El ciclo de divulgación “Del Cielo a la Tesis” regresa este mes de febrero para acercar el trabajo de los jóvenes investigadores del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) al público. En esta ocasión, la sesión se celebrará el próximo jueves 19 de febrero, en el Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos (MCC) del Organismo Autónomo de Museos y Centros del Cabildo de Tenerife. Eso sí, esta vez cambiará de horario y la sesión dará comienzo a las 17:00h. La jornada contará con dos ponencias centradas en la Astrofísica de altas energías y la búsqueda de respuestas sobre los componentes invisibles del

IAC researchers have confirmed the possible existence of large fullerene molecules in the Universe. These are the most complex molecules discovered to date

The Universe in 3D, a brief presentation, will open the exhibition in Tegueste next Saturday, 19 January, at 19:30 in the Prebend Pacheco Hall

Stellar-mass black holes (BHs) are mostly found in X-ray transients, a subclass of X-ray binaries that exhibit violent outbursts. None of the ~50 galactic BHs known show eclipses, which is surprising for a random distribution of inclinations. Swift J1357.2−093313 is a very faint X-ray transient detected in 2011 by the Swift telescope. Our spectroscopic evidences show that it contains a BH in a 2.8h orbital period. High-time resolution optical light curves display profound dips of up to 0.8 mag (50% of the optical flux) in 2min without X-ray counterparts. The observed properties are best

Rotation plays a key role in the life cycles of stars with masses above 8 Msun. Hence, accurate knowledge of the rotation rates of such massive stars is critical for understanding their properties and for constraining models of their evolution.This paper investigates the reliability of current methods used to derive projected rotation speeds v sin i from line-broadening signatures in the photospheric spectra of massive stars, focusing on stars that are not rapidly rotating.We use slowly rotating magnetic O-stars with well-determined rotation periods to test the Fourier transform (FT) and

Despite its importance for understanding the nature of early stellar generations and for constraining Galactic bulge formation models, at present little is known about the metal-poor stellar content of the central Milky Way. This is a consequence of the great distances involved and intervening dust obscuration, which challenge optical studies. However, the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), a wide-area, multifiber, high-resolution spectroscopic survey within Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), is exploring the chemistry of all Galactic stellar populations