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.

  • Installation of the scientific detector in the FRIDA instrument at the UNAM laboratories in Mexico City.
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has successfully completed the integration of the scientific detector into the FRIDA (inFRared Imager and Dissector for Adaptive Optics) instrument, an integra-field camera and spectrograph designed to work with the adaptive optics system of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or Grantecan), the world's largest optical and infrared telescope, located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma. The integration was carried out in the laboratories of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City by a team from the IAC
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  • Visita de la delegación del Instituto de Óptica, Mecánica Fina y Física de Changchun (CIOMP) al IAC.
    El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) ha recibido la visita de una delegación del Instituto de Óptica, Mecánica Fina y Física de Changchun (CIOMP), perteneciente a la Academia China de Ciencias (CAS), en el marco de una colaboración técnica vinculada al desarrollo del telescopio SELF ( small Exo Life Finder), prototipo de 3,5 metros del futuro telescopio ELF. La delegación estuvo encabezada por el Prof. ZHANG Xuejun, presidente de CIOMP y recientemente nombrado académico de la Academia China de Ingeniería (CAE), y contó con la participación del ingeniero senior Lingtong Zhang y del
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  • mikepicture1
    O ne of the key challenges in astronomy is to measure accurate distances to celestial objects. Knowing distances is crucial since it allows us to measure physical properties such as size, mass and luminosity. Since we can’t go out and use a tape-measure, a range of different approaches have been developed. Many of these approaches rely on using “standard candles”. Standard candles are objects (for example stars or supernovae) for which we know their intrinsic ”true” brightness. Once we know this, then their observed brightness compared to their intrinsic brightness gives us a distance to the
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  • Fachada de la casa de control de MAGIC decorada con motivos inspirados en el sombrero de los Enanos, símbolo emblemático de las Fiestas Lustrales de La Palma
    La casa de control de los telescopios MAGIC , en el Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM), en La Palma, luce desde hoy una nueva imagen, la del “Enano Estelar”, en homenaje a una de las figuras más queridas de las Fiestas Lustrales de la Bajada de la Virgen de las Nieves . La intervención artística, promovida por la colaboración científica MAGIC, ha sido presentada en un acto institucional que ha reunido a autoridades locales, representantes del mundo científico y medios de comunicación. La transformación del edificio —cuya singular cubierta, obra del arquitecto José Luis Porta
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  • Vera C. Rubin Observatory's first light images of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas. This image combines 678 separate images taken by NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time
    The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located in Chile, today released its first images of the universe, known in astronomy as an instrument's “first light”. This event marks the beginning of a project that will revolutionise our understanding of the universe over the next decade. Jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is participating, as part of a consortium of Spanish institutions, in its scientific exploitation and contributing observation time from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or
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