{"id":1718,"date":"2025-06-23T11:59:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2025-06-23T11:59:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T11:59:40","slug":"astronomos-chilenos-revelan-los-secretos-de-omega-centauri-un-enigmatico-objeto-gracias-a-innovador-metodo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/noticias\/astronomos-chilenos-revelan-los-secretos-de-omega-centauri-un-enigmatico-objeto-gracias-a-innovador-metodo\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilean Astronomers Unveil the Secrets of Omega Centauri, an Enigmatic Object, Thanks to an Innovative Method\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Using tools from evolutionary biology, a team of Chilean astronomers managed to decipher part of the mystery of Omega Centauri, one of the most complex and studied objects in the Milky Way. The discovery marks a milestone in the collaboration between astronomy and biology, placing Chilean science at the forefront of interdisciplinary approaches.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Omega Centauri, the most massive star cluster in the Milky Way, has been a source of unanswered questions for decades. Its brightness is such that until the 17th century it was mistaken for a single star, but in reality, it contains hundreds of thousands of clustered stars. For a long time, it was considered a simple globular cluster, composed of old stars with similar compositions. However, new research has shown that its history is far more complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the most recent investigations is led by the PhyloGal group, which, together with its interdisciplinary team, decided to apply a methodology taken directly from biology: phylogenetics, commonly used to study evolutionary relationships between species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For years, the team refined these tools in simpler contexts until they decided to take another look at Omega Centauri. Together with their team of researchers and with the support of biologists such as Francisco Cubillos and Pablo Villarreal, they collected chemical data from 122 stars within the cluster and began constructing stellar \u201cphylogenetic trees,\u201d thereby publishing <em>\u201c<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aanda.org\/component\/article?access=doi&amp;doi=10.1051\/0004-6361\/202554863\"><em>Studying stellar populations in Omega Centauri with phylogenetics\u201d<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEl resultado fue incre\u00edble\u201d, afirma Jofr\u00e9. \u201cIdentificamos tres poblaciones distintas: una muy antigua que llamamos \u2018bloc\u2019, otra similar a c\u00famulos globulares (\u2018GC\u2019), y una tercera in\u00e9dita, que podr\u00eda haberse formado dentro del propio Omega Centauri, a la que llamamos \u2018child\u2019. Este tipo de interpretaci\u00f3n no se hab\u00eda hecho antes en sistemas tan complejos\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Casi al mismo tiempo, un segundo equipo internacional public\u00f3 un estudio con resultados similares, aunque usando m\u00e9todos tradicionales y una base de datos m\u00e1s extensa. \u201cLo interesante es que llegamos a las mismas conclusiones con menos datos y una t\u00e9cnica diferente. Eso, en cierta forma, valida lo que estamos haciendo\u201d, sostiene la astr\u00f3noma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Para \u00c1lvaro Rojas, tambi\u00e9n miembro de PhyloGal, este tipo de hallazgos redefine la forma en que entendemos objetos como Omega-Cen. \u201cAntes se pensaba que estos c\u00famulos eran estructuras simples, pero descubrimos que hay m\u00faltiples generaciones de estrellas con distintas composiciones qu\u00edmicas. Eso rompe el paradigma cl\u00e1sico\u201d, explica. \u201cOmega Centauri podr\u00eda ser, en realidad, el n\u00facleo de una galaxia enana que fue absorbida por la V\u00eda L\u00e1ctea. Esa hip\u00f3tesis gana fuerza con cada nuevo dato, como la detecci\u00f3n de un posible agujero negro en su interior\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>La colaboraci\u00f3n entre astr\u00f3nomos y bi\u00f3logos ha sido fundamental. \u201cNos dimos cuenta de que aunque nuestras disciplinas tienen lenguajes distintos, compartimos una base com\u00fan: las matem\u00e1ticas\u201d, dice Rojas. \u201cEmpezamos a leer libros de biolog\u00eda evolutiva para entender c\u00f3mo se construyen los \u00e1rboles filogen\u00e9ticos, y eso nos permiti\u00f3 hablar en un lenguaje com\u00fan\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>M\u00e1s all\u00e1 del descubrimiento puntual, el estudio abre una nueva l\u00ednea de trabajo que ya entusiasma a estudiantes e investigadores. Actualmente, dos nuevas tesis se desarrollan aplicando filogen\u00e9tica a Omega Centauri, una con simulaciones y otra con nuevos datos. Incluso, en una conferencia internacional reciente, una estudiante chilena present\u00f3 avances en esta l\u00ednea, lo que demuestra que la comunidad ya comienza a adoptar este enfoque con naturalidad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLo m\u00e1s bonito de todo es ver c\u00f3mo las nuevas generaciones lo toman como algo obvio\u201d, concluye Jofr\u00e9. \u201cPara ellos, usar herramientas de la biolog\u00eda en astronom\u00eda ya no es una rareza, sino una posibilidad real. Y eso significa que vamos por buen camino\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Omega Centauri, el c\u00famulo estelar m\u00e1s masivo de la V\u00eda L\u00e1ctea, ha sido por d\u00e9cadas una fuente de preguntas sin [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1720,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions\/1720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phylogal.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}