Researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), in collaboration with the Instituto de Ciencias del Cosmos de la Universidad de Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Instituto de Estudios Espaciales de Cataluña (IEEC), have carried out the largest observational study to date on massive runaway stars including rotation and binarity in the Milky Way. This work, recently published in Astronomy & Astrophysics , sheds light on how these stellar “fugitives” are launched into space and what their properties reveal about their intriguing origins. Runaway stars are stars that travel through

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) announces the death of its founding director, Professor Francisco Sánchez Martínez, whose determination led to the creation of one of Europe's leading research centres and two of the world's finest astrophysical observatories: the Teide Observatory in Tenerife and the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma. He passed away today in Madrid, where he had been living for the last few years, at the age of 89. The director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, emphasises that "Professor Sánchez's legacy is incalculable. He was a man who paved