March 21, 2015 IFA News
On saturday March 21, a few hours after the official beginning of Autumm, and coincidentally with a total solar eclipse in the northern hemisphere, Chile celebrated National Astronomy Day for the second consecutive year. Dr. Radostin Kurtev, professor and investigator at the Instituto de Física y Astronomía-IFA, of the U. de Valparaíso, and in representation of the Instituto Milenio para la Astrofísica, MAS, of which he is member, gave a talk, titled "Mundos Fríos y Extraños. El Descubrimiento y Naturaleza de las Enanas Marrones” . MAS organized and coordinated these "Tertulias Astronómicas" ("Astronomy Conversations") for celebrating this day en Santiago (Dr. Alejandro Clocchiatti), Concepción (Dr. Wolfgang Gieren) and Valparaíso. 72 people came to listen to Dr. Kurtev´s talk in Valparaíso, showing great interest, as he revealed the enormous challenge for the newer generations regarding the search for new worlds and cool misterious stars and, perhaps, the elusive dark matter, by means of the new great observatories like ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre Array) and newer instruments yet to be built, covering most specially the millimetre and submillimetre wavelenghts. The event was closed with a Celebration Coffee in the hall, amongst an exhibition of 14 colourful astronomy images, courtesy of the Núcleo Milenio para la Vía Láctea, in which Dr. Jordanka Borissova collaborates (IFA) together with Dr. Marcio Catelán (Pontificia Universidad Católica) as part of Dr.Nikolaus Vogt´s (IFA) outreach activities.
