The European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (JENAM 2011) has been held this year in Saint Petersburg, from 4th to 8th of July. Our group has been present in Symposium S9 (Galaxy Evolution : the key for Galaxy Formation theories) and in Special Session SPS5 (Minor Merging as a Driver of Galaxy Evolution) of the conference. A GUAIX member (Carmen Eliche-Moral) has given a talk there on the formation of stellar inner components (such as inner rings and inner discs) in spiral galaxies through minor mergers (talk available here). Pictures below have been taken by Dr. Carlos López-SanJuan, now at Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), who also presented a talk there (talk also available here).

Apart form all the wonderful buildings of Saint Petersburg, the city presents an additional interesting phenomenon during summer time: the white nights. The city is located so far North, that the Sun has not a complete sunset during the summer days. This means that there is not a complete darkness during the night time, but a twilight that does not end between eleven in the evening until three in the morning, moment at which the Sun rises again (see the picture).