VOLUME 1, Nº 4
DATE: MAY 2016
Reach the Sky Bulletin THE NIGHT SKY DEFENDER Since 1982 in the Canary Islands we have the IAC (Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute). It is a public research institution that concerns itself with astrophysics, advanced scientific instrumentation, university education and the cultural dissemination of science. In fact, the IAC observatories in Tenerife (Teide Observatory) and La Palma (Roque de los Muchachos Observatory) are the European Northern Observatory (ENO) and have installed telescopes and instruments from over sixty scientific institutions from nineteen countries. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory has the largest and most advanced optical-infrared telescope in the world, the Gran Telescopio Canarias, designed and built by the IAC. The IAC’s fight against light pollution in the night sky has been a constant, logical worry to the point that a national law was promoted, the “law of the sky”, a pioneering law in the protection of the sky in La Palma and Tenerife islands. It became the precedent for similar regulations in other planet areas. In addition, the Technical Office for the Skies Protection (OTPC) was also created, specializing in monitoring and advice
in the field. In 2007, with the participation of other organizations and national and international institutions (UNESCO, UNWTO, IAU, UNEP-CMS, COE, SCBD, MaB, EC and Ramsar Convention), the IAC promoted the “First International Starlight Conference” which, under the slogan “Starlight, a Common Heritage”, explored the need to protect the night sky on our planet from different perspectives and find ways for its enjoyment by society. The objective of this meeting was to spread the idea of the defense of the night sky among the population, considering it an outstanding, universal cultural value and a vital condition to promote and develop “astronomical tourism”, and not only a necessary condition for scientific researchers who observe and study the universe. The Starlight Foundation was created in 2009. Since then, it has been a legal entity whose main objective is the dissemination of astronomy and the coordination, management and promotion of the Starlight movement principles and
philosophy, developing all its possible dimensions in order to extend them worldwide through activities, products and services in these areas. It is a non-profit organization that, under the name Starlight, encompasses, coordinates and manages ideas, projects, people, thoughts and activities and invites society to rethink the way it values the starry sky. It also fights to protect the night sky and is aware that, in doing so, it is helping to care for a scientific and cultural heritage that belongs to everyone, while safeguarding the habitat of many species that need the dark of the night for their survival. Carlos Rodríguez Medina Spain
CANNIBALISM TRANSFORMS A STAR IN A BROWN DWARF An international astronomers team has detected a sub-stellar object that was a star before its white dwarf companion consume their mass. They have discovered by observing the weak J1433 binary system, 730 light-years away. The system consists of a low mass object - about 60 times Jupiter - moving in a very close orbit of 78 minutes around a white dwarf (the star remnant like our Sun). Due to its proximity, the white dwarf has removed about 90% of mass to its companion, transforming this old star in a brown dwarf. Most brown dwarfs are failed stars, objects that were born with so little mass that can not shine by being unable to sustain hydrogen fusion reactions in its core. However, this brown dwarf was born as a full-fledged star, but has been stripped of its mass by a stellar cannibalism for billions of years. The knowledge we had about the evolution of binary suggested that if the companion star can survive the transition, brown dwarfs should be common in this type of system. However, despite several efforts we had only met a few candidates with possible evidence of brown dwarf companions." stresses Juan Santisteban VeThe white dwarf steals mass a star that has ended in becomnancio Hernandez the lead author of the Nature journal paper.
ing brown dwarf. Credit Rene Breton.