The Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (PESSTO; PI; S. J. Smartt), is one of the few Public Spectroscopic Surveys currently running at ESO. The program started in 2012 (for a total of 5 years), and has recently been extended by two additional years. The updated program, that will expire on spring 2019, is called extended-Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects (ePESSTO). A further extension (known as ePESSTO+; PI: C. Inserra) has then been later approved by ESO, and will be fully uperative operative until April 2027.

The survey is managing about 90 nights/year at the New Technology Telescope of ESO - La Silla to classify almost 5000 transients over its entire lifetime, and to monitor in detail about over 1000 transients selected among those matching the original PESSTO target selection criteria. Appealing targets for ePESSTO+ are: unusual transient, nearby supernovae suitable for detailed progenitor studies, normal supernovae in unusual environments (low-metallicity galaxies, remote locations in giant galaxies, interacting galaxy systems, dusty environments).

The PESSTO data releases (DR1,DR2,DR3) are available from the ESO archive search and retrieve interface. Additional information can be found on the ePESSTO+ Wiki pages.

Science with PESSTO/ePESSTO/ePESSTO+
To study in detail interesting new transients, the almost 200 scientists that joined PESSTO formed numerous science teams, each of them with specific science focus. In particular, our team is leading the "Interacting Supernovae (SNe IIn/Ibn/Icn)" (PI: L. Tartaglia) and the "Gap Transients (LRNe, ILRTs, LBVs)" (PI: A. Reguitti) topics.