From April 25 to 28, the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) became the epicentre of science and culture with the celebration of the STARMUS Festival 2025. A unique global event, STARMUS blends astrophysics, space exploration, art, and music to inspire and ignite curiosity about the Universe. This year’s edition in La Palma included the participation of the CTAO, bringing very high-energy astrophysics and the latest news of the Observatory to the heart of the community that hosts its northern hemisphere site, CTAO-North.
For the first time, the festival featured two public “Camps” in the cities of Santa Cruz de La Palma and Los Llanos de Aridane. Each camp offered a full four-day programme divided between an Expo Zone and a Stage Zone, where science met creativity and engagement.
The CTAO contributed to both Camps with exhibits that welcomed hundreds of visitors, including school groups from across the island. With a team of CTAO experts and a virtual reality experience, attendees explored CTAO’s science and virtually toured its two sites, showcasing what the Observatory will look like once construction is complete.
On Friday and Saturday, the 5 Sigma science podcast, hosted by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), featured two CTAO voices: Alba Fernández-Barral (Chief Communications Officer), who introduced the Observatory and its key scientific objectives, and Patricia Márquez (Telescope Manager of the CTAO LST Collaboration), who explained the engineering challenges and innovations involved in building the Large-Sized Telescope (LST), one of the three types of CTAO telescope. Their interviews will soon be available on 5 Sigma’s official channels.
Sunday’s highlight was a high-altitude excursion to the CTAO-North site at 2,200 meters, organised by STARMUS for VIP guests and festival companions. More than 100 visitors toured the interior of LST-1, the prototype Large-Sized Telescope inaugurated in 2018 and now in commissioning, and learned about the three additional LSTs under construction by the LST Collaboration.
A particularly special moment was the visit of renowned primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall, who toured the LST-1 facilities and learned about the Observatory’s mission and scientific goals from the CTAO team. Dr. Goodall, known for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees, has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Príncipe de Asturias Award, the Kyoto Prize, and the Legion of Honor from France. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 and launched the Roots & Shoots programme to empower youth in environmental and humanitarian efforts. During the festival, she was also honoured with a medal on La Palma’s Walk of the Stars of Science.
The last day of the festival concluded with a public talk by Patricia Márquez, who presented the latest updates on the CTAO-North’s construction progress, as well as some interesting engineering facts about the LSTs.
All activities were made possible thanks to the dedication of CTAO Central Organisation and LST Collaboration members (in alphabetical order): Alice Donini, Alba Fernández-Barral, Antonia Flores, Patricia Márquez, Daniel Mazin, Javier Méndez, Antonio José Peñuela, and Viktoria Pinter. The virtual reality experience was created by INAF within the framework of the CTA+ project, funded by the Italian Resilience Recovery Plan (PNRR).
