Students from Colegio Presidente Alessandri participated in CATA’s black hole talk

The activity was conducted by astronomer and popularizer José Utreras and allowed high school students to explore one of the most fascinating phenomena in the universe.

As part of the scientific outreach program of the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA), the talk “Do black holes exist?” was held at the Presidente Alessandri School, part of the SIP School Network. The activity was aimed at 3rd and 4th grade students, and was attended by a total of 40 participants.

The talk was given by José Utreras, CATA’s Outreach Coordinator and PhD in Astronomy, who addressed key concepts about black holes, their formation, detection and relevance in the understanding of the universe.

“The motivation for this talk on black holes was to take advantage of the fact that this topic, because of its rarity, generates many questions in children. Black holes are a good starting point because they attract attention, arouse curiosity, and from there the space opens up for conversation and exploration,” commented the astronomer.

Through a dynamic and close presentation, the astronomer awakened the students’ interest in astrophysics, answering questions and generating a space for scientific dialogue in the classroom. The school teacher, Vanessa Aravena, valued the activity positively.

“I value this instance very much because they bring us updated and real data, in addition to bringing science to the students in a different way, leaving a little of the more expository structure of the class and having a person in front of us who is not seen every day, which serves to get out of the everyday,” said the teacher.

Likewise, the teacher highlighted the importance of the scientific outreach work of our institution indicating that “it is important that centers such as CATA approach to scientific outreach, because it allows children to interact with people from different areas. It was very useful for the students that José came to solve doubts and that in this case an astronomer came to the classroom so that they could broaden their horizons and realize that they can also be scientists in Chile”.

Finally, José Utreras remarked the importance of our institution in bringing astronomical science to schools: “As CATA, we believe it is important to bring astronomy to schools because that is where those first questions can arise, those that are born when the topics are still surprising. Dissemination in these spaces opens the door for science to be something of its own”, emphasized the astronomer.

This activity is part of CATA’s commitment to education and scientific dissemination, bringing astronomical knowledge to students of different ages and territories of the country.