Senate Future Challenges Committee and Chilean Minister of Science Visit Paranal

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August 9, 2024

August 8th and 9th Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee From the Chilean Senate with Aysen Echeverri, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chilevisited the Paranal Observatory and the construction site. ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) On Cerro Armazones.

The Committee and the Minister were received by Javier Barcones, Director General of ESO, as well as Luis Chavarria and Barbara Núñez, ESO Representative in Chile and ESO Regional Affairs Officer, respectively. The Senate Committee is composed of Senators Juan Antonio Coloma, Francisco Chahuán, Luciano Cruz Coc, Alfonso de Oreste and Jimena Rincón.

“This place, where ESO has developed an astronomical park with the VLT in Paranal and with the ELT, should become an astronomical haven, where the quality of the sky is not polluted by other factors. The visit also provided an opportunity to learn in depth about the value of the activities carried out by the Environment Society of Oman. For me, it is an honor to accompany the Minister of Science and the Senators in the Future Committee“The ESO Director General, Xavier Barcons, said after the visit.

“(…) The meeting where the largest telescope in the world is being built is a tremendous opportunity for the Commission for the Future… From a public policy point of view, it is essential to take advantage of all the potential expected of our country, to maintain this leadership role that has to do with public policy… to deal with how to avoid the glare that sometimes occurs in cities and that hinders the work of telescopes and thus the entire virtuous circle that generatesSenator Coloma, Chairman of the Chilean Senate’s Future Challenges Committee, said.

“Today, being leaders in astronomy also allows us to project that leadership into other disciplines and understand how to do it, how countries collaborate on this kind of infrastructure, and how we can generate jobs and investment from what is being done. And that’s what we’ve seen over these two days, where we were with the Future Challenges Authority, getting to know and talking to the people here, understanding what’s going on in these observatories.“Minister Etcheverri said during the visit.

During the visit, the Chilean authorities were able to see the work and progress made on the construction of the massive additional building and ESO ELT dome. In addition, they learned how the international and Chilean scientific communities will be able to use the world’s largest ground-based optical telescope.

The Committee met at the Paranal Observatory, with Minister Etcheverry as guest. At the event, the Committee and the Chilean Ministerial Committee discussed how to complement the different scientific opportunities and plans within a country-level strategy.

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Francisco Rodriguez I.
ESO Media Relations Officer
Phone: +56 2 2463 3151
Email: [email protected]