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ING Annual Report 1997
Previous: General Information and Credits | Up: Table of Contents | Next: IntroductionForeword
[ JPEG | TIFF ] I am delighted to write the foreword to the 1997 Annual Report of the Issac Newton Group of Telescopes, on behalf of the Joint Steering Committee. It gives the JSC great satisfaction to see that the steady increase in the scientific productivity of the telescopes has continued unabated during 1997. This year was marked by several exciting discoveries, including a major breakthrough in a subject with a 25-year old history of enigma and controversy.
The breakthrough to which I am referring is, of course, the first optical identification of a gamma-ray burst. This was accomplished by means of multicolour images taken at the WHT and the INT of a small area of sky where only a few hours previously the BeppoSAX satellite had detected a burst and imaged it in X-rays. The discovery of the optical "afterglow" at the ING paved the way for HST follow-up which revealed extended emission at the location of the burst, most certainly the burst's host galaxy at a redshift approaching one. Shortly afterwards, a similar burst was detected and this time spectroscopy with the 10m Keck telescope in Hawaii revealed the presence of absorption lines in the optical transient at redshift 0.835. Thus, the extragalactic origin of the bursts was finally established, providing strong support for theoretical models in which the huge energy of the burst is released in a relativistic blast wave, most probably triggered by collisions and mergers of neutron stars or black holes.
Gamma-ray bursts experienced strong competition for the headlines from the opposite end of the astronomical domain. The Hale-Bopp comet made its spectacular appearance at about the same time as the gamma-ray burst was being detected. Just as investigation of the burst called for the largest telescopes, some of the most striking pictures of the comet were taken with one of the smallest, the 35mm lens of the CoCAM camera built by ING staff. Hale-Bopp was, of course, also observed with the WHT and this led to the discovery of a new type of cometary tail, made of sodium and having different kinematics to the well-known ion and dust tails. Other scientific highlights may be found in the body of the report.
I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Steve Unger who departed at the end of 1997 after five years as Director of the ING (first as Acting Director and later as Director.) Steve presided over some of the most difficult, but also some of the most exciting years in the history of the ING. His legacy is a mature and highly efficient operation which is generally regarded as one of the prime astronomical facilities in the world. Steve was a Director of unflinching commitment and I am sure that the entire astronomical communities of the UK and the Netherlands will wish to join the JSC in thanking him for his stewardship and in wishing him well in his new career in industry.
Steve was replaced by René Rutten, formerly Head of Astronomy. Just like Steve before him, he started off as Acting Director but, I am very pleased to report, he was subsequently persuaded to take on the Directorship on a substantive basis. In the few months since taking office, René has already shown an imaginative style of leadership which augurs well for the future of the ING. The JSC looks forward to working alongside him in ensuring that the ING continues to prosper as an institution of astronomical excellence.
It is a fact of life that forewords to Annual Reports are written well after the reporting period has elapsed and a new set of issues has come to prominence. Although I do not wish to abuse such extemporal privilege, I cannot resist mentioning briefly the outcome of the review by the International Visiting Panel chaired by Russell Cannon (as an extenuating circumstance, the panel was actually set up in 1997.) The report concludes that the ING is a world class facility, efficiently run and well managed. It makes a number of important recommendations aimed at preserving and enhancing the scientific productivity of the ING into the new millenium. Not least of these is the recommendation of a stable budget and a search for imaginative ways to prepare the ING for the arrival on La Palma of the 10m Gran Telescopio de Canarias in the early years of the next decade. Further details of the Cannon report will no doubt feature in the 1998 Annual Report but, in the interim, they may be obtained from the JSC or from the funding agencies.
The scientific achievements of the ING, only a minuscule fraction of which are highlighted in this Annual Report, are the tangible outcome of the work of many people. In my visits to the ING over the years I have been deeply impressed by the competence, enthusiasm and commitment of the observatory's personnel. It is their talent and effort that underpins the success of the ING. I am confident that the ING's staff, under the directorship of René Rutten, is well equipped to meet the challenges that are an integral part of life at a leading scientific facility.
Dr Carlos Frenk, Chairman of the Joint Steering Committee
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