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The ESO 3.6 m Telescope is an optical reflecting telescope run by the European Southern Observatory at La Silla Observatory, Chile since 1977, with a clear aperture of about 3.6 meters (140 in.) and 8.6 m2 area. It received an overhaul in 1999 and a new secondary in 2004. It was one of the largest optical telescopes in the world when it was completed in the late 1970s, and has supported many advanced optical and scientific achievements. It presented one of the first Adaptive Optics system available to the astronomical community, ADONIS: ADaptive Optics Near Infrared System in the 1980s. By 2009, the telescope was used to discover 75 possible exoplanets.[1]
Instruments Since April 2008, the only instrument on the ESO 3.6m telescope is HARPS, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher. HARPS is a fibre-fed high resolution echelle spectrograph dedicated to the discovery of extrasolar planets. Other instruments on the telescope, now decommissioned, include:[2] - CES: A spectrograph providing a resolving power of up to 235,000 in the 346 - 1028 nm region.
- EFOSC2: The ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (v.2) to give its full name, is a very versatile instrument for low resolution spectroscopy and imaging.
- TIMMI-2 Thermal Infrared MultiMode Instrument dedicated to the 3 micron to 25 micron
- ADONIS, an acronym for ADaptive Optics Near Infrared System, was a second-generation adaptive optics system for the astronomical community.[3] More than 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles were published based on this instrument data.[4] ADONIS is the final version of diverse Adaptive Optics (AO) prototypes named Come-on and Come-on +. It was offered in its final version in October 1996 as an official ESO instrument,[5] then decommissioned in 2001. ADONIS was the first AO system offered to a large community of astronomers.
Recent scientific achievements The ESO 3.6m telescope has made several scientific discoveries since it saw first light. Recent astronomical achievements were made possible by HARPS, a "top-class" instrument. This include finding the lightest exoplanet known at the time of discovery in, Gliese 581e, with only twice the mass of the Earth,[6] and the richest planetary system known at the time, with up to seven planets orbiting a Sun-like star.[7] The telescope was also involved in solving a decades-old mystery regarding the mass of Cepheid variable stars. By using the HARPS instrument, astronomers detected for the first time a double star where a pulsating Cepheid variable and another star pass in front of one another, which allows to measure the mass of the Cepheid. The study concluded that the mass prediction coming from the theory of stellar pulsation was correct while the value calculated was at odds with the theory of stellar evolution.[8] The discovery of the extrasolar planet Gliese 581 c by the team of St phane Udry at University of Geneva's Observatory in Switzerland was announced on April 24, 2007.[9] The team used the HARPS instrument (an echelle spectrograph) on the European Southern Observatory ESO 3.6 m Telescope in La Silla, Chile, and employed the radial velocity technique to identify the planet's influence on the star.[9][10] Contemporaries on commissioning In the heat of a Cold War, the ESO 3.6 m took its place among giant eyes old and new. Largest telescopes in 1976: The telescope and site <gallery> Image: 3.6-m Telescope at La Silla.jpg|The 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla observatory. Image: The road to the 3.6m telescope at La Silla.jpg|The road to the 3.6m telescope at La Silla. Image: LaSillaByNight2.jpg|Leonard Euler Telescope in the foreground on right side, the ESO 3.6 m Telescope is in the distance. Image: La Silla 3.6m telescope.jpg|Panoramic view of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope's dome. Image: ESO-The Milky Way above La Silla-phot-27-04-hires.jpg|Early evening scenery at the ESO La Silla observatory, with the 3.6m Telescope visible on on the right in the background. Credit: ESO. Image:Construction of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope.jpg|Construction of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope.[12] </gallery> Images from telescope <gallery> Image:NGC 2207 and IC 2163.jpg|Image of two interacting spiral galaxies captured by the EFOSC2 instrument on the ESO 3.6m Telescope. Credit: ESO Image: NGC 520.tif|NGC 520 as viewed by the 3.6m Telescope.|Credit: ESO. </gallery> See also References External links es:Telescopio de 3,6 metros de ESO fr:T lescope de 3,6 m tres ko:ESO 3.6 zh:ESO 3.6
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