{"id":17890,"date":"2021-10-27T11:26:56","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T18:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/?p=17890"},"modified":"2023-08-23T23:48:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T06:48:31","slug":"alejandro-sanchez-de-miguel-monthly-star","status":"publish","type":"darksky_news","link":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/news\/alejandro-sanchez-de-miguel-monthly-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Alejandro S\u00e1nchez de Miguel: Light pollution researcher and space pirate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each month the DarkSky International features a DarkSky Advocate from the worldwide network of volunteers who are working to protect the night. This month we\u2019re highlighting the work of DarkSky Advocate and International Committee co-chair Alejandro S\u00e1nchez de Miguel.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Alejandro Sa\u0301nchez de Miguel Monthly Star\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iYdjPmmGa5Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alejandro S\u00e1nchez de Miguel did not set out to be a light-pollution researcher. He wanted to be a pirate. The tagline on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pmisson.blogspot.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">his personal blog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reads: \u201cAqu\u00ed podeis leer, ver las peripecias y pensamientos de un Piratilla del espacio\u201d (Here you can read and see the adventures and thoughts of a space pirate).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was a child, Alejandro\u2019s family moved inland to the small town of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robledo de Chavela, 65 miles (100km) northwest of Madrid.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe lived in Santander, in the north of Spain on the coast, and moved from there to Madrid. There was no sea. I needed to use my small telescope to see faraway things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Alejandro-Sanchez-de-Miguel-400x469.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26090\" width=\"300\" height=\"352\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As fate would have it, just up the road from their house was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdscc.nasa.gov\/index.php\/en\/history\/\">NASA\u2019s Deep Space Communication Complex (MDSCC)<\/a>, run by the Jet Propulsion Lab. The complex facilitates communication and control of interplanetary spacecraft and imaging. If you\u2019ve ever seen a beautiful, full-color picture of Earth taken from space, there is a good chance it was downloaded in Alejandro\u2019s hometown.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While there were no scientists in his family, he says they did have a passion for nature and his father taught him the constellations and encouraged his interest in astronomy. Alejandro also has dyslexia and found the deductive formulas of physics easier than literature. By the age of 14, he was teaching astronomy in summer schools and giving amateur lessons locally.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Growing up next door to a NASA facility, it seems like destiny that Alejandro would go on to become an astrophysicist. In 2014, he co-founded <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/citiesatnight.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cities at Night<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a project using images taken by the International Space Station (ISS) to create the first full-color map of Earth at night.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Alejandro\u2019s main focus is on light pollution. As one of the first and only dedicated researchers on the topic (about to embark on a new position with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucm.es\/\">Universidad Complutense de Madrid<\/a>), he essentially paved the first path for a career in light-pollution research.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1703\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17938\" srcset=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled.jpg 1703w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-600x902.jpg 600w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-480x722.jpg 480w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-1440x2165.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-240x361.jpg 240w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-720x1082.jpg 720w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/DSC9673-scaled-1362x2048.jpg 1362w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c\u200b\u200bAt the age of 16, I was already concerned about light pollution and I had a meeting with the vice mayor of my town about light pollution. It all started because a new construction development was creating so much light pollution that it was not allowing me to sleep when it was cloudy,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would not be a stretch to say that Alejandro knows more about light pollution than almost any other human being on Earth. Though he is quick to credit his colleagues Jaime Zamorano and Salvador Xurxo Bar\u00e1 Vi\u00f1as, both of whom were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/announcing-the-2021-award-recipients\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2021 DarkSky International award recipients<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (\u201cThey are my masters; all that I have done is thanks to them,\u201d he says of them). Alejandro also won the DarkSky International <a href=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/what-we-do\/events\/darksky-awards\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"892\">Dark-Sky Defender award<\/a> in 2014. He now sits on the <a href=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/who-we-are\/board\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"472\">Board of Directors<\/a> for DarkSky and is co-chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/who-we-are\/committees\/international-committee\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"16347\">International Committee<\/a>, among a large handful of other titles and roles across Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The relative lack of research on light pollution compared to other topics, like climate change, afforded Alejandro some early-career opportunities. He was still a student when he calculated the first light-pollution statistics of Europe and began calibrating images from the ISS. For Alejandro, this was a shock.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYou think to yourself, \u2018Oh, this is too important, there have to be 20 people from NASA working on this.\u2019 But actually, there was no one. Not only no one in NASA, no one in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A silver lining to this is that light-pollution advocates and researchers have a lot of agency to expand the field \u2014 try new things, undertake new research, or start a new advocacy group.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt\u2019s a mistake to assume that this is so important that someone else is already doing it. The advice that I would give is: find out. Don&#8217;t assume somebody else is doing the job. Because many times, nobody is doing the job.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alejandro has now published dozens of research papers on light pollution, the most important of which <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/greenfutures.exeter.ac.uk\/article\/rapid-increase-in-global-light-pollution\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">came out in September 2021<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It was the first study of global light emissions between 1992 and 2017. The findings were staggering: light pollution has increased by at least 49% over 25 years globally. This figure only accounts for light visible via satellites. So, the true increase may be much higher \u2014 up to 270% globally and 400% in some regions.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"First estimation of global trends nocturnal power emissions reveals acceleration of light pollution\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z67k0VCijik?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe thing is, we&#8217;re not only destroying nature. We&#8217;re destroying ourselves, in health and in heritage. My philosophy is, it\u2019s better to do something than to do nothing, and what we face right now is \u2018the nothing\u2019. So we have to push,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat is going to happen if kids cannot go out and see the stars; if they can\u2019t be inspired by astronomy?\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alejandro\u2019s story mirrors mine and so many of the advocates and researchers I speak to. An interest in the cosmos that formed at a young age by a family member pointing out the magic in the night sky. A child\u2019s telescope providing a window into an ocean of stars.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe positive thing for me in all of this is that there is hope. We have the technology, and we are getting the knowledge to use it,\u201d Alejandro says.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" src=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17939\" srcset=\"https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-480x320.jpg 480w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-1440x961.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-720x480.jpg 720w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/darksky.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/10\/P1040138-scaled-2160x1441.jpg 2160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But he acknowledges that his hard-earned research is useless without the right communication and dedicated advocates to relay messages to the public, governments, and conservation NGOs.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By working together, says Alejandro, advocates, activists, astronomers, and researchers can all play to our strengths. And in this way, ensure the starry sky still sparkles to inspire future space pirates to explore the cosmic seas.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alejandro S\u00e1nchez de Miguel\u2019s research is available on <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.es\/citations?view_op=list_works&amp;hl=es&amp;authuser=1&amp;hl=es&amp;user=arcOl8oAAAAJ&amp;authuser=1\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Google Scholar<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or you can follow him @pmission on <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pmisson\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pmisson\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pg\/asmpmisson\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facebook<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alejandro S\u00e1nchez de Miguel, a light-pollution researcher and DarkSky Advocate, discusses his journey from aspiring space pirate to astrophysicist, emphasizing the importance of combating light pollution and inspiring future generations to appreciate the night sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":26088,"template":"","categories":[1287,633],"tags":[712,863,108,117,116,870,868,268,867,11,681,866,869,637,865,871],"advocacy_type":[123,285],"events_terms":[],"locations_terms":[],"admin_issue":[],"class_list":["post-17890","darksky_news","type-darksky_news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-star","category-news","tag-advocacy","tag-alejandro-sanchez-de-miguel","tag-astronomy","tag-cities-at-night","tag-darksky-advocate","tag-global-light-emissions","tag-health","tag-heritage","tag-international-space-station","tag-light-pollution","tag-monthly-star","tag-nasas-deep-space-communication-complex","tag-nature","tag-research","tag-space-pirate","tag-teamwork","advocacy_type-advocacy","advocacy_type-monthly-star"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/darksky_news\/17890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/darksky_news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/darksky_news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17890"},{"taxonomy":"advocacy_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/advocacy_type?post=17890"},{"taxonomy":"events_terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events_terms?post=17890"},{"taxonomy":"locations_terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/locations_terms?post=17890"},{"taxonomy":"admin_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darksky.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/admin_issue?post=17890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}