The Atacama Desert in Chile is home to some of the darkest, clearest skies on Earth.. As a result, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located there.. It is located on the top of the Cerro Paranal mountain, and with its help, astronomers have made many important discoveries about the Universe. Now normal space observations are threatened by a new industrial project, which will be located just a few kilometers away, writes IFLScience.

U Focus. Technologies has its own Telegram channel. Subscribe so you don't miss the latest and most exciting news from the world of science!

Recently, astronomers have been faced with problems in observing space due to Starlink satellites and other similar constellations of satellites.. They prevent a ground-based telescope from observing the Universe due to their great ability to reflect sunlight. Now a new industrial megaproject threatens the Paranal Observatory, run by the European Southern Observatory..

AES Andes, a subsidiary of US energy conglomerate AES Corporation, plans to build hydrogen and ammonia plants, an industrial port and thousands of generators on an area of \u200b\u200b3,000 hectares near the observatory..

The European Southern Observatory has issued a statement calling on the Chilean government to consider moving the project to another location.. It is assumed that the industrial project will be built at a distance of 5 to 11 kilometers from the Paranal Observatory, which will significantly impair the ability to observe the Universe.

Dust emissions from construction, increased atmospheric turbulence and especially light pollution created by the industrial project will reduce the quality of space observations, scientists said..

Due to the fact that the air above the Atacama Desert is not very polluted and there are no sources of light pollution, this place is ideal for astronomy. The Paranal Observatory is home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and adjacent to it the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is under construction..

Since 1999, astronomers have made many important discoveries using the VLT telescope.. For example, it was possible to obtain the first direct image of a planet outside the solar system and confirm that the Universe is expanding with acceleration. This telescope played an important role in studying the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way..

As for the ELT, it will be the largest ground-based telescope of its kind in the world, and it could fundamentally change what we know about our Universe.

It’s hard to say whether the scientists’ appeal to the Chilean government with a request to move the construction of the industrial megaproject to another location will help. If the project is implemented, then dreams of revealing many secrets of the Universe may remain just dreams.

Focus has already written that scientists have figured out how microbes will help colonize space and create energy.

Focus also wrote that this year several private companies will send their landing modules to the Moon to study it. These missions will begin with the launch of two landing vehicles on a SpaceX rocket..