English subtitles for clip: File:ESOcast 116.webm

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Humanity looks upon the Universe with neverending curiosity and wonder.

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With state-of-the-art telescopes like those at ESO,

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we can take the most stunning images that the Universe beholds to us.

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But to astronomers, ESO’s telescopes are not just about a pretty picture;

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they are tools to collect data, through which remarkable discoveries are made.

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Observing time on each of ESO’s telescopes is highly sought after.

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Astronomers have to request to use this time by submitting proposals to the OPC.

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The OPC stands for the Observing Programmes Committee, and essentially, it’s a peer review panel.

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It’s consisting of referees that have been recruited from around the world

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that have expertise in all the scientific areas that ESO caters for.

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Every semester ESO receives of the order of 900 proposals,

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submitted by a total of more or less 3500 distinct scientists all over the world

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from, more or less, 50 countries,

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and the acceptance rate of course is pretty low, because the competition is strong.

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Typically, only 1 out of 4 proposals gets to see the telescope light.

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It can be difficult to get time on our telescopes,

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For instance, we have one new instrument that has been offered, called MUSE,

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and that’s one of the most heavily demanded instruments

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that we have amongst our suite of instrumentation at the moment,

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so it very much depends on how new it is, and how wide a community it’s serving.

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Twice a year, astronomers gather at the OPC to discuss the proposals.

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In May 2017, they met for the 100th time, deciding the fate of thousands of astronomers:

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whether or not they would be granted time on one of ESO’s telescopes.

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To mark this special occasion, they met in the beautiful Spineto Abbey in Italy.

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The amount of time available on the telescope

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compared to the amount of time requested by the observers...

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there’s a big difference, often a factor of five or thereabouts,

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so there are tough decisions made all the time.

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The most interesting part of my job, I would say, is the interaction with the OPC members,

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these are very distinguished astronomers from all over the world,

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so it gives us, and me in particular, a very international view on where astrophysics is going.

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The thing you’re really after is, is this really…

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signs that it’s going to make a large difference

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to the way that we perceive this particular topic or sub topic.

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The scientific ideas are sorted into four main themes, so the judges are equipped with the relevant expertise.

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The first is the extragalactic — distance scales in cosmology;

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then we have a second category which is for galaxy formation and evolution of galaxy dynamics;

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the third one is star formation and planetary systems, including exoplanets;

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and the fourth one is stellar evolution.

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For each theme, there are six allocated experts

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who discuss each proposal and grade them via a ranking system.

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The referees read between 70 and 80 proposals each.

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As the meeting progresses, the different panels eventually come to an agreement.

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The fate of the astronomer has been sealed.

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It’s really clear the top one or two science projects that people put forward.

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They really grab everyone’s attention, it’s really clear those are the ones that we want to do.

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And then there are the ones that really don’t capture our attention and those are clear.

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But then there are lots of proposals in the middle that are all really really good science,

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and it’s really hard to choose between them

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because all of them are making major steps forward in their science.

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After the results have been collated and accepted by ESO’s Director General, the astronomers are notified

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and the successful ones prepare for the next stage: observation!

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Most of the time the support scientists in the control room execute the observations

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and send the data back to the astronomers, who may be anywhere in the world.

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Months later, after much analysis and discussion,

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the results are written up in the form of a paper, assessed in a peer review journal,

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and eventually published.

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There are also proposals which are so novel in their approach

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that you have to really be careful that you are not losing something like a future Nobel Prize for instance.

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Transcribed by ESO; Translated by —