Since 2014, when autumn begins in the southern hemisphere, Astronomy Day is celebrated in Chile to celebrate the equinox. The event is promoted by the Planetarium Foundation of the University of Santiago de Chile, the Chilean Astronomy Society (SOCHIAS) and the Public Science Program of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation. This year…
The carbon footprint of astronomical research facilities has become a critical issue in recent years. Its measurement, in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, CO2e, serves to understand the behavior of these organizations and their individuals and, in this way, efficiently manage resources. The carbon footprint of astronomical operations, in general, is dominated by the gases…
eROSITA telescope finds an X-ray bright, optically faint quasar accreting material at an extremely high rate only about 800 million years after the big bang. The latter, confirmed through observations with the Magellan telescopes of the Las Campanas Observatory. Supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies can be detected out to great distances –…
Short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the most powerful and luminous cosmic explosions since the Big Bang. Despite this, only a few of these short flashes of radiation are detected by Earth-orbiting satellites each year. Now, in a pair of new papers, astronomers have published the largest study to date of the environments and…
“Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) is the world’s largest conference on astronomy communication and its ninth version was held September 12-16, 2022 at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) of the Carnegie Institution for Science participated in it, presenting the work in inclusive astronomy that has been developed in the…
To celebrate the month of science in Chile, during the first week of October 2022 the Mobile Laboratory “Conciencia astronomía” operated by the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO), in alliance with the EcoScience Foundation and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMTO), visited the sector of Tierras Blancas (Coquimbo Region) and the town of Puchuncaví (Valparaíso Region), to…
On September 28, members of the U.S. federal agency National Science Foundation (NSF) visited Las Campanas Observatory of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the site where the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMTO) is being built. The visit was led by David Osip, Deputy Director of LCO; Oscar Contreras, GMTO’s legal representative in Chile and Vice…
The most comprehensive research of its kind – in the near or local universe – has been released by the international scientific team of the BASS Survey project, after more than 15 years of extensive research including an outstanding participation of astronomers from the Centro de Astrofísica y Tecnologías Afines (CATA) from Chile. Some of…
The first of six projects led by Carnegie-affiliated astronomers will, for the next three days, use the James Webb Space Telescope to make some of the most-accurate measurements ever taken of the chemistry of very early galaxies—studying light that traveled 10 billion years to reach us. Carnegie’s Gwen Rudie and Allison Strom, formerly a Carnegie-Princeton…
Between July 13 and 15, 2022, the second version of the National Astronomy Education Congress was held by the worldwide network of National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAEC) in Chile and addressed the main challenges of strengthening astronomy education in the country. The Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) was part of this event, giving workshops on the…
