30 September 2026 to 2 October 2026
Palazzo Steri, Palermo
Europe/Rome timezone

Preliminary Scientific Program

WED 30 SEPTEMBER

10.00 – Registration
11.00– Welcome addresses
11:30–12:15 (Invited) Giuseppe Piazzi: How an obscure mathematician became a famous European astronomer (Ileana Chinnici, with an additional brief by Mauro Gargano)

Session 1 - Astrometry

12:15–12:50 (Invited) From Ceres to Neptune: Piazzi’s observational legacy and the development of nineteenth-century star chart surveys (Klaus Staubermann, invited)

12:50–13:10 A Study of 19th-Century Stellar Catalogues to Improve Modern Astrometric Data (Federico Di Giacomo)

13:10–14:40 – Lunch

14:40–15:25 (Invited) The frontier of high-precision astrometry in the 21st Century (Alessandro Sozzetti, invited)

15:25–15:45 Gaia DR4: Enhancing the Value of Archival Data (Richard Smart)

15:45–16:05 True Masses Using RV Data and Hipparcos–Gaia Astrometry (Giulia Piccinini)

16:05–16:35 – Coffee Break

16:35–16:55 The Synergy of Transit Photometry and Astrometry in Exoplanet Characterization: The Role of the Osservatorio Polifunzionale del Chianti (Vincenzo Pettina)

16:55–17:15 Astrometry of Resident Space Objects with Event-Based Cameras (Stefano Palmiotto)

THU 1 OCTOBER

Session 2 – Small bodies I (Asteroids, Dwarf Planets, TNO)


9.10- 09:55 – (Invited) The Great Comet of 1811 Observed by Giuseppe Piazzi at the Palermo Observatory (Paolo Del Santo)

09:55–10:40 (Invited) An overview of the properties of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (Dominique Bockelée-Morvan) 

10:40–11:00 The Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS as Seen by JANUS Onboard the JUICE Spacecraft (Elena Mazzotta Epifani) 

11:00–11:30 – Coffee Break

11:30–11:50 Astrometric Precision of Meteor Observations and Its Impact on Orbit Determination (Juraj Tóth) 

11:50–12:10 Enabling the Recovery of Freshly Fallen Meteorites and Probing the Sub-Metre Meteoroid Population with the Italian PRISMA Fireball Network (Dario Barghini) 

12:10–12:55 From Cometary Shedding to Interplanetary Disruptions: What Can Meteoroid Impacts Teach Us? (Simon Anghel) 

12:55-13:20 (invited) PIAZZI and the ‘PLANETOID’ CERES: How the Discovery and Scientific Study was Reported in the Press (Clifford Cunningham, invited)

Session 3 – Small bodies II (Comets, Meteorites, Debris)

13:20–15:00 – Lunch

15:00–15:45 (Invited) The leftover: news and views (M. Cristina De Sanctis)

15:45–16:05 Advancing Near-Earth Asteroid Science through CubeSat Missions and Ground-Based Observations (Davide Perna)

16:05–16:35 – Coffee Break

16:35–16:55 Photometric Characterization of NEAs: Rotation, Taxonomy, and Evidence for Internal Cohesion (Albino Carbognani)

16:55–17:15 The Wide-field Mufara Telescope (WMT) as a Strategic Facility in the Mediterranean Area for Monitoring and Discovering Small Bodies in the Solar System (Alessandro Nastasi)

17:15–18:00 (Invited) Post-AO high-resolution imaging of moons and asteroids in the Solar System with SHARK-VIS@LBT (Gianluca Li Causi)

18:00–18:15 Space Debris Characterization Through Multiband Photometry (Alfredo Biagini)

20:00 – Conference Dinner

FRI 2 OCTOBER

Session 4 – New technologies
09:15–09:50 (Invited)From Tycho to Piazzi: Two Centuries that Revolutionized Astronomical Observations (Giorgio Strano)

09:50–10:35 (Invited) New Technologies: Outcome or Engine of Scientific Research? (Roberto Ragazzoni)

10:35–11:05 – Coffee Break

11:05–11:40 (Invited) Young Stellar Populations in the Milky Way: The Next Frontier with GaiaNIR (Loredana Prisinzano)

11:40–12:00 SHARP: A New-Generation Near-IR Spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope (Paolo Saracco)

12:00-12:20 Wi-Fi SuperCAT: development of an innovative, fast, compact, large field-of-view telescope for sky monitoring (Giovanni Pareschi)

12:20–12:40 Progetto NOCTIS: Una Risorsa per la Comunità Astronomica (Carmelo Falco)

12:40–12:50Concluding Remarks

Public conference:
Museo Storico dei Motori e dei Meccanismi, Università di Palermo (Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 8 Macchine)
18.00 – Vita oltre la Terra e il futuro dell'umanità (Amedeo Balbi, invited)

SAT 3 OCTOBER (OPTIONAL)
See Side Events