PUBLIC OUTREACH:
Since my days as an undergraduate student in Physics and amateur
astronomer, I remember, that I have been interested in
communicating physics and astronomy to friends and people in
general. I have always enjoyed teaching and explaining physics and
astronomy concepts in the simplest possible way. As a professional
astronomer - in the country where most of the world's
light-collecting power in the form of large (4 meters and more)
astronomical telescopes will be in this decade - doing outreach
has become a major responsibility. I actively participate in the
Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program of
the Department
of Astronomy of the Universidad de Concepción (UdeC) by
giving public presentations for people of all ages, particularly
middle and high school students and their teachers. In addition to
the above, my EPO appearances also include television and radio
interviews, as well as articles in newspapers and other
media. Among them, I contribute as a columnist
(see below) to the "Trends
in Astronomy" section of EMOL, and I have been featured in
an online
interview for AstroFotografiaChile. I
have also written the first chapter of an outreach book published
in 2017 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the General Theory
of Relativity, and appeared in a 2019 documentary on
the first moon landing produced by NSF/AUI/NRAO Chile.
Some of the topics covered in my talks are: galaxies and clusters
of galaxies, the evolution of stars, the evolution of our
universe, astronomical observation, meteor impacts, light
pollution, and astronautics, among others. I have given a
practical course on astronomical photography at UdeC, and my
presentations have taken me to different venues around the
country, including primary-to-middle and high schools, the USACH
Planetarium in Santiago, the Santa María island in the
Pacific near Concepción, the Chilean Air Force academy in
Santiago and the Chilean Marine Corps academy in the Quiriquina
island. As part of the National Day of Astronomy in Chile in 2017,
I gave a public talk at the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco
for an audience as large as 700 people. In 2018, as part of the
"Science Without Fiction" conference in Concepción, I gave
a talk for as many as 1,300 people together with Prof. José
Maza. And in 2019, I gave a talk at Chillan's Municipal Theatre,
for about 1,000 people, as part of Explora's "Sun's Year". Again,
in January 2023, I gave a second public
talk with Prof. Maza for about 1,000 people at the Regional
Theatre in Concepción. Internationally, in 2018 I was
invited to participate at the "Feria Internacional del Libro de
Guadalajara" (FIL), Mexico, where I gave 3 presentations for a
total of about 600 people.
I have also ventured in the amazing world of art and science by being
co-creator of "Estréllate
con la Música", an audiovisual show that combines
footage and imaging of humankind's greatest adventure of exploring
space with the powerful magic of music from classical and
soundtrack composers, interpreted by UdeC's Symphonic
Orchestra. More than 7,000 people in total attended the 15
presentations of the show in 2019, and about 4,500 more attended
the last performance of it in January 2020.
In 2022 I was a regular (about once a week) invitee to
"La
Comunidad del Contenido" TV show broadcasted
by TVU to comment
on astronomy and other space-related news (see below).
A list (not necessarily up-to-date) of my outreach contributions in the general subject of
space exploration can be found in my
astronautics EPO
résumé (Spanish only).
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MY NEXT PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS:
|
I am the author of the first chapter, on gravitational
lensing, of this outreach
book published in 2017 by Univ. de La Frontera, Chile.
|
Los
fenómenos astronómicos asociados a la Estrella de
Belén (22 DIC 2022)
Exitoso
regreso a la Tierra de Artemisa I (15 DIC 2022)
Las
galaxias más distantes observadas con el telescopio James
Webb (1 DIC 2022)
Artemis
I llega a la Luna (24 NOV 2022)
Elemento
más pesado encontrado en la atmósfera de un
exoplaneta (10 NOV 2022)
Sabes
qué es un cúmulo de galaxias? (20 OCT 2022)
Cuánto
sabemos del origen de la Luna? (13 OCT 2022)
Intensa
llamarada solar: cómo nos afecta? (6 OCT 2022)
La relevancia de la misión DART y el impacto con el asteroide
Dimorphos (29 SEP 2022)
En
qué consiste el Equinoccio de Primavera?
(22 SEP 2022)
MOXIE
logra fabricar oxígeno a partir de la atmósfera de
Marte (8 SEP 2022)
NASA
aplaza misión Artemis I (1 SEP 2022)
La
humanidad quiere regresar a la Luna (25 AGO 2022)
Los últimos
descubrimientos del Curiosity en Marte (18 AGO 2022)
La Tierra
está girando más rápido (11 AGO 2022)
Requisitos para
ser astronauta de la NASA (4 AGO 2022)
Primeras
imágenes del telescopio espacial James Webb
(14 JUL 2022)
Realmente
el hombre llegó a la Luna?
(7 JUL 2022)
Día
Internacional de los Asteroides (30 JUN 2022)
Megacohete busca
volver a llevar a humanos a la Luna (23 JUN 2022)
Origen
de la vida en la Tierra y en Marte
(16 JUN 2022)
Betelgeuse podría ser la
próxima supernova de nuestra galaxia (9 JUN 2022)
Anillos que se
aprecian en el espacio (2 JUN 2022)
Nave
Viajero 1 y expansión del universo
(26 MAY 2022)
Afelio
astronómico y el agujero negro en el centro de la Vía Láctea
(19 MAY 2022)
Telescopio
SOFIA en Chile y Estación Espacial Internacional
(31 MAR 2022)
SOME SELECTED PRESENTATIONS:
More than 200 high school students attended my public talk at the Quelentaro Municipal Theatre in the city of Angol during the celebration of the Astronomy Day in Chile 2023. Credit: Marllory Fuentes.
"From Concepción to the Moon in Three Acts", my second public talk with Prof. José Maza for an audience of about 1,000 attendees at the Regional Theatre in Concepción in January 2023. Credit: Teatro Regonal Biobío.
This is a talk (in Spanish) I gave on space exploration for the "Astronomía en tu Casa" program on the YouTube channel of the Anillo Resaerch Project on Black Holes. This talk was followed by a live Q&A session (in Spanish) with the audience via YouTube. This program is a valuable initiative to bring astronomy and related topics to the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
This is a talk (in Spanish) I gave on the first manned mission to the Moon, Apollo 11, for the "Astronomía en tu Casa" program on the YouTube channel of the Anillo Resaerch Project on Black Holes. This talk was followed by a live Q&A session (in Spanish) with the audience via YouTube. This program is a valuable initiative to bring astronomy and related topics to the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
As part of the inaugural ceremony of the PAR Explora Ñuble in 2019, about 1,000 people attended my public talk at the Municipal Theatre of the city of Chillán. Credit: PAR Explora Ñuble.
My first "big" show to the public: a musical documentary on the exploration of space by the people of Earth. Oriented to middle and high school students and their teachers, "Estréllate con la Música" presents the manned and unmanned efforts by humans to reach other worlds and study the cosmos. This show featured the magnificent performance of the University of Concepcion's Symphonic Orchestra in its 2019 season, under the conduction of Francisco Nuñez and Jaime Cofré. More than 7,000 people in total attended the different presentations of the show in April, September, and October. A final presentation of "Estrellate Con La Música", at the start of UdeC's Escuela de Verano Centenaria on January 10th, 2020, brought about 4,500 attendees at once. Credit: CORCUDEC.
About 1,300 people attended in 2018 my public talk, together with Prof. José Maza, as part of the "Ciencia Sin Ficcion" meeting at the Suractivo Center in Concepción. Credit: Fundación Chile 2100.
My public presentation at the Universidad de la Frontera's Aula Magna on the Astronomy Day in Chile 2017 for an audience as large as about 700 people. Credit: UFRO/EXPLORA.
This is me in one of my public presentations, together with Profs. José Maza (National Exact Sciences Laureate 1999; to the left) and Ezequiel Treister at the "Pinacoteca" of the Universidad de Concepción in 2016, which had an audience of more than 250 people. Credit: Isabel Rivera.
