CATA participated with astronomical science at the Congreso Futuro in La Calera

Our Center visited the municipality of La Calera to participate in the Congreso Futuro en tu Comuna event, bringing along its stand and moon drawing workshop. Manuel Aravena, associate researcher at CATA, also gave a talk to the audience.

The Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA) participated in the Congreso Futuro en tu Comuna event, held at the Jesús de Nazaret Special School in the city of La Calera, Valparaíso Region. This initiative, organized by the Senate’s Future Challenges Commission, seeks to bring scientific knowledge closer to students and citizens. The event brought together more than 1,400 attendees.

The CATA team that participated in this edition was composed of José Utreras, Outreach and Content Coordinator; Tracy Catalán, Outreach Analyst; CATA monitors Catalina Casanueva, Matías Espinoza, Marcela López, and Álvaro Tello; and our Associate Researcher, Manuel Aravena, also an academic at Diego Portales University (UDP), who gave an astronomy talk to the public.

At the event, CATA brought its Moon stand, virtual reality glasses with images of the universe, and the workshop “Let’s draw the Moon!”, aimed at students and the general public, with the aim of bringing astronomical science closer to those attending Congreso Futuro.

“For CATA, it is very important to be present in different regions and bring astronomy closer to students and all types of audiences. What we want is to spark curiosity and show that science can be a source of wonder and inspiration for everyday life,” said José Utreras.

In addition to these activities, our Associate Researcher, Manuel Aravena, gave a talk entitled “Revealing Cosmic History: Galaxies, Expansion, and the ELT”, in which he recounted the chronology of how we discovered that the universe is expanding and the advances that will be made possible by the upcoming telescopes in Chile.

This talk took us on a journey to discover how we learned that the Milky Way is not alone and that the universe is expanding. We started with the question, ‘How far do our ‘neighbors’ in the sky reach?‘, and followed the people who dared to measure distances using ‘cosmic beacons’ such as Cepheid stars. That clue opened the door to a universe full of galaxies,” says the academic from Diego Portales University.

The talk generated great interest among high school students, who actively participated with questions and reflections. “Most of the attendees were high school students from various public schools in the city of La Calera. They were very receptive and asked several interesting questions. In fact, they told me that some of them were doing a project on light pollution, so the topic was perfect for them.”

Finally, the astronomer highlighted the presence of CATA and the role of scientific outreach in this type of event, emphasizing the importance of bringing cutting-edge science to different regions and motivating new generations.

“It’s fantastic. Teachers and people from the Municipality of La Calera told me that it is difficult for research institutions to bring materials and give talks on scientific topics to these areas, particularly to public schools. I think these are very important initiatives to bring cutting-edge science to children, to motivate them and encourage them to get involved in STEM subjects,” concluded the CATA researcher.