A major hydrogen project planned in northern Chile could have a serious and irreversible impact on astronomical research there, warns the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It writes in a press release: The project would threaten „the pristine skies above the Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of all astronomical observatories in the world“, which has „led to significant breakthroughs in astronomy“ since its foundation in 1999.