Cosmictales 2016 awarded by ALMA and Astromania at the MIM Museum

25 June, 2016 / Read time: 3 minutes

280 people from throughout Chile competed in Cosmictales, a Fundación Astromania initiative consisting in an open call to write stories up to 120 words related to the Cosmos or Astronomy. For the third year in a row, the ALMA observatory supported this project, forming part of the jury that selected the winners in the youth and adult categories. The award ceremony was held this Saturday at the Museo Interactivo Mirador (MIM).

“The imaginary embodied in these short stories helps to form a bond between science and popular culture,” comments Nicolás Lira, member of the Department of Education and Communications at ALMA, during the awards ceremony held this Saturday at the Mirador Interactive Museum (Museo Interactivo Mirador, MIM). On this occasion, booklets were printed with the winning stories and handed out to attendees, thanks to the support from the radio astronomy observatory.

In addition to ALMA, the jury included representatives of Explora CONICYT, the Astronomy Unit of Universidad de Antofagasta, Fundación Ciencia Acción, Pontificia Universidad Católica's Astrophysics Institute, MIM, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso's Center for Advanced Studies and Chilean playwright Luis Barrales. The jury selected twelve stories, and the final winner was selected by the public through an online vote on social media.

For Juan Pablo Méndez, director of Fundación Astromanía, “in this country, which is home to the global capital of Astronomy with its privileged skies, we need gatherings where we can share opinions, points of view and concerns about our knowledge of the Cosmos.”

“The Big Bang theory says that the Universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and it currently continues its expansion,” explains Katherinne Urzúa, the happy winner of the public vote. "This was my inspiration and the idea was to represent that in a literary way," says the 12th grade high school student from La Florida.

The winning stories can be read here.

Katherine Urzúa, winner of the Public Choice award, with her father and brother. Credit: N. Lira - ALMA (NRAO/NAOJ/ESO) | Download image

Claudia Osorio Lavín, Honorable mention youth category, receiving her award. Credit: N. Lira - ALMA (NRAO/NAOJ/ESO) | Download image

Kyara Cano Vilches from Los Vilos with Mariela Moreno Troncoso from Providencia receiving a special award from Universidad de Antofagasta, which consist of an image made by the Astronomy Department of the same university of Eta Carinae. Credit: N. Lira - ALMA (NRAO/NAOJ/ESO) | Download image

Additional information

ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of South Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ.