A Death in the Neighborhood

Abstract

The night of Monday, February 23, 1987 settled clear and cloudless over the coastal mountains of northern Chile. Here, along the western edge of the Andes, the land is arid and parched, for the prevailing easterly winds drop their moisture as they ascend steep slopes far to the east, feeding the great rivers of Argentina and Uruguay. The coastal mountains support little indigenous life, but they are ideal for astronomy. Astronomers, seeking crystal skies and a view of the southern heavens not visible from the northern hemisphere, have established several observatories on barren mountaintops not far from the coastal city of La Serena. Of these, Las Campanas Observatory, operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is perhaps the most isolated. With only four telescopes on the mountain, there are rarely more than a handful of astronomers and technicians there on any given night.

And all about the cosmic sky,

The black that lies beyond our blue,

Dead stars innumerable lie,

And stars of red and angry hue

Not dead but doomed to die.

—Julian Huxley, Cosmic Death