Astronomy in Chile


Chile can be considered astronomy's world capital. In 2011, Chile was home to 42% of the world's astronomical infrastructure consisting mostly of telescopes. In 2015 it expected to contain around 70% of the global infrastructure by 2020. In the Atacama desert region of northern Chile, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days a year. These conditions have attracted the world's scientific community to develop in the Atacama desert the most ambitious astronomical projects in the history of mankind.
Chile's diverse and active astronomical community includes Chilean and international professionals and others, such as astronomers, engineers, students, teachers and amateurs.
The first documented testimony of an astronomical measurement done in Chile is the observation of a lunar eclipse by the soldier Pedro Cuadrado Chavino. He used a classic Greek method to obtain the latitude of the city of Valdivia based on the eclipse's measurements. In 1849, during the government of Manuel Bulnes, a scientific mission from the U.S. navy led by James Melville Gilliss arrived in Chile for observing Venus and Mars to calculate the Earth-Sun distance. The Gilliss mission established the first astronomical observatory in the Cerro Santa Lucia. In 1852, the facilities were transferred to Chile and the National Astronomical Observatory was created.
During the second half of the 20th century, observatories from the U.S. and Europe were installed in different locations at the north of the country: La Silla, Cerro Tololo, Las Campanas and later Cerro Paranal, Cerro Pachon and Chajnantor.

Chilean Astronomical Institutions

Professional astronomy

CATA is the largest Chilean project of R&D in astronomy's technologies. It is located in Calán Hill, in Santiago, Chile. This center has the largest number of astronomers in Chile from three universities: Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad de Concepción. CATA develops nine different areas: six focused in scientific research, three focused on technology advances, and one on Education & Outreach.
This Center is mainly dedicated to supernovae research, it gathers astronomers from: Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad Andrés Bello.

Existing facilities

Further information on Extremely large telescope.

Light pollution

Undergraduate programs

Professional astronomers

In Chile

In Chile there are more than 100 astronomers, some are:

Engineers