Agreement between the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) and the National Astronomical Observatories of China

Romano Corradi, and the Director General of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Jun Yan, during the sign of the agreement for scientific and technological collaboration at the Office of the Secretary of State for R+D+I in Madrid. The
Romano Corradi, and the Director General of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Jun Yan, during the sign of the agreement for scientific and technological collaboration at the Office of the Secretary of State for R+D+I in Madrid. The
Advertised on

Today, Monday 5th September, the Director of the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), Romano Corradi, and the Director General of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Jun Yan, signed an agreement for scientific and technological collaboration at the Office of the Secretary of State for R+D+I in Madrid. The signing was presided over by Carmen Vela, Secretary of State for R+D+I, and the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Bai Chunli.

The objective of the agreement between the GTC and the NAOC, promoted by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is to strengthen the collaboration between the two institutions, and includes the provision by the NAOC of an advanced instrument for the GTC, and the possible access to 5% of observing time on the telescope. This could lead to the NAOC becoming a full member of the international user community of the GTC.

As well as the above mentioned agreement, the IAC and the NAOC are also collaborating in the SONG Stellar Observations Network Group, network, which at the present time comprised a Danish telescope -the Hertzsprung SONG telescope- at the Teide Observatory, Izaña, (Tenerife) and a similar Chinese telescope at the Delingha Observatory, Qinghai (China).  These two 1m telescopes are making observations of stellar oscillations and of other variable objects. In addition, the NAOC is one of the collaborating institutions in the future giant TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) which could eventually be installed on La Palma if the proposal to install it on Hawaii cannot go forward.

On the days before today's agreement, a delegation from the NAOC and Bai Chunli visited the IAC headquarters. During the Saturday visit and meeting at the IAC, was also present the President of the Government of the Canaries, Fernando Clavijo, accompanied by the Presidentof the Cabildo of Tenerife, Carlos Alonso. The next day, the Chinese delegation visited the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in Garafía (La Palma), to get to know the telescopes there, and to meet with the President of the Cabildo of La Palma, Anselmo Pestana.

 This visit is occurring after a visit made by the Director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo, and the director of the GTC, Romano Corradi, to the NAOC in May, where the IAC signed a memorandum of scientific and technical collaboration to promote the joint development of instrumentation.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences, with its Headquarters in Beijing, comprises 124 entities, including research institutes, universities and other related centres, which employ more than 70,000 researchers who are developing more than 30,000 research projects in natural and applied science. One of its institutions is the National Astronomical Observatories of China, which was founded in 2001 by the merging of four observatories, three observing stations, and one research centre. The NAOC carries out frontier studies in astronomy, operates the main national observing facilities, and develops key new technologies.

Previous press release: http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=1067&lang=en

News type
Press release

It may interest you

  • El director del IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, recibió al embajador de Japón en España, Takahiro Nakamae. / Inés Bonet (IAC)
    Press release
    El embajador de Japón en España visita el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
    El embajador de Japón en España, Takahiro Nakamae , visitó esta semana la sede central del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) y el Observatorio del Teide, junto con Shinji Yamada, cónsul de Japón en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, junto a personal de su equipo. En la sede central fueron recibidos por Valentín Martínez Pillet, director del IAC; y por el responsable de Instrumentación, Marcos Reyes; y por la jefa de la Unidad de Comunicación y Cultura Científica (UC3), Verónica Martín. En la sede central del IAC conocieron las instalaciones y las principales líneas de investigación del
    Advertised on
  • Simulation illustrating the distribution of dark matter particles expected in a low-mass galaxy if the dark matter did not collide (in orange, concentrated towards the center) versus the observed dark matter (in blue, far more dispersed) / Gabriel Pérez (IAC)
    Press release
    Researchers from the IAC have discovered that dark matter experiences forces beyond gravity
    The existence of dark matter is likely one of the most perplexing problems facing the scientific community, and unraveling its nature has become one of the primary goals of modern physics. In simple terms, we do not know what dark matter is made of, despite accounting for 85% of all the matter in the Universe. A study led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias concludes that dark matter does not behave as described by the dominant paradigm, which states that dark matter particles only interact with each other and with ordinary matter through gravity. The IAC study reveals that dark
    Advertised on
  • El telescopio de la red SONG en el Observatorio del Teide / Uli Fehr
    Press release
    The SONG global network celebrates its first decade of scientific research with a conference in Tenerife
    This week, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is hosting the Second SONG Scientific Congress to conclude the first decade of high-level work of this international network devoted to the study of the interior of stars and the planetary systems that surround them. The meeting, which is taking place at the headquarters of IACTEC in La Laguna from 18 to 20 September, brings together more than 50 scientists from Europe, the United States, Australia and China to discuss the latest state-of-the-art techniques in time-resolved spectroscopy and stellar astrophysics. The Stellar Observations
    Advertised on