Category Archives: News

We celebrate Heritage Day in Chile

On May 25 and 26, 2024, Heritage Day was celebrated in Chile, which seeks to promote interaction with the diverse cultural expressions and historical resources that exist in the country. Las Campanas Observatory, LCO, was part of this great cultural activity, carrying out two activities in the Metropolitan Region. The first was a discussion about…

Serge Brunier; NASA

Some of the oldest stars were found in our galaxy

MIT researchers, including several undergraduates, have discovered three of the oldest stars in the Universe, those living in our own galactic neighborhood. This research was conducted using data obtained with the Clay telescope, one of the Magellan twins at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Las Campanas Observatory. The team discovered the stars in the Milky…

LCO did outreach activities in Texas to educate about eclipses

Together with Carnegie Science and the Perot Museum, Las Campanas Observatory gave talks and held massive workshops to educate the community about the total solar eclipse visible on April 8, 2024, in addition to teaching about the associated science and the precautions associated with its observation. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon, following its…

LCO celebrates the Chilean Astronomy Day

Last March 23, 2024, close to a thousand people visited the offices of Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in La Serena to celebrate Astronomy Day in Chile. This event was organized by LCO, with the collaboration of the Universidad Central, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMTO), the Fundación Cielos de Chile, the Navegantes Estelares project and NothOptics.…

Carnegie’s jewel in the Southern Hemisphere: LCO

Chile is known worldwide for the quality of its dark skies, which, being located over the Atacama Desert, the most arid non-polar place on the planet, remain clear and stable. For this reason, it is currently an astronomical power due to the fact that nearly 40% of the infrastructure created to study the Universe is…

The Women “Computers” of Mount Wilson Observatory

Carnegie Science’s Mount Wilson Observatory is renowned for groundbreaking discoveries that reshaped our understanding of the cosmos. Yet, amidst the towering telescopes and the celebrated names of male astronomers like George Ellery Hale and Edwin Hubble, there exists a lesser known, but equally important narrative—that of the women of Mount Wilson’s Computing Division, who worked…

New moons of Uranus and Neptune announced

The Solar System has some new lunar members—the first new moon of Uranus discovered in more than 20 years, and likely the smallest, as well as two new moons of Neptune, one of which is the faintest moon ever discovered by ground-based telescopes. The discoveries were announced today by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet…

The “Stellar Navigators” project has been launched

On January 6, 2024, after an intense year of work, the Navegantes Estelares project was launched, which includes a permanent totem with images and astronomical information inside the Monumental Lighthouse of La Serena, located in the Coquimbo Region (Chile), as well as infographics with content about astronomy in Chile, and occasional projections on the facade…

UAI students visited LCO

With the purpose of promoting interest in research, three students from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, UAI, winners as the best projects of the Workshop on Directed Research (TID), visited the Las Campanas Observatory, LCO. Josefina Parada, Edel Fernández and Jorge Petit-Laurent were received by the Director of LCO, Leopoldo Infante, who told them about the history…

LCO was part of Congreso Futuro in the Province of Chañaral

On December 12 and 13, “Congreso Futuro en tu Comuna” was held in the Atacama Region, a scientific-cultural event that brings together people of all ages and whose purpose is to disseminate and teach about science through experiments, exhibitions and lectures. For the first time, Las Campanas Observatory was part of this event, participating together…