The threat of light pollution puts the world’s darkest skies in the Atacama Desert at risk

THE ATACAMA DESERT, Chile (AP) — It takes a moment for the eyes to adjust. A faint spark appears in the darkness; then another, brighter one. Soon, stars, planets and entire constellations emerge. Before long, a whole galaxy stretches across the sky, visible to the naked eye.

In Chile’s Atacama Desert, the night sky feels infinite. Considered the driest place on Earth, its darkness is also one of the clearest windows to the universe.

A rare combination of dry climate, high altitude and, crucially, isolation from urban light pollution, makes the Atacama an unrivaled hub for world-class astronomy and home to the world’s largest ground-based astronomical projects.

“The conditions in the Atacama Desert are unique in the world,” said Chiara Mazzucchelli, president of the Chilean Astronomical Society. “There are more than 300 clear nights per year, meaning no clouds and no rain.”

But the world's darkest skies may be at risk.

Last year, the desert became a battleground between scientists and an energy firm proposing a green power complex just kilometers (miles) from the Paranal Observatory. Managed by the European Southern Observatory, ESO, the site also is the future home to what is to be the most powerful optical telescope ever built.

Although the energy project was canceled in January following a massive appeal from astronomers, physicists and Nobel laureates, it exposed deep concerns that existing sky preservation laws are lax, outdated and unclear. Since then, several environmental regulations have come under review, including one from Chile's science ministry targeting protected astronomical zones.

“We are working to ensure the new criteria are strict enough to guarantee that there will be no impact on astronomical areas,” said Daniela González, director of the Cielos de Chile Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2019 to protect the quality of Chile’s night skies.

The Associated Press spent three days visiting the Paranal facilities in the heart of the so-called Photon Valley. In this high-altitude corridor, several observatories operate side by side using some of the most sophisticated instruments ever engineered.

“Many of these large facilities are located in Chile, and ESO's telescopes in particular are the most powerful astronomical facilities on the planet,” said Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, the intergovernmental organization’s representative in Chile.

Paranal is one of nearly 30 astronomical sites in northern Chile, most of which are managed by international organizations. Every year, the Atacama Desert draws thousands of astronomers and scientists from around the world to investigate the origins of the universe.

"We are lucky to be here,” said Julia Bodensteiner, an assistant professor at University of Amsterdam, noting that the chances of being selected as a visiting astronomer at Paranal are just 20% to 30%.

Walking across the Atacama's rocky, uneven terrain is no easy task. At altitudes exceeding 3,000 meters (10,000 feet), oxygen becomes a luxury, while scorching days give way to relentlessly cold nights. But for space observation and exploration, these more than 105000 square kilometers (40,500 square miles) of desert are the perfect setting.

The exceptional conditions of the Atacama have enabled some of the most ambitious astronomical projects ever conceived, like the Extremely Large Telescope, ELT — a $1.5 billion endeavor by ESO scheduled for completion in 2030.

With 798 mirrors and a light-gathering area of nearly 1000 square meters (a quarter of an acre) , the ELT will be 20 times more powerful than today’s leading telescopes and 15 times sharper than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

All the data compiled at these observatories play a fundamental role not only for life on Earth, but also for the possibilities of its development beyond our planet. Preserving these research spots is essential.

With the ELT, said ESO astronomer Lucas Bordone, “we should be able to see Earth-like planets in what we call the habitable zone, so basically the planets which are candidates towards life.”

Twenty years ago, the Atacama Desert was "an ocean of darkness,” recalled Eduardo Unda-Sanzana, director of the Astronomy Center at the University of Antofagasta. “It was just you and the universe.”

Over the years, however, the landscape has changed drastically.

Driven by urban sprawl, industrial development, and the arrival of mining and wind farms, the desert has become a coveted territory where balance is not always easy to reach.

In Paranal, specialists live like moles in an underground residence designed to keep their presence almost undetectable. Windows must remain covered, hallways stay dark, and any outside movement is guided only by flashlight. Even the faintest light can interfere with the telescopes.

The announcement last year of an imminent green energy project sent shock waves through the international scientific community. Experts pressured authorities to protect Chile’s night sky from the proposed site, which was slated for construction just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Paranal.

The case raised the alarms due to its impacts, such as increased light pollution, micro-vibrations and dust, as well as greater atmospheric turbulence. These conditions would make astronomical activities unviable.

“If you place the ELT next to a city, it doesn’t matter that its diameter is 40 meters long. It’s just the same as having a tiny telescope,” Gregorio-Monsalvo said.

Although the company canceled the project in late January, scientists warn that without new, updated regulations, similar projects could be proposed at any moment.

“Despite all the media hype in 2025, we find ourselves exactly where we were last year,” said Unda-Sanzana, who is also part of a ministerial advisory commission that recently delivered recommendations to Chile’s government following the incident.

There is no shortage of precedents. The first international heliophysics observatory in Chile — a major solar station operated by the U.S. Smithsonian Institution in the early 20th century — was forced to shut down operations in 1955 due to environmental pollution caused by the expansion of mining activity in the area.

“We’ve had 70 years to learn from history and avoid repeating those same mistakes,” Unda-Sanzana said.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Astronomers are silhouetted against the sunset sky at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), under construction by the European Southern Observatory, dots the horizon in the Atacama Desert, Chile, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

An operator looks at a Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

An Extremely Large Telescope is under construction by the European Southern Observatory, in the Atacama Desert, Chile, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

The Milky Way stretches across the night sky as seen from the Atacama Desert, Chile, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

BERLIN (AP) — For people living with disabilities, barriers to tourism can range from the obvious — such as an out-of-service elevator — to the unseen, like an outing that's too long or a setting that's too loud.

As the baby boom generation ages, the travel industry is increasingly catering to older adults with the time and money to sightsee internationally and who sometimes need additional assistance. Truly inclusive accessibility, though, accommodates a much greater range of tourists, from individuals with physical disabilities to people with autism or dementia.

To better serve visitors with visible or invisible disabilities, museums and other cultural institutions worldwide have added specialized guides and barrier-free tours, some made possible by advances in technology.

These include sign-language tours for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, touch-based events for guests with blindness or low vision, and programs designed for people on the autism spectrum. Tourism agencies dedicated to serving disabled travelers have sprung up, too.

Offering barrier-free tours shows people with disabilities they are welcome in cultural spaces, said Ashley Grady, an accessibility program specialist at the Office of Visitor Accessibility of Washington's Smithsonian Institution.

The services are a way of saying, “we’ve thought of you,” Grady said. “We want you to come to our museums. We want you to see yourselves reflected in our staff and our collections. And we want to make these programs as accessible as possible for you, your family, your loved ones, your friends.”

Still, gaps remain. Ivor Ambrose, managing director of the nonprofit European Network for Accessible Tourism, said there's a continuing lack of awareness around the different levels of accessibility that travelers need.

"This is actually a really big market and an opportunity, which is still not fulfilled by the operators in all these different areas of tourism," he said.

Here is advice from several experts about how to take advantage of barrier-free options for yourself or someone else.

Josh Grisdale, the founder of Accessible Japan, a website that publishes databases, resources and guides to navigating the country for people with disabilities, has cerebral palsy and uses a power wheelchair. Before traveling to a new place, he peruses Reddit, watches travel videos on YouTube — even if the person filming didn't require accommodations — and browses Google's Street View to look for stairs or other features that aren't suitable for wheelchairs.

Facebook can be helpful, but tips often are buried in private groups that aren't searchable, Grisdale said. If a hotel has a concierge, he recommends working with them and calling ahead to ask if a place you'd like to visit has the proper accessibility. Most museums and cultural institutions have written guides and other resources online detailing their barrier-free options.

Grisdale also created the online platform tabifolk, which crowdsources knowledge about accessible travel from around the world. A lack of such information can make researching and planning a trip even more stressful, so he wanted there to be a place where people could help each other through their lived experiences.

“Even though I’m in a wheelchair and I've had a disability my whole life, there’s things that I don’t know about other disabilities,” he said.

In Africa, proper planning is crucial for people with disabilities to be able to enjoy what the continent has to offer, such as going on a safari or climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, according to Joanne Ndirangu, the founder and director of accessible tourism agency Scout Group Agency.

Ndirangu promotes and advocates for expanding accessible tourism throughout Africa, particularly in Kenya. She urges visitors to work with local travel agents or other trained experts who know the region and what accessible options exist. Those people may have been the ones who worked to get a hotel or restaurant to install ramps or train the staff on helping someone who is neurodivergent.

"Let’s say you want to see giraffes somewhere," Ndirangu said. “I can now advise you, ‘That place is not viable if you’re on a wheelchair or on crutches because of the hills and the valleys.’ So I can give you an alternative — and you get to see the giraffes.”

Tours organized for the general public may not be ideal for people with disabilities in many cases, whether it's because the exhibits are too high for anyone in a wheelchair to see, or too loud for a person with sensory issues.

The offerings at the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum complex, include the sensory-friendly “Morning at the Museum” program, which is designed so participants who are neurodivergent and their families can visit a Smithsonian museum in Washington once a month before it opens to the public. They can engage in hands-on, multi-sensory activities or just stroll around at their own pace.

“We can control the environment, we can reduce the crowds,” Grady said. “It’s a completely judgment-free environment and one that’s really meant to hopefully be that full bridge to inclusion, where they are able to come to a museum, have a great experience, and then maybe come back when we’re open to the public.”

In Berlin, Catholic aid organization Malteser Deutschland noticed that people with dementia were often overlooked as visitors. The organization designed barrier-free tours specifically for this population at the Berlin Zoo, the Museum of Natural History, Britzer Garden and Charlottenburg Palace, with hopes of expanding to other locations.

The Berlin Zoo tour is limited to a handful of people, and runs about 90 minutes. The program skips the majority of the zoo’s vast collection of species to focus a few habitats so the participants don't get too tired or overwhelmed.

Ndirangu said her team was trained to ask visitors upfront if they or their family members require accommodations for any disabilities so they can suggest the best options. It's not always possible to mitigate what they don't know about ahead of time, she said. Most hotels in Kenya only have one or two accessible rooms, for example, and they might already be booked by the time a guest who needs it arrives.

“Give us that opportunity to give you solutions,” she said. “We’ve had guests who don’t mention anything.”

The European Network for Accessible Tourism encourages travel companies to build the cost of providing barrier-free services into their programming so it's spread among all participants instead of only those who might require them. Many museums, for example, offer discounted rates for people with disabilities or free or reduced tickets for a companion.

Grady at the Smithsonian said the institution adapted its offerings after feedback from participants as well as an advisory group. Their advice has ranged from adjusting the colors on an app for people with low vision, to working with curators to ensure that upcoming exhibits are properly accessible for all.

“They’re not asking for anything out of the ordinary,” she said. “They’re literally just trying to experience a visit just like anyone else.”

Monika Jansen, front left, and Christel Krueger, background center, take part in a guided tour for people with dementia organized by Malteser Deutschland, part of the international Catholic aid organization Malteser Order of Malta, at the Zoo in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A hippopotamus's tooth is given to participants during a guided tour for people with dementia organized by Malteser Deutschland, part of the international Catholic aid organization Malteser Order of Malta, at the Zoo in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Project coordinator Christine Gruschka holds the hand of Monika Jansen 85, during a guided tour for people with dementia organized by Malteser Deutschland, part of the international Catholic aid organization Malteser Order of Malta, at the Zoo in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Ingrid Barkow, left, is wrapped in a blanket by her daughter Manuela Grudda, during a guided tour for people with dementia organized by Malteser Deutschland, part of the international Catholic aid organization Malteser Order of Malta, at the Zoo in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Project coordinator Christine Gruschka, left, talks to Monika Jansen, 85, during a guided tour for people with dementia organized by Malteser Deutschland, part of the international Catholic aid organization Malteser Order of Malta, at the Zoo in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)