07 Oct 2015:

A detailed report on the outcome of the ALMA Early Science Cycle 3 Proposal Review Process is available. The report details the proposal review process, proposal statistics and regional distributions, the proposal distribution across science categories and receiver bands, as well as the anticipated observing pressure as a function of Local Sidereal Time and configuration. The accepted high priority Cycle 3 projects are listed here.

06 Oct 2015:

The Call for Proposals for ESO Period 97 (1 April 2016 тАУ 30 September 2016) closed on 1 October 2015. 1020 proposals were received (the second highest, after Period 84), including 22 for Large Programmes, 48 for Target of Opportunity and 5 for Monitoring Programmes, for a total of 2212 nights. The number of proposals received shows an increase of 6.5% over Period 96.

06 Oct 2015:

The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for Ph.D. students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories for a period of up to two years.

05 Oct 2015:

The refurbishment of the VLTI laboratory, in preparation for the arrival of GRAVITY, has been completed and VLTI is ready to re-start science observations. Successful recommissioning occurred during August and September. The GRAVITY instrument was transported from the Paranal Integration Hall to the VLTI laboratory in early October 2015, an important milestone in its Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) and Commissioning process.

05 Oct 2015:

The fourth ALMA user survey was conducted between the 1 May and 1 June 2015. A total of 536 users (representing 15% of the users who were sent the questionnaire and 44% of the Cycle 3 PIs) responded to the survey. This survey focused on topics related to proposal preparation and submission, including interaction with the ARC / ARC nodes for ALMA proposal preparation and usability of tools such as the ALMA Science Portal or the helpdesk. A summary is available.

05 Oct 2015:

The latest ALMA Status Report, available here, includes Cycle 2 Early Science observing progress (including Cycle 1 Transfer projects), project completion and data delivery summary, Extension and Optimization of Capabilities (EOC) activity, and preparations for Cycle 4, since the last Report (November 2014).

17 Sep 2015:

New data products resulting from the VST Public Survey ATLAS are now available via the dedicated Phase3 query interface at the Science Archive Facility.

28 Jul 2015:

If you wish to conduct a PhD in astronomy-astrophysics within one of the largest centres of astrophysical research in the world, which covers every subject from planets, stars, and galaxies to cosmology, you should seriously consider applying to the IMPRS studentship programme in Munich.