Sicily, stop to the super telescope: environmentalists manage to block (for now) the great work
The European Space Agency (Esa) had identified in the heart of the Sicily the right spot to build a super telescope capable of monitoring and possibly blocking any asteroids that would threaten the Earth. An ambitious and very expensive project, given that the super telescope costs 12 million euros. But the environmentalists – reports La Repubblica – have appealed and won the first legal battle: “The work causes havoc in the Madonie park“. So the “planetary defense system” that is supposed to protect the Earth from collisions with asteroids and comets, from impacts with space junk, suddenly stopped. The spot had been carefully chosen: it was as high and with as little light pollution as possible, the 1,865 meters of Mount Mufara, on the Madonie.
That site, however, – continues La Repubblica – is also in the middle of a natural park, in an integral protection area where until August 2023 it was not possible to move a single stone. The absolute restriction was cancelled by the government Melons with the Asset decree which considers all the astronomical observatories funded by ESA “of strategic importance” and allows their construction in derogation of any environmental constraint. A decisive clean slate to convince the top management of the space agency not to divert the project and money to the Canary Islands, as was happening in the face of constraints and protests from Italian Alpine Club, Legambiente, Lipu, WWF, Our Italy and other acronyms of the environmentalist world. For now ESA and the government have been defeated and the project for the super telescope has stopped. But it’s only the first round.
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