It is a unique place, a mixture of traditional museum and amusement park, where visitors have the opportunity to approach the laws and principles that govern Nature, from the functioning of their own body to that of the stars.

Inaugurated in 1993, at the initiative of the Cabildo of Tenerife and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the MCC has served to translate into popular language the fascinating discoveries that the study of the Universe is providing.

The MCC is a museum in constant evolution and aims to be a centre for popularising science for all audiences, while at the same time serving as an educational resource for teachers and students of all levels. The most important part of our activity is to promote a positive attitude towards science, presenting it as a component that is close to everyone and present in the daily lives of all people.

The Museum of Science and the Cosmos is not a traditional museum. It belongs to a generation of science museums whose aim is no longer simply to show the scientific and technical achievements of an era or a place, nor to demonstrate them by adding an educational and cultural purpose to the conservation and presentation of this heritage.

The aim of these museums is to communicate science, using all available means, especially interactivity and experimentation in multidisciplinary environments that enhance the playful aspects of perception and analysis of reality, with real objects but also with multimedia tools.

In 1969, the physicist Frank Oppenheimer created the first Science Center with these characteristics -the Exploratorium in San Francisco-, placing the emphasis not on a collection of objects, but on the questions generated by scientific development. Following this model, the Museum of Science and the Cosmos seeks to showcase science that tunes the senses and develops the imagination.

As agents for the dissemination and promotion of scientific culture, as well as education in general, institutions such as the Museum of Science and the Cosmos fulfil a dual function in this sense. On the one hand, they contribute significantly to the process of scientific literacy in society as a complementary element to the education system, during formal and regulated education, even trying to awaken the much-needed scientific vocations. On the other hand, they play a fundamental role in the processes of scientific dissemination aimed at the general public in the context of so-called “non-formal education”, without forgetting that they can constitute spaces for cultural entertainment and form part of the tourist offer of a locality.