A research team at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has observed an unusual type of emission in a sample of local galaxies which could indicate the presence of accretion discs around intermediate mass black holes (IMBH). The discovery would multiply by five the numer of known IMBH and opens a new way to detect and study this mysterious class of astronomica objects. Although only a few are known, via indirect evidence, the IMBH are a key to understand the formation of supermassive black holes and the galaxies which harbour them. The IMBH is a type of black hole whose mass is

A recent study, entirely done by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has produced the most complete analysis to date of the intracluster light, the diffuse and faint light emitted by stars in galaxy clusters which are not gravitationally bound to any galaxy. This result was based on data obtained by the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The research gives new clues about the formation processes of galaxy clusters, and the properties of dark matter. The article was published in the specialized journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters . In clusters of galaxies