image: From left: CTAO Project Scientist, Roberta Zanin; Director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez; Vice-President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Juan Ramón Felipe San Antonio; President of the CTAO ERIC Council, Francisco Colomer; and Chair of the LST Collaboration’s Steering Committee, Juan Cortina.
Credit: IAC
La Palma, Spain, 28 May 2026 — The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), the future world’s largest and most powerful observatory for gamma-ray astronomy, continues its steady advance towards initial operations. In a joint press conference held in Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain), representatives from the CTAO Central Organisation (CTAO ERIC), the CTAO LST Collaboration, the Cabildo de La Palma, and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) came together to underscore the project’s advancement towards groundbreaking science, a progress marked by the upcoming inauguration of the four Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) on 15 October 2026 at the CTAO-North site.
The press event was held to coincide with the CTAO ERIC Council meeting on the island, which brought together delegates from more than 10 countries, including current and prospective CTAO ERIC members. It featured the Vice-President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Juan Ramón Felipe San Antonio; the Director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez; the President of the CTAO ERIC Council, Francisco Colomer; the CTAO Project Scientist, Roberta Zanin; and the Chair of the LST Collaboration’s Steering Committee, Juan Cortina.
The Vice President conveyed the greetings of the President of the Cabildo de La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, and emphasised the absolute support of this administration for all the technological and scientific advancements taking place on La Palma through the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM, in Spanish), managed by the IAC.
“It is an honour for our island to welcome the delegations and organisations from the countries of the CTAO. This meeting and these telescopes serve as confirmation that La Palma remains, in its own right, one of the science capitals of the world and one of the clearest windows for looking at the sky,” the Vice President stated, highlighting that “the sky over La Palma possesses exceptional conditions, protected by law, which have turned the ORM into a sanctuary for the study of the Universe.” Felipe San Antonio reiterated that “the deep-rooted connection the people of La Palma have with astronomy marks our very identity; we know how to look to the sky, as well as to the future.”
For his part, the Director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, stressed that the inauguration of these magnificent telescopes has been made possible thanks to inter-institutional collaboration and public support: “Hosting this meeting this week is confirmation that La Palma is a global benchmark in astrophysics and that the relationship between society and public administrations is a true model of success.” Specifically, he pointed out that “within this network, this is manifested in the support the Spanish government has given to the construction of these telescopes using FEDER (European Regional Development Fund) funds; coupled with the support of the Canary Islands Government and the Cabildo de La Palma.”
“It is an absolute pleasure to gather our international delegations at the CTAO’s northern hemisphere site to witness our rapid advancement firsthand,” stated Francisco Colomer, President of the CTAO ERIC Council and Programs Director for the Spanish Deputy Directorate General for International Consortia, Organisms and Research Infrastructures. “As a European organisation, the CTAO has a truly global reach and support, while simultaneously generating a profound national and local impact. For Spain, hosting CTAO-North means spearheading a next-generation scientific endeavour and represents a major strategic commitment to the future of European astrophysics.”
The construction of the Observatory is progressing at an exceptional pace. As the CTAO moves closer to initial operations and its first scientific results, the Central Organisation is rapidly expanding its workforce on the island. Since 2025 alone, the team has welcomed five new members, including several native La Palma professionals, with further employment opportunities planned for 2026 and 2027.
“With the rapid advancement of the CTAO-North array, we are getting closer to opening a completely new window to the extreme Universe, giving us the ability to answer some of the most exciting questions in astronomy, such as the nature of dark matter,” highlighted Roberta Zanin, CTAO Project Scientist. “Moreover, we are committed to ensuring our La Palma neighbours are part of this endeavour through outreach and education programmes, so they can participate in and feel proud of the unprecedented science that will be conducted on the island.”
As a testament to this commitment, this May alone the Observatory co-organised the “Women of CTAO” event with the Cabildo de La Palma, held the international CTAO School, bringing doctoral students from across the globe to the island, and celebrated the successful internship of a local vocational training student.
Alongside these community initiatives, the Observatory’s technological development continues to advance rapidly. A prime example is the work of the LST Collaboration, an international team of more than 500 members worldwide. The Collaboration is responsible for designing and building the LSTs, the largest of CTAO’s three classes of telescopes, and is now in the final stages of construction — a process that has also delivered a tangible socio-economic impact on La Palma, with over 30 local companies contracted during this phase. In October, the official inauguration of the four LSTs will take place at CTAO-North, a major announcement made during the press conference.
“The upcoming inauguration is a historic milestone for the future of the Observatory, but especially for the LST Collaboration,” explained Juan Cortina, Chair of the Steering Committee of the LST Collaboration. “Our teams of scientists and engineers have worked tirelessly for years to reach this point. This celebration is the crowning achievement at the end of the construction phase, and we are thrilled to celebrate it together with partners from all over the world, including high-level institutional representatives and world-renowned scientists, such as Nobel Laureate Takaaki Kajita.”
Importantly, the October inauguration is not the final step, but rather the gateway towards the realisation of the Observatory. Following this achievement, the LST Collaboration will continue working on technical tests required before the telescopes can be formally accepted and operated by the Central Organisation. Once accepted, they will be fully integrated within the CTAO-North array, which will also eventually feature Medium-Sized Telescopes (MSTs).
Following the press conference, the international CTAO ERIC delegates will visit the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory to experience the project’s scale and impact in person. The visit to the CTAO-North site will be led by Patricia Márquez, CTAO-North Station Manager, whilst the detailed tour of the LSTs will be guided by Daniel Mazin, Project Manager of the LST Collaboration.
With the imminent inauguration of the LSTs, organised by the LST Collaboration, and the steady expansion of the Central Organisation’s operations and team on the island, the CTAO stands on the threshold of a new era in gamma-ray astronomy. The path to unprecedented discoveries has officially begun, and La Palma is at the very heart of it.