Gold and Silver Awards for Research Projects Using the GoChile Telescope

Image A supernova remnant in the constellation Vela, photographed with the GoChile telescope. Approximately eleven thousand years ago, a supernova located 800 light-years away blazed into view in the southern sky. In its place, we can today see the glowing remnants of the star that created this violent cosmic explosion.

Tjaš Erjavec, a student at Gimnazija Idrija, won the gold award for his research project titled Photometric Measurement of Physical Properties of Binary Stars, based on measurements taken with the GoChile telescope. Teo Temlin, a student at Gimnazija Murska Sobota, received the silver award for his project Calculating the Age of the Supernova Remnants Rakovica and N49 LMC Based on Observations with the GoChile Telescope.

GoChile is a project of the School of Sciences at the University of Nova Gorica (FN UNG) and includes two remotely operated telescopes at the El Sauce Observatory in Chile.

Tjaš Erjavec, a student at Gimnazija Idrija, used the GoChile telescope to measure changes in the brightness of eclipsing binary star systems, and from these measurements he derived estimates of the orbital periods, diameters, temperatures, and masses of the stars within them. In his extensive research project, he described in detail the practical aspects of conducting the measurements and the theoretical processing of the observations. He presented his work excellently before the expert committee and was therefore awarded the gold recognition. His mentors were Andrej Guštin (GoChile, FN UNG) and Marjanca Poljanšek (Gimnazija Idrija).

Teo Temlin, a student at Gimnazija Murska Sobota, used the GoChile telescope to photograph supernova remnants and, based on their sizes, estimated their ages — that is, how long ago the explosions of these supernovae occurred. In his research project, he demonstrated that it is possible to estimate the age of supernova remnants in the Galaxy and its satellite galaxies using a relatively simple method, for which he received the silver award. His mentors were Andrej Guštin (GoChile, FN UNG) and Dr. Renato Lukač (Gimnazija Murska Sobota).

The jubilee 60th Meeting of Young Researchers of Slovenia took place on 18th May 2026 in Murska Sobota. The event was organized by the Association for Technical Culture of Slovenia, which promotes research activity among young people, and was hosted by Gimnazija Murska Sobota and the Secondary Vocational and Technical School Murska Sobota. More than 400 young researchers from primary and secondary schools across the country attended, presenting 236 research projects from various scientific fields. The competition has multiple rounds — only a handful of the best projects from regional competitions advance to the final meeting in each research field. This school year, six research projects in the field of Astronomy or Physics qualified for the finals, two of which were produced within the GoChile project — an exceptional achievement in itself. Both projects performed brilliantly at the final meeting, taking home the gold and silver awards.

This year, another research project was completed using GoChile telescope, titled Estimating the Age of the Universe by Measuring the Coverage of the Sky with Galaxies, by Tinkara Hajnc, a student at II. gimnazija Maribor. Using the GoChile telescope, she photographed various parts of the sky, measured the coverage of the sky with galaxies, and produced an estimate of the age of the universe. The project received a very good score at the regional competition, but unfortunately did not advance to the national meeting. Her mentors were Andrej Guštin (GoChile, FN UNG) and Matjaž Črček (II. gimnazija Maribor).

Research projects from previous years, in which students have already achieved gold, silver, and bronze awards and twice took first place, can be viewed in the GoChile project archive.

GoChile is a project of the School of Science at the University of Nova Gorica. As part of the project, the university installed two telescopes at the El Sauce Observatory in Chile in 2021: a 40-centimetre reflecting telescope and a 7.2-centimetre refracting telescope, which allow remote observation of the southern sky via computer. El Sauce is located in the southern part of the Atacama Desert, where the sky is exceptionally dark, the air is dry, and there are more than 300 clear nights per year. Its location in the middle of the desert, far from light pollution, provides outstanding observing conditions and consequently excellent results.

A large portion of the GoChile telescopes' observing time is dedicated to education. The telescopes are used for astronomical observations and research projects by students of the School of Science at the University of Nova Gorica, by secondary school students from Slovenia and the surrounding region (both during summer schools and throughout the school year), and by amateur astronomers.

If you would also like to use the telescope, please write to gochile@ung.si.