A massive chemical plant is causing a "celestial crisis" in Chile's stargazing stronghold, according to Reuters.
Experts are warning that the South American nation's "pristine" dark desert skies, which are "world-renowned" for astronomy, are in danger from the march of urban and industrial development.
Chile's Atacama desert is the driest non-polar region on Earth, where "the sky shines when the sun sets", said The Guardian. Comets "burn brightly" and "flawless trails of stars" and nebulae "streak the night sky".
Those skies have "propelled" Chile to become the world's "astronomical powerhouse", but starwatchers have warned that this status is "under immediate threat".
The "observational prowess" of the Cerro Paranal, the darkest observatory site in the world, "might soon be history", said the Sky & Telescope website, thanks to the threat of light pollution from a proposed industrial "megaproject".
The energy company AES Andes has released plans for Chile's first industrial-scale processing plant – the Inna project. It would aim to generate "green" hydrogen and ammonia from sea water, using solar and wind energy inland in the Atacama.
The company insists that the project is in a location the government has earmarked for renewable energy and environmental requirements, so there's "no possibility of relocating" it.
Instead, the project can "work with the world and Chile's astronomy community" to prove that, "with new technology and cultural shifts" to "protect" Chile's dark skies, "co-existence is possible", said a spokesperson.
Chile's Science Minister Aisen Etcheverry said astronomy and energy were "both are important" to ministers, who are "working to find solutions" that "allow these activities to happen". | 
