European Southern Observatory’s Post

After a 10,000 km journey across the world, the first 18 segments of M1 — the main mirror of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — have safely arrived in their next home, the ELT Technical Facility at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean Atacama Desert! Here are the key stages of their remarkable journey: ➡️ It began near Poitiers, France, where the segments were finished. ➡️ The segments then travelled by road to the port of Le Havre, where they set off across the ocean on 17 December 2023. ➡️ They arrived in Chile at the Antofagasta Terminal International port last week. ➡️ The segments then reached ESO’s Paranal Observatory on 12 January 2024, where they underwent extensive inspections to confirm they did not suffer any damage during transport. Once complete, the ELT’s M1 will be over 39 metres across. So large that it can’t be cast in one piece, it will consist of 798 hexagonal segments working together. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eJTWbndk 📷 ESO/F. Carrasco

Winged CubeSat flock survives loss of leader, An experimental flock of miniature CubeSats has survived the unexpected loss of its leader to begin monitoring water quality across Spain and Portugal., : An experimental flock of miniature CubeSats has survived the unexpected loss of its leader to begin monitoring water quality across Spain and Portugal.

Our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is one step closer to completion! Too large to be made from a single piece of glass, the ELT primary mirror (M1) will instead consist of 798 hexagonal segments and 151 extra ones. Now, the blank for the last segment has been successfully cast, the blanks being shaped pieces of material that are later polished to become the mirror segments. Once polished and assembled in Europe, each M1 segment is shipped across the ocean to reach the ELT Technical Facility at our Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert. A 10,000-kilometre journey that over 70 M1 segments have already completed. Discover more: https://lnkd.in/eZ9EeS-3 📷 SCHOTT #ELTprogress

Wellste telescope tube are perfect for applications requiring the different pieces of material to sleeve or expand inside one another. #Wellste #telescopicpole20m #telescopicpolelight #telescopicpolesaws #telescopicpolephotography"

🔥 Hot off the press: A new article of the Special Issue "Radar for Space Observation: Systems, Methods and Applications" I am preparing is out❗ Remote Sensing MDPI 👉 Colleagues João Pandeirada, Miguel Bergano ,Paulo Marques, Bruno Coelho, Domingos Barbosa, and Mário Figueiredo present the 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐓𝐋𝐀𝐒 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 #𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐫, part of Portugal's contribution to EU SST 📡 ✒️ Their article focuses on the activities of calibration of the pointing system and initial observations of space objects 🚀 💡 Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eKxvA5Qz 👀 Read the full Special Issue here: https://lnkd.in/eZ9WtRPK The Special Issue is still open for submissions 🕗 #spaceobservation #radarsystems #remotesensing #spacedebris #sustainability

"We intend to provide optical instruments for larger and larger satellites, which will allow us to increase their utility or range of applications, with a positive impact on the profit margins that can be generated. The telescope we just delivered as part of the #EagleEye project for integration into a satellite platform is an important step to expand our product portfolio to include larger instruments. We are targeting the microsatellite segment, i.e. satellites weighing more than 10 kg, and we are currently working on telescopes for, among others, the EagleEye satellite, weighing about 60 kg, and a satellite as part of our partnership with Germany's Marble Imaging, weighing about 100 kg." – said our CEO Jędrzej Kowalewski during the interview “Polish space industry 2024” for Polish Press Agency (Business). More information about our plans and goals for 2024, as well as our colleagues Creotech Instruments S.A., KP Labs and SpaceForest in the following article: https://bit.ly/3UEbT1N #polishspace #space #scanway #spacebusiness

Azercosmos and Brazilian Space Agency sign MOU for space initiatives Azercosmos and the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on space cooperation. The MoU envisages Brazil-Azerbaijan collaboration in space science, technology, and application and will serve as an instrument to establish a framework for future cooperation in the domain of outer space. #Space #Brazil #MOU #Satellite #Science #Technology #AEB https://lnkd.in/e7QddXha

Feasibility of Communication with a Hypothetical Radio Telescope on Trappist-1 Victor Estrada Diaz 2023 Abstract Description of the proposal: Using interferometry, similar to the one used to observe the black hole in the Milky Way and in M81, we can point all of Earth’s radio telescopes towards Trappist-1 to form an equivalent an tenna the size of Earth. This would allow us to eliminate background noise and capture any potential emissions from the planet(s). A request should be made to the scientific community to consider this proposal. In this pa per, we explore various techniques for communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence, including radio satelite and laser communication.

Take a look on my article about the comet that pass on the Portugal... The comet associated with the PACE (Portuguese Acronym for "Panoramic Camera Experiment") mission in Portugal is Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). This mission involves studying and observing this particular comet, which gained attention for its bright appearance and visibility from Earth. The PACE mission aims to capture detailed images and gather data to enhance our understanding of such celestial bodies and their behavior in our solar system.On May 18, a fragment of a comet was seen burning up in the night sky in Spain and Portugal, according to the European Space Agency. Correction: An earlier version of this video's headline used an incorrect term to describe the object. It is a fragment of a comet. #snsinstitutions #snsdesignthinking #designthinkers

The benefits of Earth observation for national and local authorities was the topic of not one, but two sessions at the current NSE ExpoForum Conference in Rome, Italy this week. We saw both local authorities explaining their requirements and benefits of EO data, as well as several Italian EO solution providers, like GMATICS, Agricolus S.r.l., Engineering Group, and MAPSAT S.r.l. on stage. Europe has the largest Earth observation system in the world with #Copernicus, which will be augmented with new satellites in the next years, including #IRIDE Pre-commercial procurement projects can help both local authorities and data providers bringing the benefits of space data to all in Europe.