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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  • Robert P. Kirshner, Executive Director of the Thirty Metre Telescope International Observatory (TIO), during his talk at the IAC.
    Press release
    Robert P. Kirshner, Executive Director of the TMT International Observatory, visits the IAC and gives a colloquium on the Thirty Meter Telescope
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has received a visit from Robert P. Kirshner, Executive Director of the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory (TIO) . During his stay at the IAC headquarters in La Laguna, he was welcomed by the center’s director, Valentín Martínez Pillet, and by the deputy director, Eva Villaver Sobrino, along with other members of the research institute. During his visit, he was able to learn firsthand about the institution’s scientific and technological capabilities and gave a colloquium titled The Thirty Meter Telescope and Science of the Future
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  • tesscarmenes
    Research news
    Discovery of a transiting hot water-world candidate orbiting Ross 176 with TESS and CARMENES
    The TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission has discovered many exoplanet candidates that need to be confirmed and characterized from the ground. One of them orbits Ross 176, a K-type dwarf star, where we have identified a promising hot “water-world” candidate. Using spectroscopic observations with the CARMENES instrument, we confirmed the planetary nature of the signal detected by TESS and estimated the planet’s mass. To improve the analysis, we applied an advanced statistical method called Gaussian Process, which allowed us to separate the star’s own variability (quite strong
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  • An artist's impression of Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission touching down on the surface of the asteroid 1998 KY26.
    Press release
    Gran Telescopio Canarias observations confirm that Hayabusa2's asteroid target is smaller and faster than expected
    Astronomers have used telescopes around the world, includingthe Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or Grantecan) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, to study the asteroid 1998 KY26, revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spinning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 extended mission. The new observations offer key information for the mission’s operations at the asteroid. “We found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,” says astronomer Toni Santana-Ros, a
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  • Artistic illustration. Credit: Elsa Bersier - CFPArts / ESBDi Genève
    Press release
    The IAC participates in a complex observation campaign to unravel the enigmatic 'Neptunian desert'
    An international scientific team, including members of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has launched an ambitious program to map exoplanets located around the Neptunian Desert —a region around stars where planets the size of Neptune are very rare— in order to better understand the mechanisms of planetary system evolution and formation. This scientific expedition has delivered its first results with the observation of the TOI-421 planetary system. Analysis of this system reveals a surprisingly inclined orbital architecture, offering new insights into the chaotic history of
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  • An artistic illustration that combines a real image of a galaxy with a representation of the stellar orbits within it, to show how the study of the movements of stars allows us to reconstruct the history of galaxies.
    Press release
    Extragalactic archaeology provides new clues about the formation of the galaxies
    An international review article in which IAC researcher Jesús Falcón Barroso is a contributor, explains how the study of stellar populations in galaxies outside the Milky Way and the Local Group, using techniques which are called “extragalactic archaeology”, permits the reconstruction of the processes of formation and evolution of those galaxies. This article has been published in the Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics , one of the most prestigious journals in this field, to which only five researchers of the IAC have contributed during the lifetime of the Institute. How did the
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  • Artistic impression of the V Sagittae star system, where a superdense white dwarf extracts matter from its larger companion. Unable to assimilate all the transferred mass, a bright ring of gas forms around it.
    Press release
    The IAC and the ULL participate in the discovery of an unusual ‘stellar dance’ that could culminate in an explosion visible from Earth
    A greedy white dwarf star in our own Milky Way galaxy is devouring its closest celestial companion at a rate never seen before, according to an international study involving the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL). The research, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , found the double star, named V Sagittae, is burning unusually bright as the super-dense white dwarf is gorging on its larger twin in a feeding frenzy. Experts think the stars are locked in an "extraterrestrial tango" as they orbit each other every
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