Graduate Program in Physics at UFSC, Florianópolis

Participants of the 1st KMOS VVVX–GalCen Spectroscopic Survey Workshop, held in December 2025 at the Institute of Astrophysics of Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile). The meeting brought together the scientific team involved in the VVV/VVVX surveys and in planning the new spectroscopic survey with the KMOS instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Credit: Dante Minniti

Astronomers began this week the first observations of a new large international survey called KMOS VVVX-GalCen Spectroscopic Survey, which will investigate tens of thousands of objects in the central region of the Milky Way. The project includes the participation of researcher Roberto K. Saito, professor at the Department of Physics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), the only Brazilian institution present in the main survey team.

The observations are carried out at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), one of the most advanced optical observatories in the world, located at the Cerro Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. The telescope is operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The KMOS VVVX-GalCen is the first major spectroscopic survey led from Chile, and it was selected by ESO as one of only two large programs that will use the KMOS (K-band Multi Object Spectrograph) instrument over the next three years. In total, the project received 140 nights of observation, which corresponds to a scientific investment estimated at about 8 million dollars in telescope time.

The project is led by astronomers Matías Gómez, from Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), and Francisco Nogueras-Lara, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalucía (Spain). Saito is part of the central group of researchers in the survey and is responsible for one of the scientific areas of the project.

“The first night of observations at Paranal was monitored remotely and went smoothly. Now begins the stage of analyzing the first spectra,” explains the researcher.

The observed targets were selected from two previous highly successful surveys: the VVV/VVVX, which mapped much of the Milky Way in infrared light over the past decade, and GALACTICNUCLEUS, a high-resolution survey of the innermost regions of our galaxy. The new survey will obtain spectra, a technique that allows decomposing the light of celestial objects and revealing properties such as chemical composition, temperature, and velocity.

Among the main scientific objectives are the study of rogue planets that wander freely through space, star clusters hidden by galactic dust, star-forming regions, and distant galaxies concealed behind the plane of the Milky Way. In the future, the survey is also expected to include spectroscopic observations of objects identified by the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), expanding the scientific possibilities of the project.

Learn more on the project website.

Elected directors of the SBPMat

Professor Ivan Bechtold, from the Department of Physics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), has been elected for a second two-year term (2026–2027) as President of the Brazilian Materials Research Society (SBPMat). SBPMat was founded in 2002, and Professor Ivan is the first researcher from outside the Southeast region to lead it.

The society brings together researchers from fields such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Health Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, and Engineering, all focused on the study and technological applications of materials. SBPMat’s annual event, internationally recognized in the field of materials, the Brazilian Materials Research Society (B-MRS), gathers around 2,000 participants from nearly every state in Brazil and also from abroad.

Ivan joined UFSC in 2006 and is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Physics. He is also a permanent faculty member of UFSC’s Graduate Programs in Physics (PPGFSC) and Chemistry (PPGQ).

Mice tested in the study were able to create mental maps without using visual references. Photo: Reproduction/Getty Images

Have you ever tried walking in the dark and, even without seeing, managed to find your way? This happens because the human brain is capable of calculating where we are based on our own movements, without relying on visual reference points like signs or buildings.

A study led by Professor Maurício Girardi-Schappo from the Neurophysics Lab, from the Department of Physics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), revealed through experimental tests that, like humans, mice are capable of creating mental maps without using visual references.

According to the international biology journal eLife, where the research was published in November 2024, the documentation of animals’ ability to build cognitive maps is “something rarely, if ever, reported outside the literature on human beings.” The journal also classified the work as “fundamental” for the advancement of fields such as biology, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology.

The study was developed in collaboration with researchers Leonard Maler, André Longtin, and Jean-Claude Béïque, and with doctoral student Jiayun Xu from the Center for Neural Dynamics and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Ottawa, in Canada.

According to Professor Schappo, the discovery contributes to breaking the premise that humans occupy a “privileged position” both within the universe and among different animal species. “For centuries, science has been deconstructing this idea, but in recent decades we’ve begun to have better tools to dismantle it,” he says.

Learn more.