The Planetary Society , the largest independent organization dedicated to space exploration—founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman— has announced the award of its STEP (Science and Technology Empowered by the Public) Grants , a competitive program that funds innovative projects in science, technology, planetary defense, and the search for life. Among the three selected projects is AsteroiDB, an open platform for collecting, sharing, and analyzing photometric observations of asteroids. The project is led by Miguel R. Alarcón, Director of Scientific Operations at Light

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), through the European UNDARK project and together with CERN, has brought together international experts in cosmology, astrophysics and theoretical physics to analyse some of the discrepancies that are challenging our current understanding of the Universe. The aim is to determine whether they arise from effects in the observations that are not yet fully understood, or whether they conceal unknown physical phenomena still waiting to be discovered. We know more about the Universe than at any other time in history, and we can measure some of its

Thanks to the NIRPS infrared spectrograph, built with the involvement of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias , an international team led by the University of Geneva has been able to identify the unique orbit of the exoplanet GJ 3090 b. An international team, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has determined the orbital configuration of the exoplanet GJ 3090 b using the NIRPS spectrograph, built with the participation of the IAC and installed on the 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory (ESO

On 18 September 2026, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) received a communication from the Executive Director of the TMT International Observatory (TIO) stating that its partners had been unable to reach the consensus required to accept the financial offer presented by the Ministry on 29 July to begin construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on the island of La Palma. The proposal envisaged financing of up to €1 billion: a contribution from the Centre for the

The European project led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is featured on the cover of issue 327, the September 2026 edition of Astronomía magazine, with an extensive feature exploring the search for answers about the dark universe. We’re on the cover! And for UNDARK, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring some of the most fascinating questions in science today beyond laboratories and observatories and closer to society. Under the title “Shedding Light on the Dark Cosmos,” Astronomía dedicates its cover and an extensive eight-page feature to UNDARK ( Unravelling the Dark