On the paranal mountain in northern Chile, a huge industrial project endangers the darkest place on earth, which is so important to the astronomers and on which the largest astronomical observatories in the world are located.
Switch off the light on earth to see everyone in the sky better. In search of more and more darkness, astronomers are struggling to keep them today. But one of her most valuable playgrounds, the mountain paranal in the middle of the desert in northern Chile, could be in danger An article from the conversation.
In December 2024, the announcement by aes Andes came: a gigantic construction project for a large industrial location called Inna. The project costs more than $ 10 billion and comprises 3,000 hectares of land with the establishment of a port. The aim is to start mass production of hydrogen and ammonia for export. But what worries the astronomers even more is its location: between 5 and 12 kilometers from the purest sky in the world.
A view like no other
It is not for nothing that this place is dipped in the dark. The mountain paranal is located in the middle of the Atacama desert (one of the hottest in the world), protected by the huge Andes, with a view of the clouds at a height of 2,600 m. Above all: 120 kilometers from the first city. Ideal conditions for the most demanding astronomical observation devices such as the very large Telescope (VLT) and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) to see bigger and bigger.
And it works, because thanks to these machines of impressive complexity, we were able to observe the first picture of an exoplanet in 2004. The VLT also received the honor of two Nobel prices, in 2011 to discover the acceleration of the exoplanet expansion of the universe and for research on the super massive black holes in our Milky Way in 2020.
There are so many elements that make the paranal a unique place in the world and are protected by numerous restrictions to limit light pollution as far as possible. It is therefore difficult for scientists to understand such a turn.
An astronomical loss of horizon
According to experts, a project like Inna, which is currently in the environmental examination process The conversation Light pollution by two or three, causing the Chilean sky to lose its status as the “purest sky in the world”. Many sky objects would also no longer be visible from the surface of the earth, such as galaxies.
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This would finally endanger many scientific projects planned in this area in the coming years, for example new telescopes, to see further and more. In accordance with their struggle for decarbonizing society, space scientists therefore call for the preservation of this starry sky, which is unique in the world.