An international scientific team, involving the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has identified the cause of an unusually long dimming of a distant star . The phenomenon is explained by the passage of a substellar object with a giant ring system, similar to a ‘cosmic saucer’, in front of the host star. The star, named ASASSN-24fw, is located in the Monoceros constellation at about 3,000 light-years away from Earth. The star faded steadily for more than nine months between late 2024 and mid-2025 to about 97% dark before returning to its normal

The course, taught by Hannah Thiel, a researcher at the Vigo Quantum Communication Center, brought Institute staff together around the foundations, applications and technological challenges of quantum communications and quantum key distribution. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) held a specialised course on quantum communications on 28 and 29 July, organised at the invitation of the Free Space Optics Communications Lab of the CELESTE project. The training, delivered by researcher Hannah Thiel, from the Vigo Quantum Communication Center at the Universidad de Vigo, took place at