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Although astronomical observatories desperately try to keep observations, the priority is to preserve the health of staff and the safety of high-tech facilities. Little by little, the world's largest observatories are closing, but robotic telescopes continue their activity.
Close under the Chilean skies
The fabulous set of ALMA radio telescopes, of which we have spoken so often in these Chronicles of the Cosmos, stopped looking at the wonderful sky of Atacama last Thursday, March 19. The personnel who work at the observatory, personnel who usually travel long distances, by plane or by bus, must be protected from the Chilean cities in which they reside to the remote site of Chajnantor, at an altitude of 5,000 meters in the middle of the desert.
A little further south, on Cerro Paranal, also on the Chilean Andes, the set of four VLT optical telescopes, another of the world's largest astronomical facilities belonging to ESO, an institution in which Spain participates, on the last night of Astronomical observations have been from March 23 to 24. At ESO's other observatory, La Silla, observations stopped the night before.
Near Paranal, on the hill of Armazones, ESO has also been forced to stop construction work on the world's largest telescope, the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope).
On the 17th, the American observatory of Las Campanas (also in the Andes, 27 kilometers from La Silla), which houses the two twin Magellan telescopes and where the GMT (Giant Magellan Telescope) is being built, announced the stop of the observations for at least two weeks. The situation is similar in Cerro Tololo and in nearby Cerro Pachón, where the large GEMINI-Sur telescope is located and where the Vera Rubin Telescope (formerly LSST) is built.
The pandemic has also reached Hawaii , where the powerful Mauna Kea Observatory is located, with the great Keck twins, the GEMINI-North and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The telescopes here have switched to a restricted operation mode, in which only the use of some instruments is allowed and remote control of the facilities is favored.
Parón in Spain
In the Canary Islands is the largest optical telescope in the world, the GTC ( Gran Telescopio Canarias ), specifically on the Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma. In this and some other observatory telescope, it has been decided to operate with a reduced number of instruments and to work remotely as much as possible. Astronomers using telescopes are not allowed to make observations, but attempts are made to maintain activity by remote operation . The battery of nearly a dozen robotic telescopes, accustomed to this type of operation, continues to operate normally. The Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), equipped with a 2.5 meter mirror, has stopped its activity. It so happens that the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), with its 4.2 meter mirror, was already stopped for technical maintenance.
At the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, almost all telescopes are robotic and working. But if there were breakdowns, its repair would be very difficult.
As in the Canary Islands, all other observatories in Spain (Calar Alto, Pico Veleta, Yebes, Javalambre) have suspended visits, but are desperately trying to keep the telescopes in operation and, when possible, to make observations in robotic or with minimal staff teams .
In this reduced mode of operations, the highest priority is to maintain the safety of workers, and then high-tech facilities. Scientific observations are made only within the scope of this restricted mode of operation. If a telescope requires technical intervention, the problem is to be solved by moving a single person to the observatory. When a problem occurs that requires the intervention of several people, even remote observations will have to stop.
The virus in space projects
The pandemic has also had its influence on space projects. After some cases of coronavirus at its Ames Research Center in California, NASA sent its workers home on March 8. At least three space missions related to Earth science have been postponed sine die. On March 12 it was also announced that the ExoMars mission, which is being carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA), together with the Russian Roscosmos, will delay its trip a couple of years, until 2022. ExoMars has among its objectives the location on the red planet of an off-road vehicle named after the renowned British scientist Rosalind Franklin. ESA has also reduced face-to-face work at its Darmstadt (Germany) center as much as possible, forcing it to suspend the operation of the instruments in four space missions.
Preparations for observations with the JWST space telescope , the successor to Hubble in which NASA and ESA collaborate, are also delayed. Although its launch remains for March 30, 2021, the deadline for submitting observation proposals has just been moved from May 1 to, at the earliest, May 27, 2020. The US agency's program to return to Sending astronauts to the moon is also on hold due to the pandemic.
Virtual meetings and carbon footprint
As the Spanish government has required for all public institutions, all astronomy research centers are using telework. All activities that require travel have been canceled, all scientific conferences postponed or canceled . Videoconferences multiply. On the 17th, the use of the Webex video conferencing system was so intense that it collapsed in Europe.
The crisis offers an opportunity to develop the full potential of teleworking and virtual meetings. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has turned its next congress, which will take place between June 1 and 3, into a totally virtual meeting. Curiously, the organization of virtual conferences was something that had been talked about insistently in recent months in the world of astronomy.
The goal so far was to decrease travel to reduce the carbon footprint. And it is true that astronomers have a bad reputation for traveling too much, we are a very global and highly interconnected community. We are used to working in large international collaborations that know no borders. Suddenly, the motivation to reduce travel is much more justified and urgent .
Skies without planes
This crisis is going to have an impact on our way of working and living. Obviously nothing will be the same as being able to meet face-to-face to discuss in person, work side by side in front of the same computer, and even share those moments of leisure together in which the 'brainstorms' break out and the inspiration seems to come more. easily. But perhaps we will get something positive if we can get a part of the collaborations to develop electronically, thus helping to reduce air pollution in the long term.
Professional astronomers cursed for the numerous airliners that used to leave their bright traces, created by their lights and by condensation, in the deep images of the sky that take so much work to achieve. It is paradoxical that now, when air traffic has dramatically decreased, there are hardly any telescopes left to take advantage of the free skies of those traces.
Rafael Bachiller is director of the National Astronomical Observatory (National Geographic Institute) and academic of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain .
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