Scathing Report Claims Energy Megaproject Will Ruin ‘Best Place on Earth for Astronomy’

A new report issued by the Southern European Observatory says that the planned huge industrial project will significantly illuminate the sky in the Chilean desert, which exposes some of the best conditions in the world to the Earth’s astronomy.

The project will specifically affect the Observatory of Great Madness, which hosts the very large ESO telescope (VLT) and the Cherenkov (CTAO-South). The report stresses that light pollution in the concerned telescopes will increase by at least 35 % and more than 50 %, which hinders the capabilities of scientists from monitoring and understanding the universe. The technical summary of the ’s report can be read here.

CTAO-South is currently being constructed, as well as the large ESO (ET), which is the VLT caliph, whose location was selected about 15 miles (25 km) from Barranal 15 years ago.

The proposed industrial complex is called Inna, short for Proycto Integrado de Infrastructure Energética Para la generación de hidrógeno y amoníaco verde.

Light pollution represents a major threat to earthly posts-not only amateur astronomers in their posterior technicians, but also large, invested, invested and multinational seats. In 2023, Night Globe’s data at Night Project revealed that the Night Sky brighter every year from 2011 to 2022, on average, indicating that “the site that contains 250 visible stars believes that this number is less than 100 visible stars during the same period,” according to the subsidiary study published in science.

“With a brighter sky, we strongly reduce our ability to discover land -like outdoor planets, monitor lethal galaxies, and even monitor asteroids that may cause damage to our planet,” Easiam de Gregorio Mondeslvo, Aisu in Chile, said in a statement to the observatory. “We build the largest and strongest telescopes, in the best place on Earth for astronomy, to enable astronomers all over the world to see unparalleled before.

The graph below shows how the Dark Paranal sky is in relation to the monitoring conditions of other famous posts.

According to the report, the INNA project can affect the night sky with artificial light pollution, increased earthquakes due to the installation of wind turbines, increased atmospheric disorders due to the operation of the wind turbines themselves, and visual surface pollution – including telescope mirrors and lenses – with dust.

“1 % artificial light pollution means that over every 100 photon of the brightness of the natural sky, there are 1 on average that comes from light pollution, which cannot be distinguished by another photon coming from a faded object on the edge of the universe as discovered by the strongest telescope that was ever built – such as the report.” “Every photon is calculated in astronomical research.”

The report concluded that “detailed analyzes … It turned out that the INNA project that was implemented at the location currently will be greatly affecting and negatively affecting all ESO telescopes on the site, in an unbearable manner due to proximity,”. He stated that the boundaries of the ground vibration on the VLT and ELT intervention scale are likely to exceed the project, and that wind turbines will produce a similar disorder in the air to wind farms, which prevents the observatory’s ability to see the sky.

“In combined, these disturbances are seriously threatened with the current and long -term feasibility of Barbanal as a global leader in astronomy, causing the loss of major discoveries about the universe and providing Chile’s strategic advantage in this field,” added De Gregorio Monelsvo. “The only way to save the virgin Paranal sky and protect astronomy to future generations is to transfer the Inna complex.”

The report assumed a clear sky, although Martin Obi, an expert in the brightness of the sky, said that the pollution of light from an entity like INNA will exacerbate due to the lid of the tsrus cloud, which is thin enough to not disrupt regular astronomical notes, but reflects artificial light, which exacerbates the problem.

The report concluded that “if the INNA project is adopted, the value of installed or planned telescopes by ESO will decrease significantly.” “These losses are numerous, not refundable around the world.”

To be clear, the ESO authorities are not in the weapon around the Inna project itself. Near is the problem.

“You should not have to make a choice between hosting the most powerful astronomical betting and developing green energy projects,” said the director general of the Observatory as Zavier Parkons, in the same version. “They both are announced by the country by the country and are fully compatible – if the various facilities are present at sufficient distances from each other.”

A full technical report will be presented on the possible effects of Inna on Paranal to the authorities this month, and it will be publicly published before April 3. We hope that the parties will be able to reach a useful decision for both parties – not to put the aspirations of clean energy projects in contradiction to astronomical notes.