river. The next Europeans to reach Chile were Diego de Almagro and his band of Spanish conquistadors, the Spanish encountered various cultures that supported themselves principally through slash-and-burn agriculture and hunting. The conquest of Chile began in earnest in 1540 and was carried out by Pedro de Valdivia, one of Francisco Pizarros lieutenants, who founded the city of Santiago on 12 February 1541. Although the Spanish did not find the gold and silver they sought, they recognized the agricultural potential of Chiles central valley
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Observatory
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An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed, historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant or Stonehenge. Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories, space based, airborne, ground based, ground-based observatories, located on the surface of Earth, are used to make observations in the radio and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most optical telescopes are housed within a dome or similar structure, Telescope domes have a slit or other opening in the roof that can be opened during observing, and closed when the telescope is not in use. In most cases, the upper portion of the telescope dome can be rotated to allow the instrument to observe different sections of the night sky. Radio telescopes usually do not have domes, for optical telescopes, most ground-based observatories are located far from major centers of population, to avoid the effects of light pollution. The ideal locations for modern observatories are sites that have dark skies, a percentage of clear nights per year, dry air. At high elevations, the Earths atmosphere is thinner, thereby minimizing the effects of atmospheric turbulence, sites that meet the above criteria for modern observatories include the southwestern United States, Hawaii, Canary Islands, the Andes, and high mountains in Mexico such as Sierra Negra. Major optical observatories include Mauna Kea Observatory and Kitt Peak National Observatory in the USA, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in Spain, and Paranal Observatory in Chile. Specific research study performed in 2009 shows that the best possible location for ground-based observatory on Earth is Ridge A — a place in the part of Eastern Antarctica. This location provides the least atmospheric disturbances and best visibility, beginning in 1930s, radio telescopes have been built for use in the field of radio astronomy to observe the Universe in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since the mid-20th century, a number of observatories have been constructed at very high altitudes, above 4. The largest and most notable of these is the Mauna Kea Observatory, the Chacaltaya Astrophysical Observatory in Bolivia, at 5,230 m, was the worlds highest permanent astronomical observatory from the time of its construction during the 1940s until 2009. It has now surpassed by the new University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory. As a result, the resolution of space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope is often much smaller than a ground-based telescope with a similar aperture. However, all these advantages do come with a price, Space telescopes are much more expensive to build than ground-based telescopes. Due to their location, space telescopes are also difficult to maintain. The Hubble Space Telescope was serviced by the Space Shuttle while many other space telescopes cannot be serviced at all, Airborne observatories have the advantage of height over ground installations, putting them above most of the Earths atmosphere
7.
Atacama Desert
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The Atacama Desert is a plateau in South America, covering a 1, 000-kilometre strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is the driest non-polar desert in the world, according to estimates, the Atacama Desert proper occupies 105,000 square kilometres, or 128,000 square kilometres if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included. Most of the desert is composed of terrain, salt lakes, sand. The National Geographic Society considers the area of southern Peru to be part of the Atacama Desert. Peru borders it on the north and the Chilean Matorral ecoregion borders it on the south, to the east lies the less arid Central Andean dry puna ecoregion. The drier portion of this ecoregion is located south of the Loa River between the parallel Sierra Vicuña Mackenna and Cordillera Domeyko, to the north of the Loa lies the Pampa del Tamarugal. The Coastal Cliff of northern Chile west of the Chilean Coast Range is the topographic feature of the coast. The geomorphology of the Atacama Desert has been characterized as a low-relief bench similar to a giant uplifted terrace by Armijo and co-workers. The intermediate depression forms a series of basins in much of Atacama Desert south of latitude 19°30’ S. North of this latitude the intermediate depression drains into the Pacific Ocean. Although the almost total lack of precipitation is the most prominent characteristic of the Atacama Desert, in 2012, the altiplano winter brought floods to San Pedro de Atacama. On 25 March 2015, heavy rainfall affected the part of the Atacama desert. Resulting floods triggered mudflows that affected the cities of Copiapo, Tierra Amarilla, Chile, Chanaral, the Atacama Desert is commonly known as the driest non-polar place in the world, especially the surroundings of the abandoned Yungay town. The average rainfall is about 15 mm per year, although some locations, such as Arica and Iquique, moreover, some weather stations in the Atacama have never received rain. Periods of up to four years have been registered with no rainfall in the sector, delimited by the cities of Antofagasta, Calama and Copiapó. Evidence suggests that the Atacama may not have had any significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971, the Atacama Desert may be the oldest desert on earth, and has experienced extreme hyperaridity for at least 3 million years, making it the oldest continuously arid region on earth. The long history of aridity raises the possibility that supergene mineralisation, under the conditions, can form in arid environments. This desert is so arid, many mountains higher than 6,000 m are free of glaciers. Only the highest peaks have some permanent snow coverage, the southern part of the desert, between 25 and 27°S, may have been glacier-free throughout the Quaternary, though permafrost extends down to an altitude of 4,400 m and is continuous above 5,600 m
8.
Antofagasta
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Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile, about 1,100 kilometres north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region, according to the 2012 census, the city has a population of 345,420. The city of Antofagasta is closely linked to mining activity, being a mining area of the country. The last decade has been a growth in the areas of construction, retail, hotel accommodations, population growth. Antofagasta has the highest GDP per capita of Chile,37,000 USD, currently there are several theories to explain the origin of the name Antofagasta. A clear consensus regarding the origin of the word has not yet been determined. It is probably a word that comes from the southern Cacan anto, faya and gasta. However, it says the name Antofagasta is due to a decision by Manuel Mariano Melgarejo, in Chile, Antofagasta is known as La Perla del Norte, for its historical and economic importance. On 18 September 1866, José Santos Ossa and Francisco Puelma achieved the award of the concession of nitrate lands, the exploring of the Chilean miners found rich deposits of saltpeter in the field of Salar del Carmen, to the east of the present Antofagasta. Agreed to form the Sociedad Exploradora del Desierto de Atacama, after the formation of the company, began to fill with what was called La Chimba. On 19 March 1868, the Melbourne Clark Company was established, after the integration of Chilean, after the earthquake in Iquique and Oprah Jiffy of 13 August 1868, it was necessary to give legal recognition to the Chimba as a mining town. On 22 October 1868, the population was established and the port under the name La Chimba. Later the city was renamed Antofagasta, the first official map of the population and the port of Antofagasta was designed by Jose Santos Prada on 14 September 1869. This document set out the grounds of the Melbourne Clark Company, plus 17 blocks, on 8 May 1872, Antofagasta was appointed by the Bolivian Government as Puerto Mayor, open trade worldwide. On 27 November 1873, the Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta signed a contract with the government of Bolivia and this contract was not ratified by the Congress of Bolivia, which was then analyzed negotiations with Chile. In 1873 Bolivia signed a treaty of defensive alliance with Peru. This would be used as an argument 5 years later in Chile, the secret alliance, forbade Bolivia from signing a border treaty with Chile, without consulting with Peru. However, in 1874 Chile and Bolivia signed a border treaty, one of its points was not to impose new taxes on individuals, industries and Chilean capital for 25 years
9.
Mauna Kea Observatories
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The facilities are located in a 525-acre special land use zone known as the Astronomy Precinct, which is located within the 11, 228-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve. The Astronomy Precinct was established in 1967 and is located on land protected by the Historical Preservation Act for its significance to Hawaiian culture. After studying photos for NASAs Apollo program that contained greater detail than any ground based telescope, while he first began looking in Chile, he also made the decision to perform tests in the Hawaiian Islands. Tests on Mauis Haleakalā were promising, but the mountain was too low in the inversion layer, on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, Mauna Kea is considered the highest island mountain in the world. While the summit is covered with snow, the air is extremely dry. Kuiper began looking into the possibility of an observatory on Mauna Kea, after testing, he discovered the low humidity was perfect for infrared signals. He persuaded Hawaiʻi Governor John A. Burns to bulldoze a road to the summit where he built a small telescope on Puʻu Poliʻahu. The peak was the second highest on the mountain with the highest peak being holy ground, next, Kuiper tried enlisting NASA to fund a larger facility with a large telescope, housing and other needed structures. NASA, in turn decided to make the open to competition. Professor of physics, John Jefferies of the University of Hawaii placed a bid on behalf of the university, Jefferies had gained his reputation through observations at Sacramento Peak Observatory. The proposal was for a telescope to serve both the needs of NASA and the university. Kuiper would abandon his site over the competition and begin work in Arizona on a different NASA project, after considerable testing by Jefferies team, the best locations were determined to be near the summit at the top of the cinder cones. Testing also determined Mauna Kea to be superb for nighttime viewing due to many factors, including the air, constant trade winds. Jefferies would build a 2.24 meter telescope with the State of Hawaiʻi agreeing to build a reliable, building began in 1967 and first light was seen in 1970. Other groups began requesting subleases on the newly accessible mountaintop, by 1970, two 24 in telescopes had been constructed by the United States Air Force and Lowell Observatory. In 1973, Canada and France agreed to build the 3.6 m CFHT on Mauna Kea, however, local organizations started to raise concerns about the environmental impact of the observatory. This led the Department of Land and Natural Resources to prepare a management plan, drafted in 1977. In January 1982, the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents approved a plan to support the development of scientific facilities at the site
10.
Next-Generation Transit Survey
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The Next-Generation Transit Survey is a ground-based robotic search for exoplanets. The facility is located at Paranal Observatory on the outskirts of the Atacama desert in northern Chile, science operations began in early 2015. The astronomical survey is managed by a consortium of seven European universities and other institutions from Chile, Germany, Switzerland. Prototypes of the array were tested in 2009 and 2010 on La Palma, the aim of NGTS is to discover super-Earths and exo-Neptunes transiting relatively bright and nearby stars with an apparent magnitude of up to 13. The survey uses transit photometry, which measures the dimming of a star to detect the presence of a planet when it crosses in front of it. NGTS consists of an array of twelve commercial 0. 2-metre telescopes, each equipped with a red-sensitive CCD camera operating in the visible, the array covers an instantaneous field of view of 96 square degrees or around 0. 23% of the entire sky. NGTS builds heavily on the experience of its predecessor, SuperWASP, using more sensitive detectors, refined software, as a result, the number of discovered nearby exoplanets will be much larger. NGTS is designed to fill the current gap between Earth-sized planets and gas giants, nGTSs wider field of view enables it to detect a larger number of more-massive planets around brighter stars. With a detailed follow-up characterization by larger instruments such as HARPS, ESPRESSO and VLT-SPHERE and this makes it possible to determine the exoplanets density, and hence whether it is gaseous or rocky. Ground-based surveys for extrasolar planets such as WASP and the HATNet Project have discovered many large exoplanets, mainly Saturn-, space-based missions such as CoRoT and the Kepler survey have extended the results to smaller objects, including rocky super-Earth- and Neptune-sized exoplanets. Orbiting space missions have an accuracy of stellar brightness measurement than is possible via ground-based measurements. Unfortunately, most of the smaller candidates orbit stars that are too faint for confirmation by radial-velocity measurements, the masses of these smaller candidate planets are hence either unknown or poorly constrained, such that their bulk composition cannot be estimated. Such targets are more readily characterized in terms of their composition, planetary structure. In follow-up observations by larger telescopes, powerful means will be available to probe the composition of exoplanets discovered by NGTS. Calculation of the spectrum of the planets atmosphere can be obtained by measuring the small spectral changes in the spectrum of the star that arise during the planets transit. NGTS is intended to increase the number of planets that are analyzable using such techniques. The scientific goals of the NGTS require being able to detect transits with a precision of 1 mmag at 13th magnitude, although at ground level this level of accuracy was routinely achievable in narrow-field observations of individual objects, it was unprecedented for a wide-field survey. NGTS employs an array of twelve 20-centimeter f/2.8 telescopes on independent equatorial mounts
11.
Exoplanet
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An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. The first scientific detection of an exoplanet was in 1988, HARPS has discovered about a hundred exoplanets while the Kepler space telescope has found more than two thousand. Kepler has also detected a few thousand candidate planets, of which about 11% may be false positives, on average, there is at least one planet per star, with a percentage having multiple planets. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars have an Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone, the least massive planet known is Draugr, which is about twice the mass of the Moon. There are planets that are so near to their star that they take only a few hours to orbit, some are so far out that it is difficult to tell whether they are gravitationally bound to the star. Almost all of the planets detected so far are within the Milky Way, the nearest exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b, located 4.2 light-years from Earth and orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. The discovery of exoplanets has intensified interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, there is special interest in planets that orbit in a stars habitable zone, where it is possible for liquid water, a prerequisite for life on Earth, to exist on the surface. The study of planetary habitability also considers a range of other factors in determining the suitability of a planet for hosting life. The rogue planets in the Milky Way possibly number in the billions, the convention for designating exoplanets is an extension of the system used for designating multiple-star systems as adopted by the International Astronomical Union. For exoplanets orbiting a star, the designation is normally formed by taking the name or, more commonly, designation of its parent star. The first planet discovered in a system is given the designation b, if several planets in the same system are discovered at the same time, the closest one to the star gets the next letter, followed by the other planets in order of orbital size. A provisional IAU-sanctioned standard exists to accommodate the designation of circumbinary planets, a limited number of exoplanets have IAU-sanctioned proper names. Various detection claims made in the century were rejected by astronomers. The first scientific detection of an exoplanet began in 1988, However, the first confirmed detection came in 1992, with the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. The first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a star was made in 1995. Some exoplanets have been imaged directly by telescopes, but the vast majority have been detected through indirect methods, such as the transit method, in the eighteenth century the same possibility was mentioned by Isaac Newton in the General Scholium that concludes his Principia. Claims of exoplanet detections have been made since the nineteenth century, some of the earliest involve the binary star 70 Ophiuchi. In 1855 William Stephen Jacob at the East India Companys Madras Observatory reported that orbital anomalies made it highly probable that there was a body in this system
12.
Cherenkov Telescope Array
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The physics program of CTA goes beyond high energy astrophysics into cosmology and fundamental physics. CTA intends to improve the sensitivity of the current generation of IACTs such as MAGIC, HESS. It will foreseeably consist of tens of IACTs of different mirror sizes, production of the first telescope prototypes started in 2013. CTA is designed and will be built by a collaboration of scientists. The project is on the road-map of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures, the European Astroparticle Physics network ASPERA, the entire project, with its planned 19-dish array in the Northern Hemisphere and its 99-dish array in the Southern Hemisphere is expected to cost about 200 million €. The Namibian and Mexican sites will be kept as viable alternatives, on 26 March 2015, the CTA Resource Board, composed of representatives of ministries and funding agencies, decided to begin negotiations with two countries, Spain and Mexico. Arizona will be kept in consideration as a possible back-up site, after negotiations, the Board will select the final site in November 2015. Paranal Observatory First Choice to Host Worlds Largest Array of Gamma-ray Telescopes, the project is expected to move forward with construction of the first telescopes on site planned for 2016. Negotiations were expected to conclude in August 2015, Official web page of CTA Official web page of ESFRI Official website of ASPERA Official website of ASTRONET
13.
Extremely Large Telescope
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The European Extremely Large Telescope is an astronomical observatory and the worlds largest optical/near-infrared extremely large telescope now under construction. Part of the European Southern Observatory, it is located on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, the observatory aims to gather 13 times more light than the largest optical telescopes existing in 2014, and be able to correct for atmospheric distortions. It has around 256 times the light gathering area of the Hubble Space Telescope and, according to the E-ELTs specifications, the facility is expected to take 11 years to construct. Construction work on the E-ELT site started in June 2014, by December 2014, ESO had secured over 90% of the total funding and authorized construction of the telescope to start, which will cost around one billion Euro for the first construction phase. First light is planned for 2024, on 26 April 2010, the European Southern Observatory Council selected Cerro Armazones, Chile, as the baseline site for the planned E-ELT. Other sites that were under discussion included Cerro Macon, Salta, in Argentina, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, on the Canary Islands, and sites in South Africa, Morocco, and Antarctica. Early designs included a primary mirror with a diameter of 42 metres and area of about 1,300 m2. However, in 2011 a proposal was put forward to reduce its size by 13% to 978 m2, for a 39.3 m diameter primary mirror and a 4.2 m diameter secondary mirror. It reduced projected costs from 1.275 billion to 1.055 billion euros, the ESO Council endorsed the revised baseline design in June 2011 and expected a construction proposal for approval in December 2011. Funding was subsequently included in the 2012 budget for initial work to begin in early 2012, the project received preliminary approval in June 2012. ESO approved the start of construction in December 2014, with over 90% funding of the nominal budget secured, the design phase of the 5-mirror anastigmat was fully funded within the ESO budget. With the 2011 changes in the design, the construction cost was estimated to be €1.055 billion. The start of operations is planned for 2024, the ESO focused on the current design after a feasibility study concluded the proposed 100 metres diameter Overwhelmingly Large Telescope would cost €1.5 billion, and be too complex. Both current fabrication technology and road transportation constraints limit single mirrors to being roughly 8 metres in a single piece, the E-ELT will use a similar design, as well as techniques to work around atmospheric distortion of incoming light, known as adaptive optics. A 40-metre-class mirror will allow the study of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. The E-ELT is the highest priority in the European planning activities for research infrastructures, such as the Astronet Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap, the first three mirrors are curved, and form a three mirror anastigmat design for excellent image quality over the 10 arcminute field of view. The fourth and fifth mirrors are flat, and provide adaptive optics correction for atmospheric distortions, the surface of the 39-metre primary mirror will be composed of 798 hexagonal segments. In January 2017, ESO awarded the contract for the fabrication of the 4608 edge sensors to the FAMES consortium and these sensors can measure relative positions to an accuracy of a few nanometres, the most accurate ever used in a telescope
14.
Cerro Armazones
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Cerro Armazones is a mountain located in the Sierra Vicuña Mackenna of the Chilean Coast Range, approximately 130 km south-east of Antofagasta in the Antofagasta Region, Chile. Before the construction of the European Extremely Large Telescope started the summit was a control point with an elevation of 3,064 metres. It is located in a zone for optical astronomy because it has 89% cloudless nights a year. It currently hosts the 1.5 m Hexapod-Telescope and other telescopes at the Cerro Armazones Observatory, on 26 April 2010, the European Southern Observatory Council selected Cerro Armazones as the site for the planned European Extremely Large Telescope. Birds view on Cerro Paranal and Cerro Armazones
15.
Light
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Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word usually refers to light, which is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light is defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres, or 4.00 × 10−7 to 7.00 × 10−7 m. This wavelength means a range of roughly 430–750 terahertz. The main source of light on Earth is the Sun, sunlight provides the energy that green plants use to create sugars mostly in the form of starches, which release energy into the living things that digest them. This process of photosynthesis provides virtually all the used by living things. Historically, another important source of light for humans has been fire, with the development of electric lights and power systems, electric lighting has effectively replaced firelight. Some species of animals generate their own light, a process called bioluminescence, for example, fireflies use light to locate mates, and vampire squids use it to hide themselves from prey. Visible light, as all types of electromagnetic radiation, is experimentally found to always move at this speed in a vacuum. In physics, the term sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. In this sense, gamma rays, X-rays, microwaves and radio waves are also light, like all types of light, visible light is emitted and absorbed in tiny packets called photons and exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality, the study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics. Generally, EM radiation, or EMR, is classified by wavelength into radio, microwave, infrared, the behavior of EMR depends on its wavelength. Higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths, when EMR interacts with single atoms and molecules, its behavior depends on the amount of energy per quantum it carries. There exist animals that are sensitive to various types of infrared, infrared sensing in snakes depends on a kind of natural thermal imaging, in which tiny packets of cellular water are raised in temperature by the infrared radiation. EMR in this range causes molecular vibration and heating effects, which is how these animals detect it, above the range of visible light, ultraviolet light becomes invisible to humans, mostly because it is absorbed by the cornea below 360 nanometers and the internal lens below 400. Furthermore, the rods and cones located in the retina of the eye cannot detect the very short ultraviolet wavelengths and are in fact damaged by ultraviolet. Many animals with eyes that do not require lenses are able to detect ultraviolet, by quantum photon-absorption mechanisms, various sources define visible light as narrowly as 420 to 680 to as broadly as 380 to 800 nm
16.
Infrared
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It extends from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers, to 1000000 nm. Most of the radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared. Like all EMR, IR carries radiant energy, and behaves both like a wave and like its quantum particle, the photon, slightly more than half of the total energy from the Sun was eventually found to arrive on Earth in the form of infrared. The balance between absorbed and emitted infrared radiation has an effect on Earths climate. Infrared radiation is emitted or absorbed by molecules when they change their rotational-vibrational movements and it excites vibrational modes in a molecule through a change in the dipole moment, making it a useful frequency range for study of these energy states for molecules of the proper symmetry. Infrared spectroscopy examines absorption and transmission of photons in the infrared range, Infrared radiation is used in industrial, scientific, and medical applications. Night-vision devices using active near-infrared illumination allow people or animals to be observed without the observer being detected, Infrared thermal-imaging cameras are used to detect heat loss in insulated systems, to observe changing blood flow in the skin, and to detect overheating of electrical apparatuses. Thermal-infrared imaging is used extensively for military and civilian purposes, military applications include target acquisition, surveillance, night vision, homing, and tracking. Humans at normal body temperature radiate chiefly at wavelengths around 10 μm, Infrared radiation extends from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers to 1 mm. This range of wavelengths corresponds to a range of approximately 430 THz down to 300 GHz. Below infrared is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Sunlight, at a temperature of 5,780 kelvins, is composed of near thermal-spectrum radiation that is slightly more than half infrared. At zenith, sunlight provides an irradiance of just over 1 kilowatt per square meter at sea level, of this energy,527 watts is infrared radiation,445 watts is visible light, and 32 watts is ultraviolet radiation. Nearly all the radiation in sunlight is near infrared, shorter than 4 micrometers. On the surface of Earth, at far lower temperatures than the surface of the Sun, almost all thermal radiation consists of infrared in mid-infrared region, much longer than in sunlight. Of these natural thermal radiation processes only lightning and natural fires are hot enough to produce much visible energy, thermal infrared radiation also has a maximum emission wavelength, which is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature of object, in accordance with Wiens displacement law. Therefore, the band is often subdivided into smaller sections. Due to the nature of the blackbody radiation curves, typical hot objects, such as exhaust pipes, the three regions are used for observation of different temperature ranges, and hence different environments in space
17.
Adaptive optics
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Adaptive optics works by measuring the distortions in a wavefront and compensating for them with a device that corrects those errors such as a deformable mirror or a liquid crystal array. Adaptive optics should not be confused with active optics, which works on a timescale to correct the primary mirror geometry. Adaptive optics was first envisioned by Horace W, some of the initial development work on adaptive optics was done by the US military during the Cold War and was intended for use in tracking Soviet satellites. The simplest form of adaptive optics is tip-tilt correction, which corresponds to correction of the tilts of the wavefront in two dimensions and this is performed using a rapidly moving tip–tilt mirror that makes small rotations around two of its axes. A significant fraction of the aberration introduced by the atmosphere can be removed in this way, tip–tilt mirrors are effectively segmented mirrors having only one segment which can tip and tilt, rather than having an array of multiple segments that can tip and tilt independently. Due to the simplicity of such mirrors and having a large stroke, meaning they have large correcting power, most AO systems use these, first. Higher order aberrations may then be corrected with deformable mirrors, when light from a star or another astronomical object enters the Earths atmosphere, atmospheric turbulence can distort and move the image in various ways. Visual images produced by any larger than approximately 20 centimeters are blurred by these distortions. In order to perform adaptive optics correction, the shape of the incoming wavefronts must be measured as a function of position in the aperture plane. The mean wavefront perturbation in each pixel is calculated and this pixelated map of the wavefronts is fed into the deformable mirror and used to correct the wavefront errors introduced by the atmosphere. The deformable mirror corrects incoming light so that the images appear sharp, because a science target is often too faint to be used as a reference star for measuring the shape of the optical wavefronts, a nearby brighter guide star can be used instead. This severely limits the application of the technique for astronomical observations, another major limitation is the small field of view over which the adaptive optics correction is good. As the angular distance from the star increases, the image quality degrades. A technique known as adaptive optics uses several deformable mirrors to achieve a greater field of view. An alternative is the use of a beam to generate a reference light source in the atmosphere. LGSs come in two flavors, Rayleigh guide stars and sodium guide stars, Rayleigh guide stars work by propagating a laser, usually at near ultraviolet wavelengths, and detecting the backscatter from air at altitudes between 15–25 km. Sodium guide stars use laser light at 589 nm to excite sodium atoms higher in the mesosphere and thermosphere, which then appear to glow. The LGS can then be used as a wavefront reference in the way as a natural guide star – except that natural reference stars are still required for image position information
18.
Astronomical survey
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An astronomical survey is a general map or image of a region of the sky which lacks a specific observational target. Alternatively, a survey may comprise a set of many images or spectra of objects which share a common type or feature. Surveys have generally performed as part of the production of an astronomical catalog. In some cases, an interested in a particular object will find that survey images are sufficient to make telescope time entirely unnecessary. Surveys also help astronomers obtain observation time on larger, more powerful telescopes, if the astronomer can show a telescope scheduling committee that previous observations support his or her hypothesis, he or she is more likely to be given a chance to make more detailed observations. The wide scope of surveys makes them ideal for astronomers searching for moving objects such as asteroids. An astronomer can compare existing survey images to current observations to locate targets which are in motion, similarly, images of the same object taken by different surveys can be compared to detect transient events such as variable stars. It began in 1977 to 1982 then from 1985 to 1995.3,4.7,12, the telescope is over a thousand times as sensitive as previous infrared surveys. The initial survey, consisting of each sky position imaged at least eight times, was completed by July 2010, 1997–2002 Ohio Sky Survey – Over 19,000 radio sources at 1415 MHz. NVSS – Survey at 1.4 GHz mapping the sky north of −40 deg FIRST – Survey to look for faint radio sources at twenty cms, PALFA Survey – On-going 1.4 GHz survey for radio pulsars using the Arecibo Observatory. 2008–present, the goal for the lifetime is 10 years. The resulting dataset aims to be a resource for studying the physics of the galaxy population. GOODS – The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, COSMOS – The Cosmic Evolution Survey. Atlas 3d Survey – sample of 260 galaxies for the Astrophysics project, timeline of astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys
19.
Queen Mary University of London
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Queen Mary University of London is a public research university in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It dates back to the foundation of London Hospital Medical College in 1785, Queen Mary College, named after Mary of Teck, was admitted to the University of London in 1915 and in 1989 merged with Westfield College to form Queen Mary and Westfield College. In 1995 Queen Mary and Westfield College merged with St Bartholomews Hospital Medical College and its main campus is in the Mile End area of Tower Hamlets, with other campuses in Holborn, Smithfield and Whitechapel. In 2015/16 it had 17,140 students and 4,000 staff, Queen Mary is a member of the Russell Group of leading British research universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Universities UK. Queen Mary is a centre for medical teaching and research and is part of UCL Partners. It has a partnership with the University of Warwick, including research collaboration and joint teaching of English, history. Queen Mary also collaborates with Royal Holloway, University of London, for 2015-16, Queen Mary had a turnover of £404.3 million, including £101.0 million from research grants and contracts. Queen Mary has been ranked between 30-40th in the UK according to national university rankings, according to The Guardian, it has been ranked ahead of other London institutions in the fields of law, dentistry, media and film studies, and second in medicine and history. The trustees of the Beaumont Trust, administering funds left by Barber Beaumont, on 20 May 1885 the Drapers Court of Assistants resolved to grant £20,000 for the provision of the technical schools of the Peoples Palace. The technical schools were opened on 5 October 1888, with the palace completed by 1892. In 1895 John Leigh Smeathman Hatton, Director of Evening Classes, by the start of the 20th century the first degrees were awarded and Hatton, along with several other Professors, were recognised as Teachers of the University of London. Teaching of aeronautical engineering began in 1907 which led to the first UK aeronautical engineering department being established in 1909 which boasted a wind tunnel. Thus creating the oldest Aeronautical Programme in the World, in 1910 the Colleges status in the University of London was extended for a further five years, with unlimited membership achieved in May 1915. After the war, the College grew, albeit constrained by the rest of the Peoples Palace to the west, in 1920 it obtained both the Palaces Rotunda and rooms under the winter gardens at the west of the palace, which became chemical laboratories. In the coming days discussions on reconstruction led to the proposal that the site be transferred to the College which would then apply for a Charter alone. The Charter was now pursued, but the Academic Board asked for a change, feeling that east London carried unfortunate associations that would hinder the College. With the initial proposed name, Queens College, having already taken by The Queens College, Oxford and Victoria College felt to be unoriginal. The Charter of Incorporation was presented on 12 December 1934 by Queen Mary herself. 57–62 During the Second World War the College was evacuated to Cambridge, where it shared with Kings College
20.
Super-Earth
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The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and so does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. The alternative term gas dwarfs may be accurate for those at the higher end of the mass scale, as suggested by MIT professor Sara Seager. In general, super-Earths are defined exclusively by their masses, while sources generally agree on an upper bound of 10 Earth masses, the lower bound varies from 1 or 1.9 to 5, with various other definitions appearing in the popular media. The term super-Earth is also used by astronomers to refer to planets bigger than Earth-like planets and this definition was made by the Kepler Mission. Planets above 10 Earth masses are termed massive solid planets/mega-Earths or gas giant planets depending on whether they are mostly rock, the first super-Earths were discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail around the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1992. The two outer planets of the system have masses approximately four times Earth—too small to be gas giants, the first super-Earth around a main-sequence star was discovered by a team under Eugenio Rivera in 2005. It orbits Gliese 876 and received the designation Gliese 876 d and it has an estimated mass of 7.5 Earth masses and a very short orbital period of just about 2 days. Due to the proximity of Gliese 876 d to its host star, it may have a temperature of 430–650 kelvin. With Gliese 581 c having a mass of at least 5 Earth masses, subsequent research suggested Gliese 581 c had likely suffered a runaway greenhouse effect like Venus. Two further super-Earths were discovered in 2006, OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb with a mass of 5.5 Earth masses, which was found by gravitational microlensing, the smallest super-Earth found as of 2008 was MOA-2007-BLG-192Lb. The planet was announced by astrophysicist David P. Bennett for the international MOA collaboration on June 2,2008 and this planet has approximately 3.3 Earth masses and orbits a brown dwarf. It was detected by gravitational microlensing, in June 2008, European researchers announced the discovery of three super-Earths around the star HD40307, a star that is only slightly less massive than our Sun. The planets have at least the minimum masses,4.2,6.7. The planets were detected by the radial velocity method by the HARPS in Chile, in addition, the same European research team announced a planet 7.5 times the mass of Earth orbiting the star HD181433. This star also has a Jupiter-like planet that orbits every three years, planet COROT-7b, with a mass estimated at 4.8 Earth masses and an orbital period of only 0.853 days, was announced on 3 February 2009. The density estimate obtained for COROT-7b points to a composition including rocky silicate minerals, similar to the four planets of the Solar System. COROT-7b, discovered right after HD7924 b, is the first super-Earth discovered that orbits a main star that is G class or larger. The discovery of Gliese 581 e with a mass of 1.9 Earth masses was announced on 21 April 2009
21.
Methods of detecting exoplanets
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Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the difficulty of detecting such a faint light source. For those reasons, very few of the extrasolar planets reported as of April 2014 have been observed directly, instead, astronomers have generally had to resort to indirect methods to detect extrasolar planets. As of 2016, several different indirect methods have yielded success and this leads to variations in the speed with which the star moves toward or away from Earth, i. e. the variations are in the radial velocity of the star with respect to Earth. The radial velocity can be deduced from the displacement in the parent stars spectral lines due to the Doppler effect, the radial-velocity method measures these variations in order to confirm the presence of the planet using the binary mass function. The speed of the star around the center of mass is much smaller than that of the planet. An especially simple and inexpensive method for measuring radial velocity is externally dispersed interferometry, until 2014, the radial-velocity method was by far the most productive technique used by planet hunters. It is also known as Doppler spectroscopy and it is also not possible to simultaneously observe many target stars at a time with a single telescope. Planets of Jovian mass can be detectable around stars up to a few light years away. This method easily finds massive planets that are close to stars, modern spectrographs can also easily detect Jupiter-mass planets orbiting 10 astronomical units away from the parent star, but detection of those planets requires many years of observation. It is easier to detect planets around stars, for two reasons, First, these stars are more affected by gravitational tug from planets. The second reason is that low-mass main-sequence stars generally rotate relatively slowly, fast rotation makes spectral-line data less clear because half of the star quickly rotates away from observers viewpoint while the other half approaches. Detecting planets around more massive stars is easier if the star has left the main sequence, sometimes Doppler spectrography produces false signals, especially in multi-planet and multi-star systems. Magnetic fields and certain types of activity can also give false signals. When the host star has multiple planets, false signals can also arise from having insufficient data, so that solutions can fit the data. Planets with orbits highly inclined to the line of sight from Earth produce smaller visible wobbles, one of the advantages of the radial velocity method is that eccentricity of the planets orbit can be measured directly. One of the disadvantages of the radial-velocity method is that it can only estimate a planets minimum mass
22.
SuperWASP
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WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisation performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky, superWASP is the detection program composed of the Isaac Newton Group, IAC and six universities from the United Kingdom. The two continuously operating, robotic observatories cover the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, respectively, wASPs design has also been adopted by the Next-Generation Transit Survey. As of 2016, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia data base contains a total of 2,107 extrasolar planets of which 118 were discoveries by WASP. Each observatory consists of an array of eight Canon 200 mm f1.8 lenses backed by high quality 2048 x 2048 science grade CCDs, the telescopes are mounted on an equatorial telescope mount built by Optical Mechanics, Inc. The large field of view of the Canon lenses gives each observatory a massive sky coverage of 490 square degrees per pointing, the observatories continuously monitor the sky, taking a set of images approximately once per minute, gathering up to 100 gigabytes of data per night. One of the purpose of WASP was to revolutionize the understanding of planet formation. Andrews University University of Leicester Warwick University, on 26 September 2006, the team reported the discovery of two extrasolar planets, WASP-1b and WASP-2b. On 31 October 2007, the team reported the discovery of three planets, WASP-3b, WASP-4b and WASP-5b. All three planets are similar to Jovian mass and are so close to their respective stars that their periods are all less than two days. These are among the shortest orbital periods discovered, the surface temperatures of the planets should be more than 2000 degrees Celsius, owing to their short distances from their respective stars. The WASP-4b and WASP-5b planets are the first planets discovered by the WASP projects cameras in South Africa, while WASP-3b is the third planet discovered by the WASP projects cameras in La Palma. In August 2009, the discovery of WASP-17b was announced, believed to be the first planet discovered to orbit in the opposite direction to the spin of its star. Note a, The celestial coordinates and the standard catalog identification for the parent star have not been released for WASP-9b as of 2010-04-02
23.
ESO Hotel
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ESO Hotel at Cerro Paranal is the accommodation for Paranal Observatory in Chile since 2002. It is mainly used for the ESO scientists and engineers who work there on a roster system and it has been called a boarding house on Mars, because the desert surroundings are Mars-like, and an Oasis for astronomers. It is not a hotel, and the public cannot book rooms. The total area is 10000 m², with an L-shape of 176 m x 53 m and it has 4 levels,1,000 m² of gardens,108 rooms, and 18 offices. It includes a restaurant, music room, library, swimming pool and its inauguration was in February 2002. The hotel is located at 2,400 meters above sea level on Cerro Paranal, the people there work in extreme climatic conditions including intense sunlight, dryness, high wind speeds and great fluctuations in temperature. To protect against these an artificial oasis has been built where people can relax between shifts, the Hotel complex, comprising four levels, fits snugly into an existing depression in the ground. There are spectacular views out across the desert to the Pacific Ocean from each of the 120 rooms, also visible is a slightly raised dome comprising a steel skeleton that measures 35 meters in diameter. The hotels exterior was featured in the 2008 Bond film Quantum of Solace, a miniature of the hotel was built by the visual effects team for the shots where the hotel is destroyed. The architect was Auer+Weber of Germany and the constructor was Vial y Vives Ltda. of Chile and it won the Cityscape Architectural Review Awards in 2005. In 2004 it won the new and overall Leaf-Awards, Paranal Observatory 2003 Auer+Weber+Architekten Arbeiten 1980-2003 Works, Birkhäuser Publishers, Basel Paranal Observatory Hotel/Residencia, Inside Tour of the hotel filmed by Brady Haran
24.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
25.
Laser guide star
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Laser guide star is an artificial star image created for use in astronomical adaptive optics imaging. Adaptive optics systems require a wavefront reference source in order to correct atmospheric distortion of light, sufficiently bright stars are not available in all parts of the sky, which greatly limits the usefulness of natural guide star adaptive optics. Instead, one can create a guide star by shining a laser into the atmosphere. This star can be positioned anywhere the telescope desires to point, because the laser beam is deflected by astronomical seeing on the way up, the returning laser light does not move around in the sky as astronomical sources do. In order to keep astronomical images steady, a natural star nearby in the sky must be monitored in order that the motion of the guide star can be subtracted using a tip–tilt mirror. This means that many stars are suitable, and a correspondingly larger fraction of the sky is accessible. There are two types of laser guide star system, known as sodium and Rayleigh beacon guide stars. Sodium beacons are created by using a laser tuned to 589.2 nanometers to energize atoms in the layer of the mesosphere at an altitude of around 90 km. The sodium atoms then re-emit the laser light, producing an artificial star. The same atomic transition of sodium is used in lamps for street lighting. Rayleigh beacons rely on the scattering of light by the molecules in the lower atmosphere, the lasers are often pulsed, with measurement of the atmosphere being time-gated. Dye lasers were the first laser used in laser guide star applications. These tunable lasers have continued to play a significant role in this field, however, the use of fluid gain media has been considered by some as disadvantageous. Second generation laser sources for sodium guide star applications include sum-frequency-mixed solid-state lasers, New third generation laser systems based on tunable diode lasers with subsequent narrow-band Raman fiber amplification and resonant frequency conversion have been under development since 2005. Since 2014 fully engineered systems are commercially available, important output features of the tunable lasers mentioned here include diffraction-limited beam divergence and narrow-linewidth emission. Laser guide star adaptive optics is still a young field. Other observatories developing laser AO systems as of 2006 include the Large Binocular Telescope, the laser guide star system at the Very Large Telescope started regular scientific operations in June 2007. Since April 2016, the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility has been installed at the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the 4LGSF is a complement of the VLT Laser Guide Star Facility
26.
Magellanic Clouds
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The Magellanic Clouds are two irregular dwarf galaxies visible from the southern hemisphere, they are members of the Local Group and are orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. Because they both show signs of a bar structure, they are reclassified as Magellanic spiral galaxies. Collectively they were known to Māori of New Zealand as Nga Patari-Kaihau or as Te Reporepo and were used as predictors of winds. The Magellanic Clouds have been known since the first millennium in Western Asia, the first preserved mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud is by the Persian astronomer Al Sufi. In Europe, the Clouds were first observed by Italian explorers Peter Martyr dAnghiera, subsequently, they were reported by Antonio Pigafetta, who accompanied the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan on its circumnavigation of the world in 1519–1522. However, naming the clouds after Magellan did not become widespread until much later, in Bayers Uranometria they are designated as nubecula major and nubecula minor. In the 1756 star map of the French astronomer Lacaille, they are designated as le Grand Nuage and le Petit Nuage. In Sri Lanka, from ancient times, these clouds have been referred to as the Maha Mera Paruwathaya meaning the great mountain, roughly 21° apart in the night sky, the true distance between them is roughly 75,000 light-years. Until the discovery of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy in 1994, the LMC lies about 160,000 light years away, while the SMC is around 200,000. The LMC is about twice the diameter of the SMC, for comparison, the Milky Way is about 100,000 ly across. Observation and theoretical evidence suggest that the Magellanic Clouds have both been greatly distorted by tidal interaction with the Milky Way as they close to it. Streams of neutral hydrogen connect them to the Milky Way and to each other and their gravity has affected the Milky Way as well, distorting the outer parts of the galactic disk. Aside from their different structure and lower mass, they differ from our galaxy in two major ways, first, they are gas-rich, a higher fraction of their mass is hydrogen and helium compared to the Milky Way. They are also more metal-poor than the Milky Way, the youngest stars in the LMC and SMC have a metallicity of 0.5 and 0.25 times solar, respectively. Both are noted for their nebulae and young populations, but as in our own galaxy their stars range from the very young to the very old. The Large Magellanic Cloud was host galaxy to a supernova, the brightest observed in four centuries. Measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope, announced in 2006, suggest the Magellanic Clouds may be moving too fast to be long term companions of the Milky Way. They suggest the reason for this is due to a past interaction with the LMC splitting the SMC, and they have dubbed this smaller remnant the Mini Magellanic Cloud
27.
Lego
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Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The companys flagship product, Lego, consists of interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in ways, to construct objects, vehicles, buildings. Anything constructed can then be taken again, and the pieces used to make other objects. The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in 1949, since then a global Lego subculture has developed. Supporting movies, games, competitions, and six Legoland amusement parks have developed under the brand. As of July 2015,600 billion Lego parts had been produced, in February 2015, Lego replaced Ferrari as Brand Finances worlds most powerful brand. The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, in 1934, his company came to be called Lego, derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means play well. In 1947, Lego expanded to begin producing plastic toys, in 1949 Lego began producing, among other new products, an early version of the now familiar interlocking bricks, calling them Automatic Binding Bricks. These bricks were based in part on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, Lego modified the design of the Kiddicraft brick after examining a sample that they received from the supplier of an injection-molding machine that Lego purchased. The bricks, originally manufactured from cellulose acetate, were a development of the traditional wooden blocks of the time. The Lego Groups motto is det bedste er ikke for godt which means only the best is the best. This motto, which is used today, was created by Ole Kirk to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality. Although a common sentiment, Lego toys seem to have become a significant exception to the dislike of plastic in childrens toys, by 1954, Christiansens son, Godtfred, had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. It was his conversation with a buyer that led to the idea of a toy system. In 1958, the brick design was developed, however, it took another five years to find the right material for it. The modern Lego brick design was patented on 28 January 1958, in 1978, Lego produced the first minifigures, which have since become a staple in most sets. The results will be shared with schools as part of an educational project, in May 2013, the largest model ever created was displayed in New York and was made of over 5 million bricks, a 1,1 scale model of an X-wing fighter
28.
Quantum of Solace
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It stars Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright and Judi Dench. In the film, Bond seeks revenge for the death of his lover, Vesper Lynd, and is assisted by Camille Montes, who is plotting revenge for the murder of her family. The trail eventually leads them to wealthy businessman Dominic Greene, a member of the Quantum organisation, producer Michael G. Wilson developed the films plot while the previous film in the series, Casino Royale, was being shot. Purvis, Wade, and Haggis contributed to the script, Craig and Forster had to write some sections themselves due to the Writers Strike, though they were not given the screenwriter credit in the final cut. The title was chosen from a 1959 short story in Ian Flemings For Your Eyes Only, location filming took place in Mexico, Panama, Chile, Italy, Austria, and Wales, while interior sets were built and filmed at Pinewood Studios. The film was marked by its frequent depictions of violence. As of September 2016, it is the fourth-highest-grossing James Bond film, without adjusting for inflation, James Bond is driving from Lake Garda to Siena, Italy, with the captured Mr. White in the boot of his car. After evading pursuers, Bond delivers White to M, who interrogates him regarding his organisation, Ms bodyguard, Craig Mitchell, is a double agent, he attacks M, enabling White to escape. Bond chases Mitchell and kills him, Bond and M return to London and search Mitchells flat, discovering Mitchell had a contact in Haiti, Edmund Slate. Bond learns Slate is a hitman sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, after rescuing Camille from Medrano, Bond follows Greene to a performance of Tosca in Bregenz, Austria. Meanwhile, the head of the CIAs South American section, Gregg Beam, Bond infiltrates Quantums meeting at the opera, identifying members of Quantums executive board, and a gunfight ensues. A Special Branch bodyguard working for Quantum member Guy Haines, is killed by antagonists after Bond throws him off a roof, M assumes Bond killed him, and has Bonds passports and credit cards revoked. Bond heads to Italy and convinces his old ally René Mathis to accompany him to Bolivia and they are greeted by Strawberry Fields, a consular employee who demands Bond return to the UK immediately. Bond seduces her and they attend a fundraising party Greene holds that night, at the party, Bond again rescues Camille from Greene. Leaving, Bond and Camille are pulled over by Bolivian police working for Medrano and they had earlier attacked Mathis and put him in the boot of Bonds car to frame Bond. In the ensuing struggle, Mathis and the cops are killed, the following day, Bond and Camille survey Quantums intended land acquisition by air, their plane is shot down by a Bolivian fighter aircraft. They skydive into a sinkhole, and discover Quantum is damming Bolivias supply of water to create a monopoly. Back in La Paz, Bond meets M and learns Quantum killed Fields by drowning her in crude oil, Bond meets CIA Agent Felix Leiter, who discloses Greene and Medrano will meet in the Atacama Desert to finalise their agreement
29.
Pacific Alliance
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The Pacific Alliance is a Latin American trade bloc, with some features of further integration. It currently has four member states — Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, on 28 April 2011, former president of Peru Alan García organized a meeting with the presidents of Chile, Colombia and Mexico. This group of political leaders issued the Declaración de Lima, a statement of intent to establish the Pacific Alliance, the initial goal of the alliance was to further free trade with a clear orientation toward Asia, and economic integration. The four founding nations of the Pacific Alliance represent nearly 36% of Latin American GDP, if counted as a single country this group of nations would be the sixth largest economy in the world with a PPP GDP of more than US$3 trillion. Individually and collectively, the countries of the Pacific Alliance have been deemed The Pacific Pumas by political scientists, for their model of economic. Costa Rica is finishing up the process so it can be incorporated as the Alliances fifth member. At the same summit seven observers were admitted, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Honduras, Paraguay, and Portugal. The Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano originally integrated the stock markets of Colombia, Chile, and Peru, the Mexican Stock Exchange began the process of incorporation into MILA and its full incorporation was expected by the year 2014. The Mexican Stock Exchange took the step of acquiring a total of 3.79 million shares of the Lima Stock Exchange, the Mexican Stock Exchange met the timeframe and announced the first trade made as part of MILA on 2 December 2014. The trade on MIILA was a $1,415 purchase of 200 shares in Chilean retailer Falabella, the joint capitalization of the four bourses tops US$1.25 trillion, making it larger than the US$1.22 trillion BM&F Bovespa. Among the more important agreements that have reached is the creation of joint diplomatic missions that will provide citizens of Pacific Alliance member states with needed diplomatic services. The Declaration of Cali encourages these countries to move forward on these initiatives, in November 2014 Mexico opened its first trade office in Africa, located in Casablanca and shared with the other Pacific Alliance members. As of October 2016, there are 49 observer states and 2 candidate countries, in process of full membership, canada has also been mentioned as a candidate to join the alliance, and called a natural fit by Mexicos vice-minister of foreign affairs, Sergio Alcocer. It has free-trade agreements with the four founding members, and has been encouraged by leaders to join the alliance. However the Canadian government has yet to upgrade its status to observer-candidate as it is still determining whether or not to become a member. The country has since postponed its incorporation into the alliance indefinitely, guatemala has expressed concrete interest in joining the Pacific Alliance and is pursuing trade deals with current members as a precursor to a possible membership application. Panama has expressed interest in joining the Alliance, and is an official observer-candidate according to the website, Panama has already signed trade deals with Colombia, Peru and Chile, and reached an agreement with Mexico to sign a free-trade deal in March 2014. While fulfilling most of the criteria to enter in the alliance, Paraguay, a founding member of Mercosur and observer of the Pacific Alliance, has begun pursuing free-trade deals with current members as a precursor to a possible membership application
30.
Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark
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Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, RE, SKmd is the heir apparent to the throne of Denmark. Frederik is the son of Queen Margrethe II and Henrik. At the time of his birth, his grandfather was on the throne of Denmark. He was christened on 24 June 1968, at Holmens Kirke and he was named Frederik after his maternal grandfather, King Frederick IX, continuing the Danish royal tradition of the heir apparent being named either Frederick or Christian. His middle names honour his paternal grandfather, André de Laborde de Monpezat, his father, Prince Henrik and he became Crown Prince of Denmark when his mother succeeded to the throne as Margrethe II on 14 January 1972. Frederick attended primary school at Krebs Skole during the years 1974–1981, from 1974–1976 as a pupil at Amalienborg Palace. In the period 1982–1983, he was a boarder at École des Roches in Normandy, in 1986, Frederik graduated from the upper secondary school of Øregaard Gymnasium. In addition he is fluent in French, English, and German, in 1989, began to study for an academic degree, when he began a course in Political Science at Aarhus University. This included a year at Harvard University under the name of Frederik Henriksen and he then took up a position for three months with the Danish UN mission in New York in 1994. In 1995, he obtained his MSc degree in Political Science from Aarhus University and he completed the course in the prescribed number of years with an exam result above average. His final paper was an analysis on the policy of the Baltic States. The prince was posted as First Secretary to the Danish Embassy in Paris from October 1998 to October 1999, Frederick has completed extensive military studies and training in all three services, notably completing education as a sailor in the naval elite special operations forces. In the period 2001 and 2002, he completed training for leaders at the Royal Danish Defence College. Reconnaissance Platoon Commander with the Royal Guard Hussars’ Regiment 1988, First Lieutenant in the Reserve 1989. First Lieutenant in the Reserve 1995, Lieutenant Commander in the Reserve 1997. Royal Danish Air Force Flying School 2000 Captain in the Reserve 2000, Command and General Staff Course, Royal Danish Defence College 2001–2002. Staff Officer, Defence Command Denmark 2002–2003, senior lecturer with the Institute of Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College, 2003–. Commander, senior grade, lieutenant colonel 2004, the wedding took place on 14 May 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral, Copenhagen
31.
Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
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Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, R. E. is the wife of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark. Frederik is the apparent to the throne of Denmark, which means that should Frederik inherit the throne. The couple met at the Slip Inn, a pub in Sydney when the prince was visiting Australia during the 2000 Summer Olympics and her paternal grandfather was Captain Peter Donaldson. Mary was named after her grandmothers, Mary Dalgleish and Elizabeth Gibson Melrose and her mother died on 20 November 1997. In 2001, her married the British author and novelist Susan Horwood. Donaldson was born and raised in Hobart, Australia, during her childhood, she was involved in sports and other extracurricular activities both at school and elsewhere. She studied music – playing piano, flute, and clarinet – and played basketball, in 1974, Donaldson started schooling in Clear Lake City Elementary School in Houston, Texas and moved to Sandy Bay, Tasmania from 1975 to 1977. Her primary education, from 1978 to 1983, was at Waimea Heights with her secondary schooling being at Taroona High School, Donaldson studied at the University of Tasmania from 1990 to 1994, graduating with a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degree on 27 May 1995. The crown princess native language is English and she studied French during her secondary education. In 2002, she worked as an English tutor in Paris. After meeting Frederik at the Slip Inn during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and she worked for Australian and global advertising agencies after graduating in 1995. Upon graduation Mary moved to Melbourne to work in advertising and she became a trainee in marketing and communications with the Melbourne office of DDB Needham, taking a position of account executive. In 1996, Mary was employed by Mojo Partners as an account manager, in 1998, six months after her mothers death, she resigned and travelled to America and Europe. In June 2000, she moved to a smaller Australian agency, however, in the spring of 2000 until December 2001, she became sales director and a member of the management team of Belle Property, a real estate firm specialising in luxury property. Mary Donaldson met Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark at the Slip Inn during the 2000 Summer Olympics on 16 September in Sydney and he was not identified by her friends as the Crown Prince of Denmark until after they met. They conducted a long-distance relationship by phone, email and letter, on 15 November 2001 the Danish weekly magazine Billed Bladet named Mary as Frederiks girlfriend. She then moved from Australia to Denmark in December 2001, while she was working as an English tutor in Paris. On 24 September 2003 the Danish court announced that Queen Margrethe II intended to give her consent to the marriage at the State Council meeting scheduled for 8 October 2003
32.
Felipe VI of Spain
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Felipe VI is the King of Spain. He ascended to the throne on 19 June 2014 following the abdication of his father and he is the only son of Juan Carlos and his wife Sofía of Greece and Denmark. When Juan Carlos was chosen in 1969 to be Francisco Francos successor, Felipe became heir apparent when Juan Carlos succeeded Franco as head of state following his death in 1975. He was created Prince of Asturias in 1977, the title for the first in line. As Prince of Asturias, he worked to support philanthropic causes, in 2004, Felipe married TV presenter Letizia Ortiz with whom he has two daughters. Leonor, the elder, is his heir apparent and he succeeded his father as King of Spain when he abdicated in 2014. Felipe was born at Our Lady of Loreto Clinic in Madrid and he was baptised on 8 February 1968 at the Palace of Zarzuela by the Archbishop of Madrid, Casimiro Morcillo. His godparents were his paternal grandfather Juan and his paternal great-grandmother, shortly after his birth he was styled infante, although his father was not yet king. The ruling dictator General Francisco Franco died just over two months before Felipes eighth birthday, and Felipes father ascended the throne, in his first official appearance, Felipe attended his fathers proclamation as king on 22 November 1975. In 1977, Felipe was formally created Prince of Asturias, in May, nine-year-old Felipe was made an honorary soldier of the 1st Kings Immemorial Infantry Regiment. The occasion was marked on 28 May and was attended by the king, on 1 November the same year, he was ceremoniously paid homage as Prince of Asturias in Covadonga. In 1981 Felipe received the Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece from his father, Felipe attended school at Santa María de los Rosales, which his daughters currently attend. As the heir to the throne, a regulated and structured plan was laid out for Felipes military training. In August 1985, a Royal Decree named Felipe as officer at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza and he began his military training there in September. He completed the first phase of his formation in October, in July 1986, he was promoted to Cadet 2nd Lieutenant. He was also named as Midshipman, on September 1986, he began his naval training at the Escuela Naval Militar in Pontevedra, joining the Third Brigade. In January 1987, he continued his training on board the training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano. In July, he was named as Student Ensign at the Academia General del Aire in Murcia, in September 1987, he began his air force training there
33.
Queen Letizia of Spain
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Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano is the Queen of Spain as the wife of King Felipe VI, who ascended on 19 June 2014 on the abdication of his father Juan Carlos I. Before her marriage to Felipe, Letizia was a journalist and news anchor, Letizia and Felipe have two daughters, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, who is now the heir presumptive, and Infanta Sofía. Letizia was born in Oviedo, Asturias, to a middle-class family and she is the eldest daughter of Jesús José Ortiz Álvarez, a journalist, and his first wife, María de la Paloma Rocasolano Rodríguez, a registered nurse and hospital union representative. She has two sisters, Telma and Érika, whose death was widely reported by press as due to an intentional prescription drug overdose. Her parents divorced in 1999 and her father remarried on 1 September 2000 in Madrid on 18 March 2004 to fellow journalist Ana Togores, born ca. Letizias paternal grandparents were José Luis Ortiz Velasco, an employee at Olivetti, and María del Carmen Menchu Álvarez del Valle. Her maternal grandfather was Francisco Julio Rocasolano Camacho, a mechanic and cab driver in Madrid for over 20 years who was of French, Letizias maternal grandmother, Enriqueta Rodriguez Figueredo was born in the Philippines to Spanish parents. British genealogists have provided evidence that through her mothers Rocasolano lineage, Letizia descends from Astorg Roquesoulane, Letizia attended La Gesta School in Oviedo, before her family moved to Madrid, where she attended high school at the Ramiro de Maeztu High School. During her studies, Letizia worked for the Asturian daily newspaper La Nueva España and later for the newspaper ABC, after completing her studies, she spent some time in Guadalajara, Mexico, working at the newspaper Siglo 21. After returning to Spain, she worked for the Spanish version of the economic channel Bloomberg before moving to the news network CNN+, in 2000, she moved to TVE, where she started working for the news channel 24 Horas. In 2002, she anchored the news report programme Informe Semanal. In August 2003, a few months before her engagement to Felipe, Letizia was promoted to anchor of the TVE daily evening news programme Telediario 2, in 2000, Letizia reported from Washington, D. C. on the presidential elections. In September 2001, she broadcast live from Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks in New York and in 2003, in 2002 she sent several reports from Galicia in northern Spain following the ecological disaster when the oil tanker Prestige sank. Letizia married Alonso Guerrero Pérez, a writer and a literature teacher, on 7 August 1998, in a simple civil ceremony at Almendralejo, in Badajoz. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1999, on 1 November 2003, to the surprise of many, the Royal Household announced Letizias engagement to the Prince of Asturias. Afterwards, she moved to live in a wing of Zarzuela Palace until the day of her wedding, the Prince of Asturias had proposed to her with a 16-baguette diamond engagement ring with a white gold trim. She marked the occasion by giving him gold and sapphire cufflinks. The wedding took place on 22 May 2004 in the Cathedral Santa María la Real de la Almudena in Madrid and it was the first royal wedding in this cathedral, which was consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993
34.
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
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It is within the Coquimbo Region and approximately 80 kilometres east of La Serena, where support facilities are located. The site was identified by a team of scientists from Chile and the United States in 1959, construction began in 1963 and regular astronomical observations commenced in 1965. Construction of large buildings on Cerro Tololo ended with the completion of the Víctor Blanco Telescope in 1974, Cerro Pachón is still under development, with two large telescopes inaugurated since 2000, and one in the early stages of construction. Other telescopes on Cerro Tololo include the 1.5 m,1.3 m,1.0 m, and 0.9 m telescopes operated by the SMARTS consortium. CTIO also hosts other research projects, such as PROMPT, WHAM, CTIO is one of two observatories managed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the other being Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, AURA also operates the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Gemini Observatory. The 8.1 m Gemini South Telescope located on Cerro Pachón is managed by AURA separately from CTIO for an international consortium, the National Science Foundation is the funding agency for NOAO. The Small and Medium Research Telescope System is a consortium formed in 2001 after NOAO announced it would no longer support anything smaller than two meters at CTIO, the member institutions of SMARTS now fund and manage observing time on four telescopes that fit that definition. Access has also purchased by individual scientists. SMARTS contracts with NOAO to maintain the telescopes it controls at CTIO, and NOAO retains the right to 25% of the observing time, SMARTS began managing telescopes in 2003. CTIOPI is the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory Parallax Investigation and it began in 1999 and uses two telescopes at Cerro Tololo, the SMARTS1.5 m reflector and the SMARTS0.9 m reflector. The purpose of CTIOPI is to discover nearby red, white, the goal is to discover 300 new southern star systems within 25 parsecs by determining trigonometric parallaxes accurate to 3 milliarcseconds. The 4.0 m Victor M. Blanco Telescope was completed in 1974 and is similar to the Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope which was completed at KPNO in 1973, testing of the telescope and instruments lasted until the beginning of 1976 when science operations began. Regular observations began in 1968. 30°10′09. 42″S 70°48′24. 44″W The 1.3 m SMARTS1. 3-meter Telescope is a Cassegrain reflector on an equatorial mount and it was built by M3 Engineering and Technology Corporation and used for the 2-micron All-Sky Survey. It was first installed in 1965 at the Bethany Observing Station of the Yale University Observatory and it was moved to CTIO in 1974. From 1998 to 2002, it was used by the Yale University-AURA-University of Lisbon-Ohio State University consortium with a custom-built sensor, in 2004 it was integrated into SMARTS. 30°10′07. 92″S 70°48′21. 83″W The 0.9 m SMARTS0. 9-meter Telescope is a closed-tube Cassegrain reflector. It was installed at CTIO in 1966. 30°10′07. 90″S 70°48′23. 86″W The 0.6 m Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy South Telescope is a telescope built by Boller
35.
La Silla Observatory
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La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory. Several other telescopes are located at the site and are maintained by ESO. The observatory is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and was the first in Chile to be used by ESO. The La Silla telescopes and instruments are located 150 km northeast of La Serena at the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert, following the decision in 1963 to approve Chile as the site for the ESO observatory, scouting parties were sent to various locations to assess their suitability. The site that was decided upon was La Silla in the part of the Atacama desert,600 km north of Santiago de Chile. Besides being government property, it had the benefits of being in a dry, flat and easily accessible area, yet isolated and remote from any artificial light. Originally named the Cinchado, it was renamed La Silla after its saddle-like shape, on October 30,1964, the contracts were signed and an area of 245 square miles was purchased the following year. During 1965, temporary facilities were erected with living quarters, a workshop, the dedication ceremony of the road to the top took place in March 1966, two months after its completion. On 25 March 1969, the ESO site at La Silla was finally inaugurated by President Eduardo Frei Montalva. With a permanent base of dormitories, workshops, hotels and several functioning telescopes, the observatory was fully operational. The ESO1. 5-metre and ESO 1-metre telescopes had been erected in the late 1960s and these three telescopes can be seen in this order from right to left in the background of the adjunct image from June 1968. By 1976, the largest telescope planned, the § ESO3.6 m Telescope and it was subsequently to have a 1. 4m CAT attached. In 1984, the 2. 2m telescope began operations, while in March 1989, a 1-metre telescope owned by Marseille Observatory opened in 1998, followed by a 1. 2-metre telescope from Geneva Observatory in 2000. ESO operates three major optical and near infrared telescopes at the La Silla site, the New Technology Telescope, the 3. 6-m ESO Telescope, and these telescopes are not operated by ESO and hence do not fall under the responsibility of La Silla Science Operations. The telescope hosts HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, HARPS is a spectrograph with unrivalled precision and is the most successful finder of low-mass exoplanets to date. Since April 2008, HARPS is the instrument available at the 3.6 m telescope. The ESO New Technology Telescope is an Alt-Az,3. 58-metre Richey-Chretien telescope which pioneered the use of active optics, the telescope and its enclosure had a revolutionary design for optimal image quality. NTT saw first light in March 1989, the telescope chamber is ventilated by a system of flaps which optimize the air flow across the NTT minimizing the dome and mirror seeing
36.
Llano de Chajnantor Observatory
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Llano de Chajnantor Observatory is the name for a group of astronomical observatories located at an altitude of over 4,800 m in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The site is in the Antofagasta Region approximately 50 kilometres east of the town of San Pedro de Atacama, the exceptionally arid climate of the area is inhospitable to humans, but creates an excellent location for millimeter, submillimeter, and mid-infrared astronomy. This is because water vapour absorbs and attenuates submillimetre radiation, Llano de Chajnantor is home to the largest and most expensive astronomical telescope project in the world, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Llano de Chajnantor and the area has been designated as the Chajnantor Science Reserve by the government of Chile. The Llano de Chajnantor is located on the side of the Puna de Atacama. The main ridge of the Andes is over 200 kilometres to the east, the Salar de Atacama basin borders the Puna de Atacama to the west, which in turn is bordered by the Cordillera Domeyko. The western side of the Puna de Atacama is dotted with the volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andean Volcanic Belt. The Llano de Chajnantor site itself is bounded by volcanic peaks of the Purico Complex, Cerro Chajnantor is to the north, Cerro El Chascón to the east, and smaller peaks to the south and west. The Pampa la Bola lies to the northeast, north of Cerro El Chascón, Llano de Chajnantor has an average elevation of 5,000 m, while Pampa la Bola averages 4,800 m. The thin atmosphere makes work difficult for humans, so much of the activity for ALMA will be conducted at a camp in the Salar de Atacama basin at approximately 2,900 m in elevation. Rainfall at the ALMA site averages 100 mm annually, while the site is generally viewed as being in the Atacama Desert, in terms of ecoregions it is in the Central Andean dry puna. Llano de Chajnantor is at the latitude as deserts in southern Africa. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array is a large radio telescope interferometer at Llano de Chajnantor. It has been in operation since October 2013. The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment is a 12 m submillimetre radio telescope installed in 2003 and its design is based on the North American ALMA prototype antenna modified for single dish use. It is operated by a led by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. The Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment is a 10 m submillimetre radio telescope built by Mitsubishi Electric and it was an early prototype for the antennas of ALMA, and is operated by a consortium led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. It was first built in Japan in 2000, and then was reassembled in Chile in 2002 and it began regular observations in 2004
37.
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
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The Atacama Large Millimeter Array is an astronomical interferometer of radio telescopes in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. ALMA is a partnership among Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan. Costing about US$1.4 billion, it is the most expensive ground-based telescope in operation, ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 and the first images were released to the press on 3 October 2011. The array has been operational since March 2013. The initial ALMA array is composed of 66 high-precision antennas, the high sensitivity is mainly achieved through the large numbers of antenna dishes that will make up the array. The telescopes were provided by the European, North American and East Asian partners of ALMA, the American and European partners each provided twenty-five 12-meter diameter antennas, that compose the main array. The participating East Asian countries are contributing 16 antennas in the form of the Atacama Compact Array, by using smaller antennas than the main ALMA array, larger fields of view can be imaged at a given frequency using ACA. Placing the antennas closer together enables the imaging of sources of larger angular extent, the ACA works together with the main array in order to enhance the latters wide-field imaging capability. ALMA has its roots in three astronomical projects — the Millimeter Array of the United States, the Large Southern Array of Europe. The merged array combined the sensitivity of the LSA with the frequency coverage, ESO and NRAO worked together in technical, science, and management groups to define and organize a joint project between the two observatories with participation by Canada and Spain. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 6,2003 and the ALMA logo was unveiled and this was mainly for political reasons. Although very different approaches have been chosen by the providers, each of the antenna designs appears to be able to meet ALMAs stringent requirements, ALMA is the largest and most expensive ground-based astronomical project, costing between US$1.4 and 1.5 billion. S. Japanese, and Canadian companies and universities, three prototype antennas have undergone evaluation at the Very Large Array since 2002. The first antenna was delivered in 2008, the last in 2011, the solution chosen is to use two custom 28-wheel self-loading heavy haulers. The vehicles were made by Scheuerle Fahrzeugfabrik in Germany and are 10 m wide,20 m long and 6 m high and they are powered by twin turbocharged 500 kW Diesel engines. The transporters, which feature a drivers seat designed to accommodate an oxygen tank to aid breathing the thin high-altitude air, the first vehicle was completed and tested in July 2007. Both transporters were delivered to the ALMA Operations Support Facility in Chile on 15 February 2008, on 7 July 2008, an ALMA transporter moved an antenna for the first time, from inside the antenna assembly building to a pad outside the building for testing. During Autumn 2009, the first three antennas were transported one-by-one to the Array Operations Site, linking three antennas allows corrections of errors that can arise when only two antennas are used, thus paving the way for precise, high-resolution imaging
38.
Antofagasta Region
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The II Antofagasta Region is one of Chiles fifteen first-order administrative divisions. It comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla and it is bordered to the north by Tarapacá and by Atacama to the south and is the second-largest region of Chile. To the east it borders Bolivia and Argentina, the capital of the region is the port city of Antofagasta, another important city being Calama. The main economic activity is mining in the giant porphyry copper systems located inland. Climate is extremely arid albeit somewhat milder near the coast, nearly all of the region is devoid of vegetation except close to the Loa River or at oases such as San Pedro de Atacama. Much of the inland is covered by salt flats, tephra, the region was sparsely populated by indigenous Changos and Atacameños until massive Chilean immigration in conjunction with a saltpeter boom in the later 19th century. The region used to be Bolivian until the War of the Pacific broke out in 1879, antofagastas history is divided, as the territory, in two sections, the coastal region and the highlands plateau or altiplano around the Andes. In pre-Columbian times, the coastline was populated by nomadic fishing clans of Changos Indians, of very little is known. The Atacaman culture was influenced by Tiwanaku culture and later fell under Inca rule. Atacamans harvested mainly corn and beans and developed trade as far as the Amazon basin, the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century did not destroy the culture but transformed it deeply through the process of mestizaje, in which both cultures mixed. At the time of independence general Simón Bolívar integrated it into the new Republic of Bolivia and this decision was disputed by the Chilean Government and has been a source of conflict until present times. Chile claimed that according to the Uti possidetis of the Spanish crown, Chileans explorers such as Juan López and José Santos Ossa discovered rich nitrate and guano deposits which produced a massive Chilean colonization of the coastline. Friction between the new settlers from both countries grew until 1879 when the War of the Pacific erupted, Antofagasta was permanently annexed by the Chilean government at the end of the war. Colonization by Chileans followed mainly from the Little North, into the new territories of Antofagasta and Tarapacá, in the early 20th century the region became a significant base of Chiles union-organizing movements. It continued to depend economically on the industry until its replacement by copper mining. Two of the largest and richest open pit mines in the world are located in Antofagasta, La Escondida, each province in the region is further subdivided into communes. The main river is the Loa, the average rainfall in the Antofagasta is just 1 millimetre per year. From the coast, east to the Chilean Coast Range, is the part of the Atacama Desert
39.
Atacama Cosmology Telescope
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The Atacama Cosmology Telescope is a six-metre telescope on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile, near the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory. It is designed to make high-resolution, microwave-wavelength surveys of the sky in order to study the cosmic background radiation. At an altitude of 5190 metres, it is one of the highest permanent, erected in the autumn of 2007, ACT saw first light on 22 October 2007 with its science receiver, the Millimeter Bolometer Array Camera, and completed its first season in December 2007. It began its season of observations in June 2008. It is funded by the US National Science Foundation, the ACT is an off-axis Gregorian telescope, with a six-metre primary mirror and a two-metre secondary mirror. Both mirrors are segmented, consisting of 71 and 11 aluminum panels, the rotating portion of the telescope weighs approximately 32 tonnes, creating a substantial engineering challenge. A ground screen surrounding the telescope minimises contamination from microwave radiation emitted by the ground, the design, manufacture and construction of the telescope were done by Dynamic Structures in Vancouver, British Columbia. Observations are made at resolutions of about an arcminute in three frequencies,145 GHz,215 GHz and 280 GHz, each frequency is measured by a 3 cm x 3 cm,1024 element array, for a total of 3072 detectors. The detectors are superconducting transition-edge sensors, a new technology whose high sensitivity should allow measurements of the temperature of the CMB to within a few millionths of a degree, a system of cryogenic helium refrigerators keep the detectors a third of a degree above absolute zero. In its currently scheduled survey, the ACT will map about two hundred square degrees of the sky, several other observatories are located in the region, including CBI, ASTE, Nanten, APEX and ALMA. It is expected that higher resolution CMB observations will not only improve the precision of current knowledge, at ACT resolutions, the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, by which galaxy clusters leave an imprint on the CMB, should be prominent. It is expected that ACT will detect on the order of 100 such clusters, together with follow-up measurements in visible and X-ray light, this would provide a picture of the evolution of structure in the universe since the Big Bang. Among other things, this would improve our understanding of the nature of the mysterious Dark Energy which seems to be a dominant component of the universe, the South Pole Telescope has similar, but complementary, science objectives. ACT released results measuring the properties of the temperature of the CMB down to arcminute scales in January 2010. It found signals that were consistent with un-resolved point sources and the SZ effect, measurements of the CMB power spectrum from the South Pole Telescope were subsequently released that were later also shown to provide evidence for dark energy from the CMB alone. List of highest astronomical observatories Llano de Chajnantor Observatory The ACT Homepage
40.
Cerro Armazones Observatory
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Cerro Armazones Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated jointly by the Ruhr University Bochum and the Catholic University of the North. It was established in 1995 on the slopes of Cerro Armazones, the observatory is located in the Atacama Desert about 110 kilometres south of the city of Antofagasta. Unlike many other observatories, OCA is not located at the highest point of its host mountain, instead, it was in a saddle approximately 340 metres below the summit and 1 kilometre to the southwest. This location has given up due to the vicinity of the ELT construction site in January 2014. The coordinates here are those of this summit now, on 26 April 2010, the European Southern Observatory Council selected Cerro Armazones as the site for the planned European Extremely Large Telescope. The telescope will be located at the summit of the mountain at an altitude of 3,060 metres, currently the mountain top is flattened for this purpose and a new access road has been built. The 1. 5-metre Hexapod-Telescope reflector is named for its unusual mount and it was developed and tested by RUB in Germany, and moved to Cerro Armazones in 2006. A0. 84-metre Newtonian telescope made by Halfmann Teleskoptechnik was installed by UCN in 1995 and it has been dismounted in the meanwhile due to the vicinity to the ELT construction site and is currently at ESO Paranal for refurbishing. The 0. 81-metre Infra Red Imaging Survey telescope is a Nasmyth reflecting telescope on an alt-azimuth mount and it was made by Halfmann Teleskoptechnik and installed in 2010. A0. 41-metre reflector made by Meade Instruments is owned by UCN, the 0. 25-metre Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope II reflector made by Takahashi Seisakusho was installed in 2007 and is owned by the DLR Institute for Planetary Research. The Robotic Bochum Twin Telescope telescopes are two 0. 15-metre refractors made by Takahashi Seisakusho on a common German equatorial mount, the Bochum Monitoring Telescope telescopes is a 0. 41-metre Newton reflector. List of astronomical observatories Astronomisches Institut at Ruhr-Universität Bochum Instituto de Astronomía at Universidad Católica del Norte
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Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor
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The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor is an array of microwave telescopes at a high-altitude site in the Atacama Desert of Chile as part of the Parque Astronómico de Atacama. The CLASS array will consist of two altazimuth mounts that will allow the telescopes to be pointed to observe different patches of sky, the four CLASS telescopes will observe at a range of frequencies to separate emission from our galaxy from that of the CMB. One telescope will observe at 40 GHz, two telescopes will observe at 90 GHz, and the telescope will observe in two frequency bands centered at 150 GHz and 220 GHz. Two separate telescopes, observing at different frequencies, are housed on each mount, the CLASS instrument is specifically designed to measure polarization. As an electromagnetic wave, light consists of oscillating electric and magnetic fields and these fields can have both an amplitude, or intensity, and a preferred direction in which they oscillate, or polarization. The polarized signal that CLASS will attempt to measure is incredibly small and it is expected to be only a few parts-per-billion change in the polarization of the already-cold CMB with a mean temperature of 2.725 K. This low temperature reduces the thermal noise of the detectors. Because water vapor in the atmosphere emits at microwave frequencies, CLASS will observe from a very dry, nearby sites have been chosen by other observatories for the same reason, including CBI, ASTE, Nanten, APEX, ALMA, ACT, and POLARBEAR. The primary science goal of CLASS is to test the theory of inflation, in physical cosmology, cosmic inflation is the leading theory of the very early universe, however, observational evidence for inflation is still inconclusive. Inflationary models generically predict that a background would have been produced along with the density perturbations that seed large-scale structure. Such an inflationary GWB would leave an imprint on both the temperature and polarization of the CMB, in particular it would leave a very distinctive and unique pattern of polarization, called a B-mode pattern, in the CMB polarization. A measurement of B-mode polarization in the CMB would be important confirmation of inflation, llano de Chajnantor Observatory List of cosmic microwave background experiments CLASS Website
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Atacama Pathfinder Experiment
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The main dish has a diameter of 12 m and consists of 264 aluminium panels with an average surface accuracy of 17 micrometres. The telescope was inaugurated on September 25,2005. The APEX telescope is a modified ALMA prototype antenna and is at the site of the ALMA observatory. APEX is designed to work at sub-millimetre wavelengths, in the 0.2 to 1.5 mm range — between infrared light and radio waves — and to find targets that ALMA will be able to study in greater detail. Submillimetre astronomy provides a window into the cold, dusty and distant Universe, the telescope was designed and constructed by the German firm VERTEX Antennentechnik GmbH, under contract by MPIfR. The operation of APEX on Chajnantor is entrusted to ESO, submillimetre astronomy is a relatively unexplored frontier in astronomy and reveals a Universe that cannot be seen in the more familiar visible or infrared light. It is ideal for studying the cold Universe, light at these wavelengths shines from vast cold clouds in interstellar space, at temperatures only a few tens of degrees above absolute zero. Astronomers use this light to study the chemical and physical conditions in these molecular clouds — the dense regions of gas and cosmic dust where new stars are being born. Seen in visible light, these regions of the Universe are often dark and obscured due to the dust and this wavelength range is also ideal for studying some of the earliest and most distant galaxies in the Universe, whose light has been redshifted into these longer wavelengths. APEX science goals include studying the formation of stars, planets, and galaxies, including very distant galaxies in the early Universe, and the physical conditions of molecular clouds. Its first results proved the telescope lives up to the ambitions of the scientists by providing access to the cold Universe with unprecedented sensitivity and image quality. No fewer than 26 articles based on science with APEX were published in July 2006 in a special issue of the research journal Astronomy. APEX is also involved in the Global mm-VLBI Network and in the Event Horizon Telescope and these data follow the standard ESO archive rules, i. e. they become publicly available one year after they have been delivered to the principal investigator of the project. LABOCA uses an array of extremely sensitive micro-calorimeters — known as bolometers — to detect submillimetre light, with almost 300 elements, at the time of commissioning in 2007 LABOCA has been the largest bolometer camera in the world. To be able to detect the temperature changes caused by the faint submillimetre radiation. LABOCAs high sensitivity, together with its field of view. APEX first light was achieved in May 2004 using the SEST Imaging Bolometer Array that had moved to APEX after the decommissioning of the SEST. For more information about APEX instruments, consult the instrumentation page, to operate at the shorter sub-millimetre wavelengths, APEX presents a surface of exceedingly high quality
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