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.

  • Claudie Nicollier, the first Swiss austronaut  / ESA
    The headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) will host a talk by the first Swiss astronaut, Claude Nicollier, who wants to share his experience in space with the IAC staff on Wednesday 30 October at 14:30. Claude Nicollier is the first Swiss astronaut to have flown into space. After his studies at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, Claude joined ESA as a member of their first group of astronauts. Since 2007 Claude has been a Professor at the F ederal Polytechnical School at Lausanne. He has spent more than 1000 hours in space (more than 42 days) including a space
    Advertised on
  • The IAC hosts a global meeting of the European project The Whole Sun / Inés Bonet (IAC)
    The Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias hosted this week the global meeting of the members of the European project The Whole Sun , a project approved and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of its Synergy Grant calls. The duration of the project is seven years (from 2019 to 2026) and its full title is: “The whole Sun: untangling the complex physical mechanisms behind our eruptive star and its twins”. The main objective of the ERC’s Synergy Grant calls is to promote the joint work of groups of researchers in different European institutions so that all the necessary tools
    Advertised on
  • Hertzsprung–Russel diagram blue supergiants
    The properties of blue supergiants are key for constraining the end of the main sequence phase, a phase during which massive stars spend most of their lifetimes. The lack of fast-rotating stars below 21.000K, a temperature around which stellar winds change in behaviour, has been proposed to be caused by enhanced mass-loss rates, which would spin down the star. Alternatively, the lack of fast-rotating stars may be the result of stars reaching the end of the main sequence. Here, we combine newly derived estimates of photospheric and wind parameters, wind terminal velocities from the literature
    Advertised on
  • La consejera insular de Turismo Raquel Rebollo Morera; el director del IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet y la consejera insular de Desarrollo Económico, Miriam Perestelo Rodríguez. /Inés Bonet (IAC)
    El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) agradece a la ciudadanía palmera y a sus instituciones su compromiso con la protección de sus cielos en el cumplimiento de la Ley del Cielo y por la cesión de sus cumbres para el estudio científico. Así se ha puesto de manifiesto en la reunión monográfica mantenida por el IAC, el Cabildo Insular de La Palma y los ayuntamientos de la isla celebrada en el Palacio Salazar. En la reunión han participado el director del IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet; la consejera de Turismo del Cabildo de La Palma, Raquel Rebollo Morera; y la consejera de Promoción
    Advertised on
  • MaNGA galaxies
    The hierarchical model of galaxy evolution suggests that mergers have a substantial impact on the intricate processes that drive stellar assembly within a galaxy. However, accurately measuring the contribution of accretion to a galaxy's total stellar mass and its balance with in situ star formation poses a persistent challenge, as it is neither directly observable nor easily inferred from observational properties. Using data from MaNGA, we present theory-motivated predictions for the fraction of stellar mass originating from mergers in a statistically significant sample of nearby galaxies
    Advertised on
  • The director of IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet and the team of engineers of the European Solar Telescope, alongside the international panel of reviewers with the telescope model, during the evaluation in Tenerife. / Inés Bonet (IAC)
    The IACTEC headquarters has recently hosted the meeting between the engineering team behind the future European Solar Telescope and an international panel composed of some of the world's leading experts in the development of large telescopes and solar observation instrumentation. It is common for major scientific projects to undergo this type of scrutiny during their development as a way to independently verify their quality and viability. The evaluation process began over a month ago with the submission of all the design documentation to the reviewers. In this case, the evaluation focused
    Advertised on