Are We Alone? Exploring the Cosmos with the World's Biggest Telescopes

Name: Are We Alone? Exploring the Cosmos with the World's Biggest Telescopes
Start: 2026-04-27T18:00:00-04:00
Location: 151 S Church St, Spartanburg, SC, United States, South Carolina 29306

Schedule

Mon, 27 Apr, 2026 at 06:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

151 S Church St, Spartanburg, SC, United States, South Carolina 29306 | Spartanburg, SC

Are we alone in the Universe? This question has inspired human curiosity for centuries, and today it drives some of the most ambitious scientific projects on Earth. Two of them — the Extremely Large Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope — will soon become the most powerful telescopes ever built. These engineering marvels are designed to reveal planets orbiting other stars, study their atmospheres, and search for worlds that might resemble our own. With their extraordinary capabilities, they will transform our understanding of the cosmos — and perhaps even our understanding of ourselves.
Biography
Dr. Luis Agustín Chavarría Garrido
Visitor Assistant Professor, UNC Asheville
Dr. Luis Chavarría’s path in astronomy began in Chile, under some of the clearest skies on Earth. After earning his BSc and PhD in Science with a major in Astronomy from the University of Chile, he traveled north to the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where he carried out his doctoral research and deepened his fascination with how stars are born. His career then took him across continents — from Chile to France and Spain — for postdoctoral work centered on the mysteries of star formation.
In 2013, he returned to Chile’s mountains and observatories, joining the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) as Support Astronomer and Chilean coordinator for the APEX telescope. Just a few years later, he became Director of the Astronomy Program, helping shape national strategies to strengthen international collaboration and ensure that the extraordinary scientific infrastructure located in Chile benefits the local community.