European Observatories in Chile Undamaged by Earthquake

James Bond Movie Shot at Otherworldly Observatory

The Auxiliary Telescope 4, part of ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, on Cerro Paranal mountain. (Image credit: VLTI/ESO)

Several European-built observatories in Chile haveescaped damage from the massive 8.8 earthquake that struck the South Americancountry?s central regions Saturday.

The European Southern Observatory?s (ESO) three majortelescope centers perched high up in Chile?s Atacama Desert have experiencedpower and communications interruptions due to the earthquake, but remainintact.

The earthquake?s epicenter was located 71 miles (115 km)north-northeast of the city of Concepción and about 201 miles (325 km)southwest of Santiago, Chile?s capital. ESO?s telescopes are engineered towithstand seismic events and were also far enough from the epicenter to escapesignificant damage, observatory officials said.

ESO has three main observatories, each with multipletelescopes, on the AtacamaDesert at altitudes up to 8,530 feet (2,600 meters). They arelocated in the La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor regions and include Europe?sVery Large Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array(ALMA) — which is still under construction.

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