Beyond the Dome: Towards fair access to astronomical knowledge in Chile

Beyond the Dome: Towards fair access to astronomical knowledge in Chile Maria Jose Rain (ESO-Fellow) LISA10 – Santiago, Chile https://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2025/astronomy-for-all.html LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago 297 Professional Astronomers Working in Chilean Institutions 23 Chilean Institutions were research in Astronomy is done 195 102 284 >500 Professors Postdocs and researchers Msc & Phd students Undergrad students How does the Chilean Astronomical Community look like? SOCHIAS, J. Carballo Bello 2023 2https://sochias.cl/wp-content/uploads /2024/10/SOCHIAS-census-report.pdf 1https://sochias.cl/actividades/grupo-de-trabajo-en-inclusion-y-genero Sex Gender LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago SOCHIAS, J. Carballo Bello 2023 Nationality LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago ESO sites and telescopes ~60 % are ESO telescopes 33 % (ALMA Chajnantor Array + Operations) Data classificaiton: ESO PUBLIC Facility Hosted (%) Chilean Observing Time (%) Chilean First / Co -Authorship (%) Chilean Lead Authorship (%) ESO (VLT + La Silla) ~60 10 – 12 ~25 ~6 ALMA 33 10 ~18 ~4 APEX via MPIfR agreement 10 n/a n/a ELT (future) 100 10 (expected) - - LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Hosting vs. Leading Barcons et al. (2023) LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Nacional Time quota (Policy) Leadership share: First, corresponding author Co-Authorship share (ESO-data papers) Barcons et al. (2023) Chilean astronomers publish ~400 refereed papers per year (ADS 2023), representing roughly 3 % of global astronomy output Facility Hosted (%) Chilean Observing Time (%) Chilean First / Co -Authorship (%) Chilean Lead Authorship (%) ESO (VLT + La Silla) ~60 10 – 12 ~25 ~6 ALMA 33 10 ~18 ~4 APEX via MPIfR agreement 10 n/a n/a ELT (future) 100 10 (expected) - - LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Hosting vs. Leading Barcons et al. (2023) LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Global North Latinoamerica Editorial Control & Review Power Citation visibility & impact metrics Funding concentration Language legitimacy Hosting world-class facilities Local OA publishing initiatives Limited digital Infraestructure Human capital & training Global circulation of astronomical knowledge is not symmetric – data flows southward, while recognition and legitimacy flow northward LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago From open to Usable Data “Open data ≠ Usable data when documentation and interfaces assume advanced English-Tech fluency.” (Mahoney 2000; Broekhoff 2019) LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago From open to Usable Data “Open data ≠ Usable data when documentation and interfaces assume advanced English-Tech fluency.” (Mahoney 2000; Broekhoff 2019) English only docs CLI/API jargon a) Users know Python or shell tools or any programming language b) Read dense technical documentation in English; Astronomers in the Global South, where English is not native, often have slower entry into data-driven research c) Interpret error messages or API responses written by and for native speakers Language + Technical Literacy LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Infrastructure and computational resources e.g., ESO, ALMA, Gaia, Rubin, JWST (Rubin Observatory Data Access; Bezuidenhout & Leonelli 2017) “Publicly archived datasets still demand storage, high bandwidth, compute not universally available" Open Archive LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Infrastructure and computational resources e.g., ESO, ALMA, Gaia, Rubin, JWST (Rubin Observatory Data Access; Bezuidenhout & Leonelli 2017) Open Archive Infraestructure LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Infrastructure and computational resources e.g., ESO, ALMA, Gaia, Rubin, JWST (Rubin Observatory Data Access; Bezuidenhout & Leonelli 2017) Open Archive Storage Compute Connectivity Infraestructure LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago 2.8 petabytes 2.2 petabytes VLT, VLTI and La Silla ALMA Year Volume of data (petabytes) LISA10 2025 - MJ Rain - Santiago Infrastructure and computational resources e.g., ESO, ALMA, Gaia, Rubin, JWST (Rubin Observatory Data Access; Bezuidenhout & Leonelli 2017) Open Archive Infraestructure Storage Compute Connectivity Thank you! [email protected]