The Thursday sesión of the “Preserving the Skies” conference on La Palma finished with talks by representatives of international organizations such as UNESCO and the World Tourist Organization, as well as a historical review of the Starlight initiative, and of the places and the reserves which have been awarded certificates for the quality and protection of their skies.

In the second day of the conference "Preserving the Skies" which is being held on La Palma, opened with lectures related to the quality of the sky in observatories such as the Roque de los Muchachos where the future 30 metre telescope might be installed, and with new developments with less pollution in artificial lighting which were presented by different companies in this field.

The "Preserving the Skies" conference on La Palma reviewed, yesterday afternoon, some aspects related to the impact of light pollution on astronomy and on the environment, especially on wild-life, as well as the correlation between exposure to artificial lighting and certain types of cancer in Spain.

This morning saw the inauguration of the conference "Preserving the Skies" to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Starlight Declaration of La Palma. It has received the support of the Astronomy and World Heritage initiative of the UNESCO and the IAU in pointing out the value of those places where human society has given shape to its fascination for celestial phenomena, as well as bringing out the benefits to the economy and to identity which stem from the protection of the night sky.

The detection, in which an IAC researcher took part, was made using the transit technique with the MEarth network of telescopes and the HARPS spectrograph on a telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The results will be published tomorrow in the Nature magazine.

La escritora finalizó hoy su estancia en las Islas en el marco del proyecto transversal “En un lugar del Universo…”, emocionada y sorprendida por la ventana al descubrimiento que le ha abierto esta experiencia, tras visitar el IAC, los Observatorios de Canarias y el Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos.