The world’s most productive astronomical observatory is working on two major projects: ALMA, a facility made up of 66 giant antennas, and E-ELT, an optical/infrared telescope that will be the “biggest eye in the world” for observing the sky.
ESO operates in three observatories located in the Atacama Desert in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. Although La Silla remains the second most productive observatory in terrestrial astronomy, the Paranal observatory has the VLT (Very Large Telescope), a telescope that incorporates the latest cutting-edge technologies.
Spain joined ESO on 14 February 2007, with effect from 1 July 2006. Previously (January 2003), the Spanish government had signed a collaboration agreement with ESO for participation in the construction of the ALMA millimetre observatory.
Spain contributes to ESO’s annual budget in proportion to its GDP, around 8%. Scientific access to ESO’s facilities is done through a competitive concurrence procedure. There are two calls a year for the research community to submit its observation proposals.