maria_luisa_espinoza

Chilean astronomer who mapped Southern Hemisphere stars during the Cold War

Maria Luisa Espinoza (1928-2015) was a pioneering Chilean astronomer who made critical contributions to stellar classification in the Southern Hemisphere. Working at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory from 1960-1985, she developed the first comprehensive star catalog for the Magellanic Clouds, publishing her landmark work Atlas de Estrellas del Sur in 1972. Her spectral classification system for red giants became standard in astrophysics textbooks. During the Cold War, she trained over 40 students from across Latin America through her observatory's outreach programs, many of whom became leading astronomers. Her 1968 discovery of the Espinoza Nebula (now NGC 2024) was featured in NASA's Hubble telescope highlights. She co-founded the Latin American Astronomical Society (1975) and her work is preserved in the World Astronomy Heritage database. The 2010 documentary Las Estrellas de Maria details her challenges as a female scientist in 1950s Chile. Her research influenced later studies on dark matter, as noted in Chilean Astronomy. The European Southern Observatory named a telescope array after her in 2018. Her teaching methods are still used in the Universidad de Chile's astronomy program, and her 1980 paper on variable stars remains a citation classic. Her legacy is celebrated annually during the Atacama Star Festival, where her star maps are projected in the desert sky.