An international scientific team, including members of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has launched an ambitious program to map exoplanets located around the Neptunian Desert —a region around stars where planets the size of Neptune are very rare— in order to better understand the mechanisms of planetary system evolution and formation. This scientific expedition has delivered its first results with the observation of the TOI-421 planetary system. Analysis of this system reveals a surprisingly inclined orbital architecture, offering new insights into the chaotic history of

An international team of astronomers has captured the most detailed and completed view yet of the mysterious filaments surrounding the giant galaxy M87. Using new observations from the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the study reveals how these long, thread-like structures move, evolve, and interact with their galactic environment and the activity of the central supermassive black hole. These findings have just been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. M87: a giant galaxy and its mysterious threads M87, located about 55 million

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is designing and developing, as ordered by the Spanish company Thales Alenia Space , the adaptive optics which will be a parto f the ground station for the GARBO project, the first Spanish geostationary system for distributing quantum keys by satellite. This is a decisive step in the field of secure quantum communication on a large scale, and will strengthn the position of Spain, and of Europe at the Forefront of this technology. Within the framework of the project the IAC will lead the development of the adaptive optics systems, and will participate