JOHN BARTLETT, BYLINE: When night falls over the Paranal Observatory, which operates one of the world's most powerful telescopes, the skies above are dusted with brilliant constellations and nebulae.

In January, ESO publicly raised the alarm about the threat posed to the world's darkest and clearest skies, those of ESO's Paranal Observatory, from the industrial megaproject INNA.The project ...

The Paranal Observatory is situated on Cerro Paranal, 8,645 feet above sea level, and is home to the famous Very Large Telescope (VLT), among other instruments.

Paranal Observatory is home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), which comprises four telescopes each with a 27-foot (8.2-meter) mirror and four auxiliary telescopes with 6-foot (1.8-meter) mirrors.

With its clear, dark skies, northern Chile is home to two fifths of the world's astronomical infrastructure, but could that be under threat with increasing urbanisation and mining development?