A small rock in the Atlantic: STARMUS on La Palma

Grantecan, the biggest optical telescope in the world, at sunset

STARMUS is a unique scientific, artistic and musical event taking place mostly in Tenerife this week, with a truely stellar lineup of speakers and performers. I wanted to go, but I couldn't afford the time or the money.

I say "mostly in Tenerife" because on Thursday Jack Szostak, Brian May, Richard Dawkins, Kip Thorne, George Smoot, Jill Tarter, Alexei Leonov and Neil Armstrong are coming to the Roque de los Muchachos for a round table discussion in the GTC dome at 7 pm. They'll be talking about things like: Why do we want to go to space? Why do we need to study the Universe? What are the relative merits of manned versus robotic space missions? Where do we go next?

It will be webcast live at http://www.starmus.com/pages/en/broadcast.php

Labels: astronomy, fiestas, Roque de los Muchachos