Óscar Puente celebrates half a century of contribution to scientific development of the Yebes Observatory

The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, accompanied by authorities and professionals from the Yebes Observatory (Guadalajara)

The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, presided over the institutional event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Yebes Observatory in Guadalajara, which belongs to the National Geographic Institute (IGN), part of the Ministry of Transport. As the minister pointed out, this infrastructure has become "a true world reference in radio astronomy and geodesic research".

Accompanied by local, regional and scientific authorities, Óscar Puente toured the facilities and the observatory's radio telescope, witnessing first hand the development this infrastructure has undergone over the decades. If there is a bridge between Spain and the stars," said the minister, "it is this centre, which in a way symbolises the enormous transformation that this country has undergone in the last half century.

Óscar Puente referred to the role played by both the Observatory and the "highly qualified" staff working there in positioning Spain as a power in the field of astrochemistry. "This observatory has become the most efficient in the world at discovering interstellar molecules, the primary building blocks of life". Of the 320 molecules detected since the 1960s, nearly a third have been detected at this Observatory, enabling us to make discoveries that "have made us aware that life in the Universe may be more common than we think," he said during his visit to the centre in Yebes (Guadalajara).

The Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility also criticised scientific denialism which "not only ignores experts' warnings about threats such as climate change, natural disasters, and epidemics, but also deprives science and research of resources with arbitrary cuts in public funding".

In this regard, Óscar Puente highlighted the investment efforts in R&D made by the Government in recent years, which has tripled the expenditure allocated to this item in the General State Budget, "the largest effort in our history," the minister noted. Specifically, total investment in research and development increased by 50% between 2018 and 2023, to 1.49% of GDP. All of this has led to an increase in employment in this sector, which grew by 22% over the same period, thus allowing us to "recover the talent lost during the crisis and modernise the country," Puente concluded.

Five decades of scientific development

The Yebes Observatory has experienced extraordinary growth since its beginnings, and is now recognised as a Unique Spanish Scientific-Technical Infrastructure. It features three state-of-the-art instruments, in addition to the original ones: a large 40-metre radio telescope, a 13-metre diameter telescope, and a laser ranging telescope for satellites. All of these instruments are integrated into international observing networks, which is crucial for their scientific operation, and are also accessible to researchers around the world as individual instruments, under conditions known as "open skies."

Notable scientific results obtained by the centre include the number of interstellar molecules discovered to date, 28% of the 320 discovered; its participation in the sharpest image ever made of the black hole M87 at 86 GHz; the discovery of molecules important for the emergence of life, such as ethanolamine; and its participation in the parameters of the Earth's orientation in space. Furthermore, its instrumental and technological developments have enabled the export of devices and receivers to many countries, contributing to the most competitive international astronomical instruments, past and present.

The impact of the observatory transcends its facilities

A pioneering team of engineers and astronomers was formed around the primitive 14-metre radio telescope, which, over time, has given rise to a new generation of professionals working in various Spanish institutions, achieving great international recognition in both astronomy and space geodesy, as well as in technological developments.

In addition, it offers curricular internships in its state-of-the-art laboratories and the opportunity for university students in engineering, mathematics, and physics to conduct scientific and technical work.

It also plays an important role in the dissemination of astronomy with daily visits by students from kindergarten to high school, as well as families and the general public at weekends, mainly from the province of Guadalajara. What's more, the Observatory has become one of the icons of the province of Guadalajara, with the image of the large 40m radio telescope visible for miles around from some points in the Alcarria region.

Non official translation