News

This section includes scientific and technological news from the IAC and its Observatories, as well as press releases on scientific and technological results, astronomical events, educational projects, outreach activities and institutional events.

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  • New Scales for Measuring the Chemical Composition of the Universe
    Press release
    El IAC participa en el desarrollo de nuevas escalas para medir la composición química de las galaxias
    Un equipo internacional, en el que participa personal investigador del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), ha desarrollado una nueva generación de calibraciones que permiten estimar la composición química (metalicidad) tanto de las galaxias cercanas como de las más lejanas y tempranas del Universo observadas por el telescopio espacial James Webb. El estudio se basa en el análisis de la mayor colección de observaciones espectroscópicas de alta calidad reunida hasta la fecha, resultado de más de una década de trabajo de recopilación y análisis. La composición química como registro de
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  • Winter School 2026
    Press release
    The IAC’s 37th Winter School turns Tenerife into the world capital of massive stars for two weeks
    The 37th Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, to be held from 16 to 27 November in La Laguna, will bring together more than a hundred students and early-career researchers – with almost exact gender parity – to learn about the study of massive stars, from their birth through to core-collapse supernovae and gravitational-wave events. The programme combines lectures by international specialists, practical tutorials, visits to observatories in the Canary Islands and a series of activities open to the public. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) will host the 37th Canary
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  • auriglobes
    Research news
    Introducing AuriGLOBES: The effects of compressive tides, compact object-induced mass loss, and size evolution on modelling globular clusters
    Globular clusters are dense, ancient groupings of stars that have survived the long history of galaxy formation and evolution, yet the exact processes that shape them from birth to the present day remain unclear. Here, we present AuriGLOBES (Auriga GLOBular clustEr Simulations), a new physical model designed to track how star clusters form and evolve within large-scale cosmological simulations. Using this model, we simulated nine galaxies similar in mass to the Milky Way and five lower-mass galaxies. Our simulations successfully produce realistic globular cluster systems that match
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  • Artist’s impression of a massive binary system
    Press release
    Research led by the IAC reveals that massive stars inherit their composition from hidden companions
    An international team, led by a pre-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has revealed that the heaviest chemical elements on the surfaces of the youngest massive stars originate from their more evolved companions. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics . ‘Throughout their lives, stars produce energy by fusing lighter chemical elements into heavier ones.’ “Stars are the universe’s great factories for chemical elements: as they evolve, they take the lighter ones and fuse them into heavier ones, changing their original
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  • Portada del folleto de «SUPER NOVAE. Cómo las muertes estelares conforman nuestro universo»
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    UNDARK presents “SUPERNOVAE”, an illustrated journey through the death of stars
    The illustrated publication “SUPERNOVAE. How stellar deaths shape our universe” explores stellar explosions and their connection to the elements that make life possible, neutrinos and some of the cosmos’s greatest mysteries. How do stars die? What remains after a supernova? How are these explosions connected to the matter we are made of? UNDARK, a project funded by the European Union through the WIDERA programme under Horizon Europe and coordinated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), brings these questions to the public through SUPERNOVAE , an illustrated publication whose
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  • Participants in the IAC’s cross-disciplinary project ‘Dark Matter: Observations, Models and Detection’, held at the IAC’s headquarters in La Laguna
    Press release
    The IAC brings together its research staff to make progress in the search for the nature of dark matter
    On the occasion of International Dark Matter Day, the IAC transversal project “Dark matter: observations, models and detection” — coordinated by G. Battaglia — celebrated its first internal workshop on October 29th at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), with the support of the DiaLoGues project. The IAC transversal project “Dark matter: observations, models and detection”, created in 2026, brings together IAC researchers with complementary expertise united by a common goal: understanding the fundamental nature of dark matter (DM), one of the main constituents of the Universe
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