An international team of astronomers has captured rare images of planetary systems during a "little-explored" evolutionary stage: planetary adolescence. Conducted through the ARKS project (ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures), the study utilized the power of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to peak into this transition phase.
For over a century, physics studies have sought to decode the fundamental laws governing the universe, from subatomic particles to the vast structures of space-time. Central to this effort is quantum mechanics, which reveals that matter follows non-intuitive rules determining physical phenomena.
The Usach Physics Department and YEMS Millennium Nucleus were recently awarded 2026 astronomy projects focused on education and promotion. These projects, backed by international and national funding, are designed to enhance scientific literacy and astronomy teaching in Chile.
The Physics Department benefited from the Medium Scientific and Technological Equipment Competition (Fondequip), thanks to the proposal entitled “Ultrasonic Research Scanner for the generation of 3D volumetric images and the measurement of three-dimensional maps of mechanical properties.”
This important milestone will enable the acquisition of the Vantage 256 NXT, the country's first volumetric ultrasonic research scanner, together with a 1024-element matrix transducer, making it a unique piece of equipment in Chile and of international standard.
Industries such as transportation, logistics, mining, fishing, and agriculture rely heavily on satellite connectivity and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), where geolocation accuracy is vital for operations. However, these technologies are vulnerable to solar activity, which can trigger disturbances leading to significant positioning errors, communication outages, or failures in critical infrastructure.
The article, titled “Analyzing New Planetary Systems at School: Applications of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation and Kepler’s Third Law,” presents a teaching sequence designed and implemented in Chile. This sequence uses real data from exoplanets to effectively teach concepts of contemporary astrophysics in classrooms.
Scilights are concise summaries written by professional science communicators that highlight the most interesting research published in AIP journals. Their goal is to give global visibility to the findings and bring them to a wider scientific audience.
On July 30, a significant milestone was reached in the decontamination of the Metropolitan Region, specifically in the municipality of Tiltil, with the 1,000th replacement of a wood-burning stove. The initiative, part of Anglo American's emissions compensation plan for its Los Bronces Integrado mining project, replaces old stoves with efficient heating and cooling equipment. The University of Santiago de Chile and Harvard University are collaborating to lead a scientific study that will measure the environmental impact of this replacement.
This research was led by Santiago Orcajo, a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Astrophysics of La Plata (Argentina). The study was conducted under the auspices of the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS), an initiative that convenes researchers from four Chilean academic institutions, including the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach).
A significant discovery by Valeria Olivares, a physicist at the University of Santiago, and an international team of astronomers, published in Nature Astronomy, reveals a correlation between the surface brightness of hot and warm gas in the central filaments of galaxy clusters.
This finding provides crucial insight into the origin of these gaseous filaments, the primary fuel source for supermassive black holes and star formation.
A significant discovery by Valeria Olivares, a physicist at the University of Santiago, and an international team of astronomers, published in Nature Astronomy, reveals a correlation between the surface brightness of hot and warm gas in the central filaments of galaxy clusters.
This finding provides crucial insight into the origin of these gaseous filaments, the primary fuel source for supermassive black holes and star formation.