The world’s most powerful ground-based cosmological telescope is located atop Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, and is connected to global R&E Networks through REUNA.
Over the past decade, Chile has positioned itself as the world’s astronomy capital, concentrating more than half of the planet’s astronomical capacity. The Atacama Desert, in northern Chile, due to its high altitude, dry conditions, and atmospheric stability, has ideal characteristics for astronomical observation. This is why numerous international projects have chosen this territory to install their most modern telescopes. Likewise, astronomers from around the world have converged to work in collaboration with Chilean researchers, universities, and government agencies to advance our understanding of the Universe.
One such project is the Simons Observatory, an experimental cosmological facility that will provide scientists with an unprecedented platform to study the nature of the fundamental physical processes that governed the origin and evolution of the Universe.
Located at an altitude of 5,200 meters on Cerro Toco, 60 km from San Pedro de Atacama, the Simons Observatory consists of three 0.5-meter Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6-meter Large Aperture Telescope (LAT). Together, the four telescopes will collect the most precise measurements to date of the oldest light in the Universe—the Cosmic Microwave Background—and will also observe other targets, such as the most massive black holes in the Universe and asteroids in our solar system.
In February 2025, the LAT reached first light, with an observation of the planet Mars. “Simons Observatory is conducting a broad mm-wave survey, studying the history of the Universe. From very far away, seeing light from the very early universe, we are searching for evidence of a background of gravitational waves that may have been present in the very early universe – if it exists, it could tell us about the physics that governed the first fraction of a second of the Big Bang. We can also see signals from closer, where we can learn about how the first stars and galaxies were formed, and how they evolved. We will also be searching for unknown bodies in our solar system, and conducting the largest every survey looking for time-variable signals in the mm regime”, explains Kam Arnold, founding member of the Simons Observatory at the University of California, San Diego.
Transferring the Universe’s data in just seconds
Since May 2024, when its early scientific operations began, the Simons Observatory has been connected to REUNA and, through it, to global research and education networks, transferring its data from northern Chile to its data centers in the United States quickly and securely.
“The service provided by REUNA makes it much easier overall to handle the data from Simons Observatory, replacing the old method for handling this much data, which was to fly hard disks from the Chilean site to the US and back in a continuous cycle. And in searching for time-variable signals, this [dedicated, high-speed] connectivity enables quick data analysis that can be used to crate alerts to let the astronomical community know, in real time, that a time-variable phenomenon, like an exploding or flaring star, is occurring”, Arnold says.
The deployment of this first-class connectivity was made possible thanks to a joint effort between the Atacama Astronomical Park, the National Agency for Research and Development of Chile (ANID), the ALMA Observatory and REUNA.
This story was first published in Red en Acción magazine.
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