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Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
I went to STARMUS La Palma for science and music — I came back in love
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. They call La Palma the island of stars, and in April 2025, it became the epicenter for science, stargazing and music. I was there for STARMUS, a festival that brings together Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, musicians and science enthusiasts for several days of talks, performances and cosmic inspiration. But nothing prepared me for the moment I first looked up at the night sky. Standing upon the rooftop terrace of our hotel, in the beautiful town of Los Llanos de Aridane, I was in awe. The stars didn't twinkle, they blazed. Despite being far from the prime skywatching sites, the sky overhead was a dazzling dome of starlight. I eagerly reached for my phone, expecting a grainy blur. But to my surprise, the photos captured a sky bursting with stars and distant mountain silhouettes etched against the night sky. STARMUS La Palma was a truly special experience — one that surrounded me with stars both above and beside me. It was inspiring to walk among some of the world's brightest minds and biggest dreamers, all gathered on an island that feels as alive as the universe we came to celebrate. The clear skies and lack of light pollution on La Palma, or Isla Bonita (the Beautiful Island), in the Canary Islands off the northwestern coast of Africa, make it a haven for astronomy lovers. In 2007, the island became the world's first Starlight Reserve, a protected area committed to preserving the quality of the night sky. Image 1 of 4 Image 2 of 4 Image 3 of 4 Image 4 of 4 "The requirements for a Starlight Reserve specifically address the features, peculiarities and functions of each space, which may relate to the preservation of the conditions for astronomical observation, the conservation of nature, the integrity of nocturnal landscapes or sites of cultural heritage," according to a statement on the Starlight Foundation website. The Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world's largest single-aperture optical telescope, stands as a sentinel of scientific discovery atop Roque de los Muchachos, the highest point on the island at around 7,900 feet (2,426 meters). One of the most striking parts of our visit to Roque de los Muchachos, aside from the rather alien landscape as we drove up the mountain, was seeing the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) taking shape. Still under construction, this next-generation facility will explore some of the most explosive phenomena in the gamma-ray universe. CTAO aims to unravel the mysteries behind cosmic particles, supermassive black holes and even dark matter, as per the official CTAO website. It will be the first observatory of its kind to offer open access to its data. 'As an international observatory, the CTAO knows that sharing our knowledge only makes us stronger,' reads a statement on the site. Image 1 of 4 Image 2 of 4 Image 3 of 4 Image 4 of 4 The CTAO will operate across two sites: one in the northern hemisphere, here on La Palma, and the other in Chile's Atacama Desert. Together, they will host more than 60 telescopes, making it the largest and most powerful gamma-ray observatory on Earth. The first telescopes are expected to be deployed within the next few years, with full operations planned by the end of the decade. La Palma not only plays a pioneering role in astronomy, but also serves as a stark reminder of Earth's volatility. In 2021, the island was shaken by a dramatic volcanic eruption that changed the landscape forever. The Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma erupted from Sept. 19 to Dec. 13, 2021, with more than 20,000 earthquakes taking place in the days and weeks before the eruption. More than 7,000 people were evacuated from their homes. Lava swallowed over 1,300 residences, covered roads and farms, and disrupted thousands of lives . Yet the spirit of the island wasn't broken. Image 1 of 2 Image 2 of 2 The resilience of La Palma lives in every rebuilt home, every replanted garden and every person who chose to stay following the eruption. STARMUS La Palma honored that spirit, not only by returning to this cherished island and birthplace of STARMUS but by dedicating its presence to revitalization, engagement and hope. STARMUS La Palma was nothing short of extraordinary. Held from April 25 to 28, the festival brought together more than 45 speakers, including theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, former astronauts Chris Hadfield and Kathryn Thornton, and primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall. But it wasn't just about big names. It was about big ideas and meaningful conversations. One of the most memorable speeches came from Goodall herself. "There is this indomitable spirit that people have," Goodall said during her keynote speech. "So many people tackling projects that seem impossible, people who won't give up, people who do bring nature back to a place that we have destroyed." Goodall praised scientists using our amazing intellect to create technology that will enable us to live in harmony with the natural world, for example, alternative energies. "Nature will come back," Goodall said — a simple but powerful message of resilience and hope. Her words resonated deeply with the setting. In La Palma, where the 2021 volcanic eruption devastated entire communities, signs of recovery are now everywhere. Green shoots are pushing through the volcanic soil, and new life is slowly reclaiming the landscape. Goodall's message wasn't just metaphorical here — it was visible, growing, and real. We could make the sky invisible to the ground if we're not careful Meanwhile, Xavier Barcons, Director General of the European Southern Observatory, gave an eye-opening talk about the importance of dark skies and how big telescopes are changing our view of the universe. "We could make the sky invisible to the ground if we're not careful," Barcons said during his lecture. Barcons also highlighted the vulnerability of the world's most precious sky-observing location, the summit of Mount Paranal, the site of the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) , which is at risk of being blinded by light pollution from a planned renewable energy project. Read more: World's largest telescope threatened by light pollution from renewable energy project Equally eye-opening was Chema Alonso's talk on hacking AI. Equal parts thrilling and terrifying, his words painted a picture of a future in which AI's promise must be balanced by responsible control. While astrophysicist and SETI pioneer Jill Tarter talked about searching for intelligent extraterrestrial technology, how we do it, and what we are looking for in big to answer the age-old question "are we alone?" "It's a very old question, it involves us, our place in the universe, how we came to be and how we might evolve in the future," Tarter said. "And I think it's extraordinarily important." Throughout the week, speakers raised critical questions about sky pollution, satellite debris and our changing atmosphere. What does it mean to protect the night sky? Should it be considered a human right? Looking up at La Palma's pristine skies, it's hard to believe such a view could disappear. And yet, that's exactly what many fear. The message from STARMUS was clear: we need global stewardship to safeguard this natural wonder. I see the stars differently now. Not just as points of light, but as fragile beacons. The night sky connects us all — and it's ours to protect. As our flight took off from La Palma, the island fell away behind me — its black volcanic ridges, its verdant forests and a sky so impossibly full of stars. I felt changed. Not just inspired, but recalibrated. Back home, streetlights compete with the stars. Life returns to its usual buzz. But something in me has shifted. I went to STARMUS for science and music. I came back in love with the sky, the science, and the incredible island of La Palma.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
I'm headed to STARMUS La Palma 2025, where curious minds will gather under one of the darkest skies on Earth
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In just a couple of weeks, I'll be packing my bags and heading to a beautiful island just off the coast of northwestern Africa shaped by volcanic activity and dense, forested terrain. However, while the beautiful port towns, extensive beaches and towering waterfalls are a huge draw for many tourists, I'm in search of something a little more ... "out of this world." This April, the island of La Palma — affectionately known as "Isla Bonita" (beautiful island) — will transform into a beacon for space lovers, scientists and stargazers alike as it hosts STARMUS La Palma 2025, a four-day festival celebrating science, the cosmos and the art of discovery under some of the darkest skies in the world. Running from April 25 to April 28, the festival's theme "The Island of Stars" is more than just poetic — it's literal. La Palma, the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, Spain, is home to some of the darkest, clearest skies in the Northern Hemisphere and to the iconic Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the largest single-aperture optical and infrared telescope in the world. STARMUS is rather unique in its mission. The festival blends space exploration, music and public engagement into a vibrant celebration under the stars. I was fortunate to witness this firsthand last year at STARMUS 2024 in Bratislava and you can bet your bottom dollar I am equally excited for this year's celebrations. The 2025 edition of STARMUS includes more than 45 speakers including Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne, legendary astronauts Chris Hadfield, Kathryn Thornton and Terry Virts, as well as iconic zoologist and primatologist Dame Jane Goodall, to name but a few. But for avid stargazers, STARMUS isn't all about lectures — it's an immersive celebration of science and the night sky. There will be several events taking place across the island, with STARMUS Camps in Santa Cruz de La Palma and Los Llanos de Aridane bringing science and wonder to the streets of La Palma. These camps are a great way for the public to experience hands on exhibits, space talks and stargazing opportunities. Furthermore, this year's festival also carries a deeper mission. In 2021, La Palma was stuck by a volcanic eruption that displaced thousands of people and reshaped parts of the island. STARMUS La Palma 2025 is dedicated to supporting the island's ongoing recovery toward once again being a top tourist destination for night sky enthusiasts due to its pristine dark skies. It offers this support through its ability to revitalize local economies and create spaces for community engagement. Evenings at STARMUS will echo with music under the stars, including the Sonic Universe concert on April 26 in Puerto de Tazacorte as well as classical concerts in Santa Cruz de La Palma on April 25 and April 27. Founded by astrophysicist Garik Israelian and Sir Brian May, Queen's guitarist and fellow astrophysicist, STARMUS remains a powerful intersection of art, science and space. And it's only enhanced by the fact that this year's special edition offers not only a journey through the cosmos — but also a heartfelt tribute to the spirit and strength of La Palma.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Fast Radio Burst Traced Back to The Last Place We Expected
The mystery of fast radio bursts (FRBs) just got a little bit weirder. A team of astronomers has just traced a burst called FRB 20190208A back to the distant galaxy that spat it out – and they found a tiny, faint dwarf galaxy that seems to be more than halfway across the observable Universe. That's a really unusual place to find one of these mysterious signals, and it confirms they are way more complex than we currently understand. "The majority of fast radio burst host galaxies seem to be massive, star-forming galaxies – perhaps implying that most FRBs are produced by magnetars formed from core collapse supernovae," astronomer Danté Hewitt of the University of Amsterdam told ScienceAlert. "However, the faintness of the FRB 20190208A host galaxy implies that it's one of the least massive FRB host galaxies we've ever seen – so that was definitely surprising!" Fast radio bursts are an intriguing cosmic conundrum. They are huge spikes of radio waves that appear in radio telescope observations, lasting just milliseconds, but discharging in that time as much energy as 500 million Suns. Most of them flare just once, randomly, making them impossible to predict, and very difficult to trace back to a source. Some, however, are repeat offenders, continuing to spit out signals, sometimes randomly, sometimes in a timed pattern. These are usually a bit easier to trace, because astronomers can watch for them and study them more closely. We don't currently have a good grasp on what makes them. There's a growing body of evidence that erupting magnetars are the culprit for at least some of them; but the different ways FRBs can present indicates that we don't have the whole story. Looking at where they come from is one way to fill in some of the gaps. This brings us to FRB 20190208A, a repeating burst first detected in February 2019. Hewitt and his colleagues used radio telescopes to observe the location of the burst for a total of 65.6 hours. In that time, between February 2021 and August 2023, they caught the source bursting twice more. This information allowed them to pinpoint its location in the sky. They then used optical telescopes to take deep sky observations to see what sort of galaxy might be lurking there. "Our initial attempts at identifying a host galaxy revealed no source at the FRB position. We were a little baffled," Hewitt said. "There are a few possible explanations in such a case, but seemingly 'hostless' FRBs are quite rare (since most FRB sources appear to be in massive galaxies). But then, when we saw the images from the Gran Telescopio Canarias, there was a very exciting 'Oh wow! Look! There's actually a faint smudge right where the bursts are coming from' moment." Dwarf galaxies are difficult to see, which is only exacerbated by distance. Because this one is so faint, the researchers were unable to derive a confident distance measurement; but, by looking at the way the radio light of the FRB dispersed as it traveled through space, it could be a light travel time of some 7 billion years. That would make FRB 20190208A one of the most distant FRBs ever detected, which is very nifty. But it's the identity of the tiny galaxy that really sparks the imagination. "This host galaxy is most likely 10-100 times fainter than the vast majority of other FRB host galaxies, perhaps on par with the Magellanic Clouds," Hewitt said. "Naturally, dwarf galaxies such as these do not house a lot of the stars in the Universe. So finding an FRB in such a galaxy may indicate that there are environmental conditions (e.g. the metallicity: whether the gas is pure hydrogen or not) that are conducive to the production of (some) FRB sources." So far, only a small number of FRBs have been localized. What's interesting is that more repeating FRBs have been traced to dwarf galaxies than non-repeating FRBs. This could be an observation bias; but it could alternatively mean that the conditions in dwarf galaxies are somehow more conducive to the production of repeating FRBs. Dwarf galaxies, Hewitt explained, are known to host some of the most massive stars in the Universe due to their low metallicity. When these stars die, they don't go quietly, blowing up the sky in core-collapse supernovae. Those collapsed cores then go on to become highly magnetized neutron stars, or magnetars. "Finding repeating FRB sources in dwarf galaxies thus potentially links these repeating FRB sources with massive star progenitors," Hewitt said. "It's a little poetic. When the most massive stars die, they unleash some of the most energetic explosions in the Universe; and then maybe, the remnants of those explosions continue to scream into the void, repeatedly producing FRBs." We're not quite yet at the point where we can solve this fascinating puzzle. But we're getting closer. It's discoveries like these that take us, step by painstaking step, towards a full understanding of what is behind these wild, huge explosions in the sky. "It's also a little bit of a cautionary tale for the future," Hewitt told ScienceAlert. "The story of FRB 20190208A tells us that in order to robustly associate an FRB with a host galaxy, we will sometimes need both a very precise position from radio arrays, as well as very deep imaging using the largest optical telescopes we currently have at our disposal. That is simply not something that can be done yet for thousands of sources." The team's research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Blue Ghost Makes History With Perfect Moon Landing: Amazing Photos This Star Goes Nova Every 80 Years. Here's Where to Look For It in 2025. Blue Ghost Captures Stunning Moon Footage Ahead of Historic Landing
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What we know about possible Nasa mission to ‘deflect' asteroid heading for Earth
Scientists will begin to debate in the coming weeks whether they will need to send a mission to intercept an asteroid that may hit Earth in 2032. It might sound like the plot of a Hollywood fiction film, a European Space Agency (ESA) scientist told Yahoo News that one option available to scientists is to crash a satellite into the space rock and divert it off course. Last week, the ESA has raised the odds of the asteroid designated '2024 YR4' hitting Earth to 2.2% following updated data from telescopes in recent days. If the asteroid still poses a threat and it is above 50 metres (164ft) wide, scientists will begin to debate sending a mission to intercept it in May. Juan L Cano, of the ESA's Planetary Defence Office, told Yahoo News: 'We could start discussing in May whether there is any merit in sending a mission there. The problem is that we have just seven and a half years by that point to do something and develop and construct a satellite. It will be very constrained.' The object is travelling away from Earth and scientists are aiming larger and larger telescopes at it to get a clearer picture of both its path and its size. The object's 'aphelion' – its most distant point from the sun – is close to Jupiter, and it was spotted when it passed Earth coming from the sun. It will only be in reach of telescopes for a short time. Cano said: 'We need to keep observing this object as much as possible. The object is receding from us and getting more away every time we need target telescopes for that. We are now at a limit where we need telescopes of the order of two metres in diameter in order to be able to observe the subject. 'By next month, we will be needing four metres and later, the ones that are eight metres in size. Finally, the largest ones, for example, the Gran Telescopio Canarias which has a 10-metre diameter.' The ESA has requested to use the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the asteroid until mid-May. By May, Cano hopes, scientists will have enough information to decide both whether the object will hit Earth, and how big it is. Depending on the size of the object, scientists will either debate sending a mission to deflect the object – or simply evacuate the area where it might hit. Cano told Yahoo News: "We have two scenarios here, if we see that the impact probabilities have not gone down in April and the object is bigger than 50 metres, the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group will decide whether to suggest a deflection mission or not. "If it is not, the suggested solution is evacuation of the impact area." By the time the asteroid returns, its trajectory will be well enough understood for scientists to evacuate. NASA and the European Space Agency have conducted research into how the trajectory of an asteroid can be changed by ramming it with a spacecraft. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission impacted the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022. The collision changed Dimorphos's orbit successfully, and now scientists hope to study the space rock close-up to understand how to launch similar missions. The ESA's Hera spacecraft will enter the orbit of Dimorphos and its larger companion Didymos in October 2026. By analysing the results of DART, Hera will offer information which could be used to repeat the feat with other objects. Astronomer Dr David Whitehouse told Sky News that another potential option would be launching a nuclear weapon at the asteroid. The asteroid was spotted on 27 December by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). ATLAS is a warning system for asteroid impacts consisting of four telescopes. It is designed to offer a minimum of 'several weeks' of warning before the impact of a 300ft asteroid like 2024 YR4. As telescope technology has improved, the number of asteroids spotted has increased, although the number of space rocks remains the same. The ESA estimates that the asteroid is between 40 metres and 100 metres wide. That would potentially make the space rock's width similar to the height of Big Ben in London, which is 96 metres high. It is difficult to accurately predict any potential damage. NASA says that an 100-metre wide asteroid has 10 times the destructive force of the 2021 Tonga volcanic eruption, which caused a large explosion and tsunamis in several countries. The damage caused by such an explosion would vary depending on where the asteroid hit. "An asteroid this size impacts Earth on average every few thousand years and could cause severe damage to a local region," the ESA has said. NASA says that the impact could kill up to a million people, "averaged over all possible impact locations". "These deaths could result from a direct hit or by tsunami (tidal wave) in the event of an ocean strike," it adds. An asteroid thought to have been around 18 metres wide across 'blew up' over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013. During the 2013 Chelyabinsk event, 1,500 people were injured and 7,300 buildings damaged by the intense overpressure generated by the shockwave at Earth's surface. The time of closest approach to Earth (when it could potentially impact) is the 22 December 2032. The asteroid has been ranked as 'level 3' on the Torino Impact Hazard scale, but NASA says this is likely to drop. NASA describes level 3 asteroids as a "close encounter, meriting attention by astronomers. Current calculations give a 1% or greater chance of collision capable of localised destruction." It adds: "Most likely, new telescopic observations will lead to re-assignment to Level 0. Attention by public and by public officials is merited if the encounter is less than a decade away."
