Astronomers from all over the globe to assemble in Kazan

An international conference entitled “Astronomy and World Heritage: Across Time and Continents” will open at Kazan State University. The event will run on August 19 to 26 within an international astronomy congress AstroKazan 2009. The organisers are Unesco, International Astronomy Union, government of Tatarstan, Kazan State University and Tatarstan Academy of Sciences.

According to the UN’s decision, the conference is recognised as the main global event in 2009, said the Kazan university’s press service. Attendees will be Unesco officials, prominent scientists and heads of space agencies from the US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Indonesia, China and Japan.

The UN’s 62nd assembly declared 2009 a Year of Astronomy. Italy, the homeland of Galileo who 400 years ago opened the age of telescopic astronomy, put forward the initiative. Galileo was the first to see the Sun, the Moon, planets and stars through a telescope, made with his own hands, and made some great discoveries.

The Unesco directors decided to hold the conference in Russia, as it is here where the first satellite had been launched and the first person to go to the cosmos, Yuri Gagarin, had been a Russian national. Kazan attracted the organisers with its powerful 200-year-old astronomy school.

The agenda includes a conference entitled Near-Earth Astronomy 2009, dedicated to the asteroid menace, a science seminar called Research of the Moon and Planets with Space Devices, as well as a workshop called Astronomy in the Modern World and Education that includes lectures for high school and university students.