AU Microscopii (AU Mic) is the second closest pre-main-sequence star, at a distance of 9.79 parsecs and with an age of 22 million years. AU Mic possesses a relatively rare and spatially resolved edge-on debris disk extending from about 35 to 210 astronomical units from the star, and with clumps exhibiting non-Keplerian motion. Detection of newly formed planets around such a star is challenged by the presence of spots, plage, flares and other manifestations of magnetic ‘activity’ on the star. Here we report observations of a planet transiting AU Mic. The transiting planet, AU Mic b, has an orbital period of 8.46 days, an orbital distance of 0.07 astronomical units, a radius of 0.4 Jupiter radii, and a mass of less than 0.18 Jupiter masses at 3σ confidence. Our observations of a planet co-existing with a debris disk offer the opportunity to test the predictions of current models of planet formation and evolution.
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Tomorow, 10th November, at 18:00 the Museum of Science and the Cosmos will offer, free, a lectura with the title “The Milky Way and its encounters with other galaxies. It will be given in Spanish by Teresa Antoja, an astrophysicist and Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Science of the Cosmos in the University of Barcelona (ICCUB). The field of encounters between galaxies has been growing in importance in recent years. The European Space Agency (ESA), launched the Gaia mission some years ago, and this has provided a large amount of new information in the form of data which have
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The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is joining in the celebrations for 11 February by taking part in more than a dozen actions aimed at promoting scientific and technological vocations among girls and young women and making the role of women in the development of science more visible. The report " Radiography of the gender gap in STEAM education" published in 2022 by the Equality Unit of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training shows that in some key disciplines for the future and, in particular, those related to Astronomy and Astrophysics, progress is not being made
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One male and one female researcher received the Junior Leader postdoctoral fellowship and three others received INPhINIT Incoming PhD fellowships. The aim is to retain and attract talent to promote research excellence in Spain and Portugal. The Scholarship Programme of the "la Caixa" Foundation held the financial aid award ceremony yesterday, Tuesday 12 March, which will benefit research staff at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). This programme of INPhINIT Incoming PhD and Junior Leader postdoctoral fellowships will reach a total of 105 people from more than 60 research centres
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