The energy project that could unseat Chile as the mecca of astronomy

The darkest and most pristine skies of the world, under which the Paranal Observatory chose to establish in 1999, are threatened by the eventual installation in Atacam Chile As a world leader in celestial quality, the representative of the astronomical center, Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo.

“This project will have a very strong impact that is going to get Chile out of number one as the sky,” said astrophysics, a new representative in Chile of the European Observatory Austral (ESO), an organization that owns Paranal telescopes.

The American company AES Corporation project, more than 3,000 hectares and is currently in the environmental evaluation phase, It would affect telescopes not only by light pollution, but by the dust generated during construction and atmospheric turbulence caused by their wind turbineswho plan to locate between 5 and 11 kilometers from Paranal, said of Gregorio-Monsalvo.

Harm the performance of these telescopes, he stressed, will “stop the ability to discover the universe”, which will have consequences in world astronomy, but especially in Chilean.

“Not only are they going to lose the possibility of making science toe, but if the quality of this sky is spoiled, it will not make sense to continue investing here,” he added.

An “impossible coexistence”

AES Andes, Subsidiary of AES Corporation, initiated the environmental processing of this millionaire project for the production of green and ammonia green last December.

After the ESO alert, to which astronomers were added around the world, the Chilean government said they were looking for “solutions” so that both activities could be carried out, but From Gregorio-Monsalvo said that his “coexistence” is “impossible” and proposes to install the project to between 50 and 100 kilometers of his observatories.

“With AES Andes there have been communications, but any collaboration and are absolutely aware of the impact of what they are going to do,” denounced the representative of the European organization.

Although he celebrated the new light norm of Chile, in force he wishes October 2024, he said that he does not contemplate the needs of “totally out of rank” skies such as those of Paranal and that, while waiting for a regulation that protects astronomical spaces, it is necessary ” Define an exclusion zone where these projects cannot reach. ”

In time to save the “promising future” of astronomy

“If these threats are regulated in time, I see a super promising future of astronomy in the country,” said Gregorio-Monsalvo, the first woman representative in Chile of ESO, who still has less than 30 % of women in Your template.

“I think we are at the point of awareness that we cannot continue like this and that our companions deserve the same opportunities as our colleagues, because if they are not going to miss very bright brains,” he said.

According to the astronomer, which has broken numerous glass roofs during the almost 20 years that has been working on ESO, these milestones “generate role models, which is the first step for girls wanting to devote themselves to this.”

“When I was little, all the people who worked in observatories were men,” recalled the representative of the astronomical center, who began to be interested in the universe at age 10, when he was going to spend on weekends away from the light pollution of the light pollution of The city, “where there were many stars and saw all the sky”, a “very inspiring” experience that claims for all the children in the world.