The School Astronomy Congress is an activity that was born in 2013 and is currently led by the TITANs Millennium Nucleus, which belongs to ANID. Each year a group of students and their guiding teacher are awarded for developing an original scientific research and presenting it in front of a committee. As part of the congress award, the 2023 winners, Martina Muñoz and Paola Engelberger, visited the Las Campanas Observatory, LCO, together with their guiding professor, Ariel Araneda.
The students from the Colegio Instituto de Humanidades de Concepción (Bío Bío Region) were awarded for their project “Detection and study of subatomic particles of cosmic origin through the construction of a fog chamber model”. This project, the girls explained, visualizes particles of ionizing radiation but has been modified to be used in the classroom.
During their visit to LCO, the young women toured the facilities and talked with members of the scientific and technical staff, in addition to participating in a night of observation at the du Pont telescope.
For Martina Muñoz, the visit to LCO was a great experience, since all the staff was available to answer her questions. Paola Engelberger, who also highlighted that the visit was personalized, said the same thing.
In addition, due to the existing gender gap in STEAM careers, both highlighted having been received by female astronomers during the visit, such as Nidia Morrell, Resident Astronomer; Daniela Fernández, telescope operator; and Carol Rojas, in charge of Communications.
The School Astronomy Congress is an initiative organized by the TITANS Millennium Nucleus, the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies CATA, the Department of Astronomy of the Universidad de Concepción (UdeC) and the Institute of Physics and Astronomy of the Universidad de Valparaíso (UV).