Why Brazil? What are the criteria that the ESO Council uses to decide whether a country can join ESO?
The European Southern Observatory has a long history of successful involvement with South America, beginning with the selection of Chile as the best site for its observatories in 1963 and continued more recently when the same location was chosen for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). This long-term collaboration with South America has brought ESO closer to countries such as Brazil, which could easily see the scientific and technological advances resulting from ESO’s Observatories and the positive impact on the local economy. At the same time, ESO has witnessed the impressive rapid development of the Brazilian astronomical community and the efforts made to advance science and technology in the country. For a country to become a Member State of ESO it has to have a strong, motivated and well-prepared astronomical community. As a country, it should be ready to invest in science and technology and should have both a stable economy and a stable political situation.
