visit paranal observatory chile

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How to tour the paranal observatory in chile for free.

PARANAL IS THE SEAT of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which has the world’s finest optical telescopes in the world’s driest desert (the Atacama) in the north of Chile.

The observatory had a brief moment of mainstream fame in 2008 when James Bond: Quantum of Solace ( partially filmed at the ESO hotel at Paranal) came to the big screen. Here in Chile it was tremendous news, as it is whenever movies, TV shows, or commercials are filmed in Chile. But this one, which involved bringing 300 British crew onsite, focused many people’s attention on a part of Chile few of us will ever visit.

Because you can’t visit Paranal. Or can you?

Paranal is located two hours from the northern Chilean mining city of Antofagasta (Antofa to Chileans), on a paved road, and there is no public transportation to get here, so you’ll have to rent a car or hire private transportation. There are two tours on Saturdays only — at 10am and 2pm — and you have to make reservations—sometimes many months in advance to be assured a place on the tour.

For details on the visit go to the ESO website (in Spanish). The tour takes you onto the platform where the VLT (Very Large Telescope) is located. It includes a visit inside where you can see the four giant “eyes” or mirrors, each measuring more than eight meters across. The VLT is the most advanced telescope in the world.

Security is tight and ID is checked and you have to sign a consent form. Due to the harsh conditions, sunscreen, closed shoes, and UV-rated sunglasses are recommended. Unfortunately, you can’t actually take a nighttime tour of the facility, which is when most of the astronomers (from all over the world — they must reserve time for their research and come up for usually a minimum of several days at a time) are around. You also won’t get to see the starry night through the telescope, access to which is strictly controlled and meted out only to professionals, who themselves must coordinate many months in advance.

Tours are free, but you won’t get to swim in the pool at the semi-underground residencia , nor meet the cast of the 22nd James Bond film. But time your drive back just right, and you can see all the stars the naked eye can absorb.

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Abigail Beall

Behold the awesome beauty of Chile's gigantic telescopes

Crystal-clear skies and perfectly dry air combine to make the Atacama Desert in Chile one of the best spots in the world to peer into the vastness of space. Light and other electromagnetic radiation can reach the ground with little interference from clouds or drops of moisture, creating optimal conditions for observation. For this reason, it's home to some of the most powerful telescopes on Earth.

One of these machines is Paranal, the largest optical-infrared observatory in the Southern Hemisphere in terms of light-collecting area. Operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), it contains the flagship Very Large Telescope (VLT) and two others, the VLT Survey and VISTA.

A fundamental principle when it comes to building telescopes is interferometry, which gives astronomers the ability to link multiple telescopes together, so that when they observe the same object simultaneously, they act as a single device, called an interferometer. The further the telescopes are placed apart, the better the quality of image they produce. This is why telescopes are often situated hundreds of metres apart – another reason why the barren desert is the perfect location for them.

The Paranal Observatory is a lonely place. The closest community consists of fewer than 300 people in a town called Paposo, 38 kilometres away. The observatory rarely attracts visitors without an astronomy degree. Photographer Benedict Redgrove visited the site for WIRED in 2017. This is the story of how observatory operates on a day-to-day basis.

The Yepun Unit telescope: This is the interior of Yepun, one of VLT’s four Unit Telescopes. The white structure in the centre is the cell, which supports the 8.2-metre-wide primary mirror. Attached underneath is SINFONI, an integral field infrared spectrograph that comprises two instruments working together: a spectrograph and an adaptive optics module. It can capture 3D images of any astronomical object it looks at, and has been used in a range of discoveries, from giant gas clouds being ripped apart to the most distant galaxy ever observed.

Auxiliary and unit telescopes: On the left is one of the 1.8-metre-wide VLT Auxiliary telescopes, and three of the four VLT Unit Telescopes. The Antu (“the Sun” in the indigenous Mapuche language) appears in the foreground, followed by Kueyen and Melipal (“the Moon” and “the Southern Cross” respectively). On the right is the Yepun VLT Unit Telescope. Acting together, these four telescopes, and four moveable Auxiliary Telescopes, use interferometry to see 25 times more detail than if they were operating on their own.

The Yepun Unit telescope: Yepun (“Venus” or “Evening Star” in Mapuche) is shown tilted, in preparation for its sunset opening. The black objects at the bottom of the image are laser launch telescopes, which shine lasers at night to create artificial “stars”. These are used as a reference for astronomers to see how much the atmosphere is blurring the images they are collecting, so they can create clearer pictures.

Horsehead Nebula: A composite colour image of the Horsehead Nebula, an interstellar cloud of gas and dust, and its immediate surroundings. It is based on three exposures in the visual part of the spectrum taken using the Kueyen Unit Telescope's FORS2 multi-mode instrument. The Horsehead Nebula was discovered by the Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming in 1888, and can be found just south of the Belt of Orion.

By Mark Harris

By Christopher Solomon

By Julian Chokkattu

By David Robson

Espresso Spectrograph: A member of the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) team during the assembly and integration of the instrument. ESPRESSO is an extremely high-sensitivity spectrograph, designed to detect Earth-sized rocky planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy. It does this by searching for tiny, regular movements in stars caused by a planet orbiting it. These movements cannot be seen, but are presented in the form of changes in the light coming from the star, created by the Doppler effect. ESPRESSO only started working with all four telescopes in February 2018.

Muse: The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is an integral-field spectrograph installed in the Yepun telescope. It allows astronomers to examine the whole of an object in space at once and plots each pixel’s intensity as a measure of a spectrum of colours. MUSE splits what it can see into 1,152 slices, or mini-slits, and measures more than 4,000 colours. MUSE is used to study the early Universe, when galaxies were just starting to form, and to map dark matter in clusters of galaxies.

VLT And Omegacam: This image shows the cell supporting the primary mirror of the 2.6-metre-wide VLT Survey Telescope and the OmegaCAM imager attached underneath. OmegaCAM comprises 32 light sensors known as charge-coupled devices (CCDs). It can observe a one-degree-by-one-degree field of view, with 256 million pixels. The camera has two filters around a spectral line called H-alpha, the exact wavelength of light given off when an electron in a hydrogen atom is excited and then falls back down to its ground state. This means OmegaCAM is ideal for looking for hydrogen, which makes up a lot of the gas in nebulae and stars.

Auxiliary Telescope: A Panaral technician is shown moving one of the four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes along a system of train-track-like rails during a reconfiguration of the VLT’s interferometer. The telescopes can be relocated to 30 stations across the platform of the VLT. The telescopes are generally used separately, but they can be moved to a special configuration where all four work together to achieve a much more detailed picture of the Universe – with a resolution sharp enough to be able to see an astronaut on the Moon from Earth.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

Mark Harris

David Robson

Enzo Palombo

Matt Reynolds

Steve Nadis

Sachi Mulkey

Emily Mullin

© Framalicious/Shutterstock

Cerro Paranal Observatory

Norte Grande

In the world of high-powered telescopes, where rival institutes jostle to claim the 'biggest,' 'most powerful' or 'most technologically advanced' specimens, Paranal is right up there with the big boys. This groundbreaking observatory has a Very Large Telescope (VLT) consisting of an array of four 8.2m telescopes – for a time at least, the most powerful optical array in the world.

The Cerro Paranal Observatory is run by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and is so futuristic-looking that portions of the James Bond flick Quantum of Solace were filmed here. There's a hotel for scientists on-site, which looks like it is built underground; you'll enter the foliage-filled lobby as part of the tour. The observatory complex is situated on Cerro Paranal at 2664m above sea level, 120km south of Antofagasta; a lateral leaves the Panamericana just north of the Mano del Desierto (assuming you're heading south). The drive from Antofagasta takes about two hours.

The fascinating free visits are allowed on Saturdays, at 10am and 2pm. You must show up half an hour early; tours last two hours. You'll need to schedule months in advance (reservations are only accepted through the website), and you'll also need your own vehicle to get there. Check the observatory's website for details and updates.

off Ruta 710

Get In Touch

9-9839-5312

https://​www​.eso​.org​/

Paranal Observatory

Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory. It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at 2,635 m altitude, 120 km south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, it is the largest optical-infrared observatory in the Southern Hemisphere; worldwide, it is second to the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii. The Very Large Telescope, the largest telescope on Paranal, is composed of four separate 8.2 m telescopes. In addition, the four main telescopes can be used simultaneously for extra light gathering capacity, and for interferometry. Four auxiliary telescopes of 1.8 m each are also part of the VLTI to make it available when the main telescopes are being used for other projects.

More information and contact

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranal_Observatory

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Coordinates -24°37'37.999" N -70°24'16.999" E

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Astronomical Tour in Paranal Observatory 4 hours

• Code MAZ002
• Physical Very low
• Astronomical Tour in Paranal Observatory: 4 hours

This Tour is no longer available

Unfortunately we no longer offer this Tour, but we haven't removed the information so you can have more ideas for your trip. If you want something similar contact us

The Atacama Desert has the advantage of clear skies during most of the year. Come to the Paranal Observatory, a modern center that offers astronomical tours to know the universe.

• Departure: 07:30
• Duration: 4 hours

What you will visit:

• 1 Antofagasta

We leave from your hotel at approximately 7:30 am in the direction of the Paranal Observatory. The visit will be guided by professional staff provided by the Observatory.

The first access is the Visitor Center: Here there is an explanatory video of the observatory and its history.

Then we climb to the top of Cerro Paranal where there are the giant telescopes of the VLT of 8.2 meters in diameter. In this place you can see the Auxiliary Telescopes of 1.8 meters in diameter, and the rails that allow moving these telescopes along the platform.

After touring the platform, visitors will have the opportunity to enter the giant telescopes of Paranal. Inside you can see the mirrors 8.2 meters in diameter that allow you to observe the distant universe. Flash photography and video footage are allowed.

Then we visit the Control Room where the Astronomers work during the night. All observations and control of the telescopes are made from this place through computers.

Finally you enter the Hall of the hotel to have a partial view of the facilities.

14.00: We will be back at your hotel.

• Transport from the hotel or hostel.
• Everything that was not mentioned in the Itinerary.

Recommendations

Sunscreen, slippers, sun hat, camera and jacket.

Departures only on Saturdays

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Chile’s observatories: the world’s eyes to the universe, ajustes de accesibilidad, maximizar tamaño de fuente, minimizar tamaño de fuente, guía de lectura, agrandar cursor, resaltar objetos.

Chile is known as the astronomy capital of the world, as more than half of the planet’s astronomical capacity is concentrated here. Due to the incredible telescopes that are located in the north of Chile, it is often said that our country is the world’s eyes to the Universe, which renowned researchers are using to observe and answer the questions of the future. Here, we tell you about 10 telescopes in Chile that will amaze you: 

ALMA The ALMA observatory opened its doors to the world’s astronomers in October, 2011. That same month, the first image captured with the complex’s telescopes was revealed, even though the observatory was still under construction. The fact is that ALMA is not just any old telescope, but the largest astronomical project in the world. 

With 66 antennae designed to observe millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, ALMA has greater observational precision than any of the world’s other observatories. The images from each antenna are combined with those of other devices, which provides greater resolution and unique possibilities for observing astronomical phenomena hundreds of light years away. Its name is really an acronym for the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array. Located in the middle of the Atacama Desert on the Chajnantor Plain, more than 5,000 meters above sea level, the observatory is part of a project carried out through the collaboration of Europe, North America, East Asia and Chile. 

EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE The European Southern Observatory’s ( ESO ) Extremely Large Telescope, or ELT , will be the world’s largest visible-light and infrared telescope – the world’s largest eye for looking at the sky. It is being built in the Antofagasta Region, at the top of Cerro Armazones. It should come into operation in late 2027, and will allow us to observe what has not yet been explored by humanity in space research. Heavy civil construction of the ELT has already progressed by 40%. It is a huge telescope in the optical-infrared spectrum, whose main 40-meter mirror will be made up of 798 segments in a hexagonal honeycomb-like shape. It will allow direct observation of planets like our own orbiting distant stars, as well as other wonders yet to be imagined. In addition to its unprecedented size, the ELT will be equipped with a line of state-of-the-art instruments designed to cover a wide range of scientific possibilities. The great leap forward that the ELT will provide may lead to a paradigm shift in our perception of the universe, like Galileo’s telescope did 400 years ago. 

PARANAL The Paranal Observatory is an optical astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory ( ESO ), located in the municipality of Taltal, on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert. It is made up of four telescopes that connect using interferometry. It has been fundamental to investigating the super massive black hole at the center of our galaxy, for which Reinhard Genzel won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Today, it houses the most precise ground-based instrument for exploring and studying extrasolar planets.  

LAS CAMPANAS The Las Campanas Observatory is part of the Carnegie Observatories, whose astronomers wanted for a long time to install an observation station in the southern hemisphere that would give them access to the Magellanic Clouds and the center of the Milky Way. That was how this observatory located high in the mountains of the Atacama Desert was established in 1969. It became home to the 1-meter and 2.5-meter reflecting telescopes that came into operation in 1971 and 1977, respectively. The most recent additions have been the twin Magellan telescopes, 6.5-meter reflecting telescopes that are prominent members of what was the last generation of giant telescopes. The Magellan twins have been part of the experiment that has had the greatest impact on modern astronomy since its fifth stage, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This survey has laid the foundations for big data in astronomy, and has been the forerunner for instruments such as the Vera Rubin Observatory, soon to be inaugurated in the Coquimbo Region. 

GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE The Giant Magellan Telescope or GMT is the most advanced ground-based telescope that modern engineering has created. It has 19 million times the light-gathering power of the human eye, and will produce images sharp enough to distinguish the details of a coin located nearly 160 kilometers away. 

It is currently under construction in the mountains of Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the best places on the planet to explore space. It is the work of an international consortium of world-leading universities and research institutions. It was designed to expand the limits of human knowledge and discover the unknown. With unrivalled image quality and seven of the world’s largest mirrors, it will allow us to explore the universe like never before, find planets similar to Earth, study their atmospheres and look for signs of life. We will be able to use it to investigate the cosmic origins of chemical elements, uncover the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and go back in cosmic time to explore the formation of the first stars, galaxies and black holes. 

LA SILLA The La Silla Observatory remains at the forefront of astronomy with nearly 300 annual citations attributable to its work. La Silla has provided an enormous number of scientific discoveries, and is the site of several firsts such as the HARPS spectrograph, the leading searcher of low-mass extrasolar planets. It detected the system around Gliese 581, containing what could be the first known rocky planet in a habitable zone outside the Solar System. Many telescopes at La Silla played a crucial role in linking gamma-ray bursts – the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang – with the explosions of massive stars. It is located in the southern part of the Atacama Desert at an altitude of 2,400 meters, and is made up of a network of 18 telescopes and instruments such as an extrasolar planet finder. It also housed the first ESO telescope in Chile. 

CERRO TOLOLO The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory is one of the longest-operating telescope complexes in Chile, and for decades has been recognized as one of the most important in the southern hemisphere. Located 2,200 meters above sea level on the hill that bears its name, this observatory that crowns the Elqui Valley was the first to be integrated into the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), thus becoming the first international astronomical scientific project developed in the country. It contains the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a high-performance wide-field CCD camera built to carry out the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a scientific project led by the US Department of Energy. The instruments and facilities of this observatory are operated and shared by astronomers from both hemispheres. Every year, more than 100 visiting scientists and students from more than 50 institutions travel to Cerro Tololo to carry out research. 

GEMINI SUR The Gemini Observatory is actually two twin 8.1-meter optical and infrared telescopes located in two of the best places on the planet for astronomical observation. Alongside its sister telescope located on Mauna Kea Island, Hawai’i, Gemini Sur is located at 2,700 meters above sea level, taking advantage of the privileged conditions that the Coquimbo Region possesses for observing the southern hemisphere skies. From its complete automation to its optimization for observing through infrared images and adaptive optics, this observatory has characteristics that make it unique among its kind. It was the first global astronomical mega-project, opening the doors to a new stage of global astronomy in the nineties. By incorporating technologies such as laser guide star adaptive optics and multi-object spectroscopy, astronomers in the Gemini association explore the Universe in unprecedented depth and detail. 

VERA C. RUBIN The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is located 100 kilometers from La Serena on Cerro Pachón. It is a modern observatory that will capture complete images of the sky every three nights, and thus carry out a pioneering synoptic survey that will contribute to the exploration of the Universe. It will have the world’s largest camera, a 3,200-megapixel digital device that will allow the collection of unprecedented volumes of information in astronomical research, capturing the entire visible sky. Every night, about 10 million objects will be observed, and reflected in the more than 20 terabytes of content that will be generated. The pictures that it will take will also be in 3D, allowing a unique view of the Universe. The initial plan is for the observatory to carry out an optical survey for 10 years from its inauguration, which will have four main areas: the nature of dark matter and understanding dark energy; cataloging the Solar System; exploring the changing sky; and Milky Way structure and formation. It is unique in having committed to making public all the information it obtains. 

CERRO CALÁN With more than 150 years of operation, the National Astronomical Observatory or Cerro Calán Observatory is one of our country’s oldest astronomical observation centers. Managed by the Department of Astronomy at the Universidad de Chile, it is located only 867 meters above sea level. The observatory is used for teaching as well as research. Weekly cycles of night-time visits are also made for the general public, with the aim of disseminating astronomy and science among the Chilean population.

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Scientific Observatories Chile

Apex observatory.

The APEX Observatory is located on the Chajnantor plateau which is over 5100 mts above sea level, in San Pedro de Atacama, the Center has an astronomical antenna with a 12-meter diameter. It is considered by experts as one of the best places for radioastronomical practice, in the dry Atacameño desert in northern Chile.

APEX, as known in English (Atacama Pathfinder Experiment) is operated in Chile by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It also counts with the support of the German Max Planck Institute and the Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden.

Paranal Observatory

The Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in the commune of Taltal, the Second Region of Antofagasta, Chile. This astronomical center is founded on the Cerro Paranal 2635.43 meters above sea level, in the Cordillera de la Costa, 130 kms. south of Antofagasta and 12 kms. from the coast. Symbolically inaugurated in 1996, by the then President of the Republic of Chile, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. The VLT project of Cerro Paranal has an investment of about U.S.$200,000,000.

Like La Silla Observatory, this is operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and in May 1998, the ESO showed the first images taken at the center. It includes the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which has four telescopes of 8.2 mts. These four main telescopes can combine their light to use a fifth instrument, the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). These telescopes are called: Antu, Kueyen, and Melipal Yepun meaning Sun, Moon, Southern Cross and Venus(or evening star),respectively. The names come from the Mapuche language. It also has four Auxiliary Telescopes (AT) of 1.8 mts. that can be added to the VLTI in case the main telescopes are being used in other projects. It also has the VLT Survey Telescope of 2.5 mts and the VISTA Telescope Survey of 4 mts, with wide vision fields to examine uniformly extense areas of the sky.

Cerro Armazones Observatory

Cerro Armazones Observatory is a project of the Institute of Astronomy of the Universidad Católica del Norte and the Institute of Astronomy, University of Bochum, including the collaboration of important companies and institutions, such as ESO, Inacesa, Soimi and CONICYT.

The Observatory Cerro Armazones (OCA) was inaugurated on December 2, 1995, it currently has three telescopes, 1.5 mt, 84 cm and 41 cm in diameter.

Las Campanas Observatory

Las Campanas observatory is located a few kilometers further north of La Silla, on the borders of the Third and Fourth Region. The access road is the same as our previous observatory, that is Panamericana Norte km. 595. On the way, there is a parralel detour which leads to Las Campanas Observatory. This facility is operated by Carnigie Institution of Washington, and its location is 2,500 meters above sea level. Inside, there are 5 optical telescopes and 1 solar telescope.

La Silla Observatory

La Silla Observatory is located in the commune of La Higuera in the province of Elqui, Coquimbo Region, 156 kms. north of La Serena. The access road to the observatory is at kilometer 595 of the Panamericana Norte and ascends over 2400 meters above sea level in an area free of light pollution. Cerro La Silla is distinguished by presenting totally clear skies, at least 300 days a year, almost the entire year.

La Silla Observatory has 14 optical telescopes with mirrors with a diameter up to 3.6 meters and a radiotelescope of 15 meters, which transforms it into one of the largest and most modern centers of astronomical observation in the world.

Tololo Observatory

Tololo Observatory is perhaps the most famous observatory located in Chile. It is situated 87 kms. east of La Serena, near the town of Vicuña. Installed over 2200 meters above sea level, it was opened in 1967 and is operated by AURA. It has 8 telescopes and a radio telescope. The size of its mirrors varies from 61 cms. to 4.5 mts. Approximately 175 people work in this observatory. There is a public telephone and, on the way to the units, there are radio stations for communication in case of an emergency. It is also possible to get drinking water, first aid, ambulance, paramedics and security experts.

Gemini Observatory

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Visits to ESO Sites

This page is available in Spanish on our Chilean web site .

Visits to the Facilities in Chile

ESO is happy to welcome tourists, students, journalists and TV crews at its La Silla, Paranal and ALMA sites in Chile. The capacity of the facilities is limited, therefore visits are organized in such a way that they do not disturb the work at the observatories.

Please note that all media visits require authorization in advance by the ESO Department of Communication. You can find guidelines for media visits here .

Public Visits to Paranal Observatory

Tourist and student visits to Paranal Observatory are scheduled every Saturday at 10:00 or 14:00 . Prior registration is always necessary. Please check the  Weekend Visits to Paranal page for further information and the registration form.

Public Visits to La Silla Observatory

La Silla Observatory is open to the public:

• Between September and March, every Saturday at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
• Between April and August: Saturdays at 10:00 AM and Sundays at 10:00 AM.

Prior registration is required for all visits. You can find all the information regarding public visits to the La Silla Observatory and the registration form here .

Public Visits to the ALMA OSF

ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF) are scheduled every Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 to 13:00 . Prior registration is necessary. Please check the Weekend Visits to ALMA page for further information and the registration form.--> For safety reasons, the Array Operations Site (AOS) on Chajnantor plateau (where antennas are located) is not open to visitors.

Public Visits to ESO Vitacura Offices in Santiago

Unfortunately, no public visits to ESO  Vitacura Offices are currently possible. Media representatives should contact the ESO Department of Communication  in advance to obtain an appointment.

Public Visits to ELT/Cerro Armazones

Unfortunately, no public visits to  ELT/Cerro Armazones  are currently possible. Media representatives should contact the  ESO Department of Communication  in advance to obtain an appointment.

Visits to ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany

Public visits to ESO  Headquarters in Garching  are possible. Our ESO Supernova is open Wed-Sun. Media representatives should contact the ESO Department of Communication  in advance to obtain an appointment.

By continuing to use this website, you are giving consent to our use of cookies. For more information on how ESO uses data and how you can disable cookies, please view our privacy policy .

SPECULOOS Southern Observatory

The search for habitable planets eclipsing ultra-cool stars — finding earth-like planets around tiny, dim stars.

The brilliant luminosity of most stars makes it extremely difficult to spot Earth-sized planets in orbit around them. Smaller, dimmer stars, however, can offer a more accessible target for planet-hunting astronomers and permit the detailed characterisation of any planets found.

The Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars (SPECULOOS, its name inspired by the sweet treat ) is a project sited at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama desert (there is a sister project in the northern hemisphere). Its mission is to detect terrestrial exoplanets around nearby ultracool stars — of spectral type M7 and later — and brown dwarfs . The facility at Paranal, called the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory, comprises four robotic telescopes of Ritchey-Chrétien design, each with a one metre primary mirror and cameras that are highly sensitive in the near-infrared. While this radiation is slightly beyond what human eyes can detect, it is the primary emission from ultracool stars and brown dwarfs. The telescopes are named after four of Jupiter’s moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

The forerunners to SPECULOOS are the two TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescopes (TRAPPIST) — one at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile and another at Oukaïmden Observatory in Morocco. SPECULOOS will survey ten times as many red dwarfs as TRAPPIST does, and it it is expected to discover at least a dozen systems similar to TRAPPIST-1, which was recently shown to contain at least seven Earth-sized worlds, the most discovered in any system at the time of writing.

SPECULOOS aims to find the most suitable terrestrial planets for detailed atmospheric characterisation — including the potential detection of biosignatures — by future giant observatories, such as ESO’s 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope and the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope .

SPECULOOS is a project led by the University of Liège, Belgium (project leader: Michaël Gillon) and carried out in partnership with the University of Cambridge, UK the University of Birmingham, UK the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US the University of Bern, Switzerland, the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics, Spain and the European Southern Observatory.

Science goals

The mission for SPECULOOS is to detect terrestrial planets as they transit across small, cool stars in the solar neighbourhood, leading to a tiny, regular dimming in the star’s brightness. Exoplanets discovered by this method can be studied in great detail. This includes making precise measurements of their orbital parameters, mass and radius, and the analysis of their possible atmospheres.

While only large exoplanets can currently be studied in detail, powerful future telescopes will have the capability to perform detailed studies of Earth-like exoplanets around small, dim nearby stars. Theory predicts that these ultracool stars should host a large population of close-by, potentially habitable exoplanets. SPECULOOS is therefore designed to detect such planets orbiting in the habitable zone around the nearest 1000 ultracool stars and brown dwarfs, and to make it possible to explore the diversity of atmospheres and climates on these exoplanets and search for traces of biological activity.

More about SPECULOOS

• Read more about this telescope on the SPECULOOS website

Home of the world's most powerful telescopes joins the fight against light pollution

Some of Chile's skies are among the darkest on our planet, attracting some of the largest observatories in the world.

New standards in the fight against light pollution are helping bring darker skies to Chile — not only will this protect  our view of the stars, but also human health and biodiversity.

Chile is an attractive location for astronomers because its skies are great for stargazing, particularly in the Atacama Desert where tall peaks, a stable atmosphere and over 300 clear nights per year on average provide excellent observing conditions. As such, Chile is home to a large number of the world’s most powerful optical telescopes. The European Southern Observatory is based there, with observatories at La Silla, Cerro Paranal (home to the Very Large Telescope ) and Cerro Armazones, where the huge 39-meter Extremely Large Telescope is presently under construction. Plus, the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab also has the 8-meter Gemini South Telescope, the 4.1-meter SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) telescope and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, while the 25.4-meter aperture Giant Magellan Telescope is being built at the Las Campanas Observatory. 

The Chilean regions of Antofagasta, Atacama and Coquimbo, which play host to these observatories, have thus had special lighting regulations for years to protect their dark-sky status for astronomers. Now, a New National Lighting Standard established by the Chilean Ministry of the Environment is being rolled out across the rest of Chile to emulate the dark-sky success of these science locations.

Related: The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it

However, the new lighting standards are not just about preserving the night sky for astronomy . Studies in many countries have shown that light pollution has a detrimental effect on both human health and wildlife.

"There is increasing scientific evidence of the effects of light pollution exposure on people," Daniela González, the executive director of the non-profit Fundación Cielos de Chile that works to protect the dark sky, said in a statement. "Numerous investigations demonstrate its incidence in pathologies such as obesity, depression, as well as breast cancer and prostate cancer."

The new standards call for the improvement of outdoor lighting, such as street-lamps and floodlights, by moving away from intense blue light to softer amber hues. Illuminated advertising must also remain switched off between midnight and 7am per the ruling — imagine shutting down all advertising in New York City's Time Square or London's Piccadilly Circus for seven hours every day. 

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"By establishing intensity, color temperature and time limits, the New National Lighting Standard will allow a rational, efficient and sustainable use of artificial lighting, making the protection of people and the environment compatible with the good use of light," said González.

For the first time in Chile, biodiversity has also been officially recognized as under threat from light pollution; wildlife endangered by artificial light will get extra protection.

For example, insect pollinators, which play a vital role in maintaining crops, are often active at night while navigating by moonlight or bright starlight. Artificial light can confuse them, and  has actually played a part in their decline.

Similarly, a seabird native to the coasts of Chile, Ecuador and Peru called the Markham storm petrel has become endangered as a consequence of light pollution as well. The storm petrels have evolved to use the light of the moon and stars to guide them on flights from their nests to the desert where they breed. Urban lighting disorientates them. They often confuse it for the light of the stars and food sources, meaning many of them never even make it to the place they're headed: The Atacama Desert.

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"Various research evidence that light pollution reduces biodiversity because it alters the feeding, reproduction and migration patterns of some species," said González. "This New National Lighting Standard seeks to reverse these negative impacts in those places that are strategic for conservation efforts."

And, of course, the new regulations also protect the dark sky sanctuary that is home to the many observatories in Chile. In a statement earlier this year, Guillermo Blanc, the president of Fundación Cielos de Chile and an associate director at Carnegie Observatories and Las Campanas, spoke of the threat to astronomy in Chile from light pollution.

"The Atacama Desert has always been an extremely dark place, which has unique conditions for astronomical observations, but the advance of this pollution, at the rapid and accelerated rate we are currently seeing, puts at risk the viability of the operation of astronomical observatories in the next 30 years," he said. "We risk losing the best, if not the only, place from which many observations can be made to understand and learn about the universe ."

It is therefore particularly fitting that astronomy has been able to influence how people use lighting more responsibly in the rest of Chile, and that astronomy’s standards for light pollution are now becoming the country’s standards.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Keith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. He's the author of "The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020) and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.

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