The fourth STARMUS festival took place in 2017 in Trondheim, Norway, from June 18 to 23. The theme of the fourth festival was: Life and the Universe, and the festival featured eleven Nobel Prize laureates and many astronomers, biologists, chemists, economists, astronauts and artists.

Among the Starmus IV delegates were space explorers Charlie Duke who spoke on the legacy of Apollo 16, Sandra Magnus who gave an account of her experience during her missions, Harrison Schmidt, from Apollo 17, the last mission to the Moon, who offered insights into future space missions, and Terry Virts who discussed the perspectives on Earth and our place in the Universe.

Starmus IV featured a wide range of round tables and discussions on different topics, among them the traditional 108-minute panel, this time called 108 minutes: The World on Fire, with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugene Kaspersky, Finn Kydland, Oliver Stone, Chris Pissarides as speakers and Larry King as moderator. Larry King also moderated the round table Space Journalism 360: New Era and gave a presentation on the era of post-truth and fake news.

Another panel discussion dealt with the issues of outreach and education and was moderated by David Eicher, with Torsten Wiesel, Alexandra Witze, Susan Bailey, Claude Nicollier, Markus Reymann, Sandra Magnus, May-Britt Moser and Ane Brun as speakers.

Nobel Prize Laureate panel discussion with the 11 Nobel Priize winners attending Starmus IV featured May-Britt Moser, Robert Wilson, Edvard Moser, George Smoot, Adam Riess, Finn Kydland, Susumu Tonegawa, Chris Pissarides, Torsten Wiesel, Tim Hunt and Stefan Hell.

In a discussion called Moonwalkers in conversation, moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Buzz Aldrin, Harrison Schmitt and Charlie Duke shared their experience on the surface of the Earth’s satellite.