Free Astronomy Magazine July-August 2021

35 JULY-AUGUST 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING T his picture shows the Test-Bed Telescope 2 inside its dome, right after it was positioned in place with the help of a crane, against the dramatic backdrop of the Atacama Desert. It is the clear, dark Atacama skies that make this location ideal for ground-based telescopes. [P. Sinclaire/ESO] T he black telescope structure of the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 peers out of its open dome in front of the rolling desert landscape. The telescope is located at ESO’s La Silla Observa- tory, which sits at a 2400 metre alti- tude in the Chilean Atacama desert. [F. Ocaña/J. Isabel/Quasar SR] dorsed International Aster- oid Warning Network and many observations of these objects have been performed with ESO’s telescopes. ESO’s New Technology Telescope at La Silla, for example, has been used for observations of small near-Earth asteroids in support of the European NEOShield-2 project. The ongoing inter-organisa- tional collaboration between ESO and ESA is particularly significant in the study of near-Earth objects. While TBT is the first telescope proj- ect to be realised under a cooperation agreement be- tween the two organisa- tions, ESO has been helping ESA track potentially danger- ous objects since 2014, by using its Very Large Tele- scope at Paranal Observatory to observe very faint objects. These efforts combined are a significant leap forward for the worldwide search and management of aster- oids, and have already proved useful in ruling out collisions of asteroids with the Earth. The installation and first light of TBT2 at ESO’s La Silla Observatory was achieved under strict health and safety conditions. ESO’s observato- ries temporarily stopped operations last year due to the COVID-19 pan- demic, but have since resumed sci- ence observations under restrictions that ensure the safety and protec- tion of everyone at the sites. !