6/27-7/2: 2016 Starmus Festival (Canary Islands)

Tenerife will host the Starmus Festival for the third time. Due to take place on the island from June 27 to July 2, 2016, the event will bring together the world's leading space travellers, stargazers and astrophysicists for an interactive extravaganza, inviting the general public to discover the wonders of the Cosmos through science, art and music.

Under the theme "Beyond the Horizon: Tribute to Stephen Hawking," the 2016 event will take inspiration from the legendary man himself and the notion that nothing is impossible. A comprehensive programme of events will include lectures from key note speakers, round table discussions, exclusive music performances, creative arts exhibitions and visits to local observatories.

"Astro-fans" will be delighted to learn that next year's line up of key note speakers will include theoretical physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking, Starmus Festival Founder and leading astrophysicist Dr. Garik Israelian and musician and astronomer Dr. Brian May. These big names will be joined by a line up of the world's leading scientists, astronauts and Nobel Prize winners, including:

Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysicist and commissioned by President Bush to serve on a number of aerospace missions
Eric Betzig – Physicist and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry 2014 for "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy"
Colonel Chris Hadfield – Astronaut and First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station (2015)
Harry Kroto – English Chemist and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry 1996
Lord Martin Rees – Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at The University of Cambridge and author or co-author of more than 500 research papers
Adam Riess – Astronomer, Physicist and Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 2011, who led a study for the High-z Team which provided the first published evidence that the expansion of the Universe was accelerating and filled with Dark Energy
Russell Schweickart – Astronaut and Scientist – ex-NASA Apollo Series astronaut and logged over 4,000 hours of flight time for the US Air Force
Neil Turok – Scientist and Professor of Physics and co-author of the popular science book Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang
Kip Thorne – Astrophysicist who has forged a career in writing and movies – his latest project was Interstellar (2014), directed by Christopher Nolan

Discussions will focus on pushing the boundaries of science and touch on subjects such as the blurring relationship between science and science fiction and how technology will affect the future of humanity.

The full program and package costs are still to be confirmed.