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.

  • Image of the Nube galaxy through different telescopes. Credit: SDSS/GTC/IAC
    A group of astrophysicists led by Mireia Montes, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has discovered the largest and most diffuse galaxy recorded until now. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, and has used data taken with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) and the Green Bank Radiotelescope (GBT). Nube is an almost invisible dwarf galaxy discovered by an international research team led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in collaboration with the University of La Laguna (ULL) and other institutions. The name was
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  • Calendarios astronómicos de 2024
    La Unidad de Comunicación y Cultura Científica (UC3) del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), en colaboración con el Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos (Museos de Tenerife), ha editado un calendario astronómico con efemérides astronómicas del año 2024. Este puede descargarse y ser consultado de forma digital. También se puede adquirir una copia física en la sede central del IAC. Las 12 imágenes que lo ilustran han sido tomadas por el astrofotógrafo Daniel López (El Cielo de Canarias). También se ha editado otro calendario en formato póster ilustrado con una imagen de la superficie de
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  • The LST-1 telescope at La Palma
    The first Large-Sized Telescope (LST) prototype of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma), has made its first scientific discovery by detecting the source OP 313 above 100 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), a level of energy a billion times higher than the visible light that humans can perceive. It is the most distant quasar ever observed by gamma-ray instruments from the ground. On 15 December, the Large-Sized Telescope (LST) Collaboration announced through an Astronomer’s Telegram (ATel) the detection of the source OP
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  • Participants in the "2023 Visiting Researchers" programme of Fundació Occident
    Nine internationally renowned specialists in the field of astrophysics have participated this year in the "Visiting Researchers" programme of the Occident Foundation (formerly the Jesús Serra Foundation), spending a minimum of one month and up to three months at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). As in previous editions, the invited researchers have been able to work together with members of the scientific teams of the different lines of research of this institute. The "Visiting Researchers" programme aims to attract the presence of internationally renowned researchers to
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  • Antonia Varela Pérez
    Antonia Varela Pérez has been appointed by the Cabildo of Tenerife, at the proposal of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), as the new director of the Museum of Science and the Cosmos. Varela will take over from Héctor Socas Navarro, also a researcher at the IAC, who has been in charge of the Museum since 2019. Varela is a researcher at the IAC and a member of the IAC's Sky Quality Group for the Characterisation of the Canary Observatories and the Starburst Formation Group. She is also managing director of the Starlight Foundation and president of BPW Canarias, as well as a PhD in
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  • Father Juan Casanovas at the OT
    Father Juan Casanovas (1929-2013), a Jesuit astronomer who played an important role in the early years of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has had his name given to asteroid (620307) Casanovas according to a recent announcement in the IAU Bulletin WGSBN. Father Casanovas joined the Observatorio del Teide, then recently created, in 1968, in which he founded the Solar Physics section, and pushed ahead with early testing campaigns which convinced the international scientific community of the excellence of Tenerife and La Palma for solar observations. Thanks to his knowledge of
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