Delivery of first Laser Projection System to European Southern Observatory Technology developer and producer Demcon shipped the first Laser Projection System together with TNO last week. Its destination is the European Southern Observatory (ESO), where TNO and ESO will test the system. In total, Demcon company Focal and TNO will build nine systems for ESO’s Very Large Telescope and Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. The systems project ‘laser guide stars’ into the atmosphere to help the large telescopes better focus on distant astronomical objects. This gives astronomers sharper images of the universe. They hope to make new discoveries, for example about the evolution of the universe after the Big Bang and the formation of stars and galaxies.

Vibration-free cooling for undisturbed measurements of gravity waves. A consortium of Demcon kryoz, Cooll and the University of Twente will develop an advanced cooling system for the Einstein Telescope. This enormous observatory will measure gravitational waves, which Albert Einstein predicted more than 100 years ago. It may be housed beneath the hilly landscape of the Dutch-Belgian-German border area. The consortium will receive 2.6 million euros over a period of three years from the R&D scheme for the Einstein Telescope, financed by the Dutch National Growth Fund. Vibration-free cooling to very low temperatures is necessary to detect the very weak signals from space. The three parties have a lot of fundamental knowledge and industrial expertise in vibration-free cooling. They are now using this to make the measurements much more accurate, for a better understanding of extreme events deep in the universe.