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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  • enric_figure1
    Research news
    Exploring the atmosphere of GJ 1132 b with CRIRES+
    The rocky planet GJ 1132 b, with Earth-like mass and radius, is a prime candidate for atmospheric studies. Previous observations with Hubble and JWST yielded conflicting results about its atmosphere. This study used three transit observations with the CRIRES+ instrument to search for He i, HCN, CH₄, and H₂O in GJ 1132 b's atmosphere. No clear atmospheric signals were detected, but upper limits for CH₄, HCN, and H₂O were established. The results suggest that if GJ 1132 b has an atmosphere, it is not dominated by hydrogen. The work highlights the challenges of detecting high molecular weight
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  • Cartel de las Jornadas de Puertas Abiertas en el Observatorio del Teide 2025
    Press release
    The Teide Observatory opens its doors to the public on the weekend of June 21–22
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) invites the public to visit the Teide Observatory (Izaña, Tenerife) during the weekend of 21 and 22 June, coinciding with the week of the summer solstice. The activity is part of its Open Days, a free science outreach initiative organised by the Observatory itself together with the IAC's Scientific Communication and Culture Unit (UC3). Over two days, those attending will be able to tour some of the most important scientific facilities at the centre, learn how they work from the technical and research staff, and make live solar observations. Each
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  • Nine galaxies taken from over 700,000 spanning all of cosmic time, from upper left to lower right: the present day universe, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 billion years ago
    Press release
    The IAC participates in the James Webb telescope's largest map of the universe
    The largest observation program of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has released its data: nearly 800,000 galaxies observed in unprecedented detail. COSMOS-Web thus offers the most extensive and deepest view of the universe ever obtained. In this data release, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has played a key role, performing the morphological classification of more than half a million galaxies using neural networks, a crucial contribution to explore how galaxies form and evolve over cosmic time. COSMOS-Web was the largest General Observer program selected for Cycle 1 of
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  • Imagen del sistema TOI-6894 / IAC
    Research news
    A giant planet around a tiny star
    An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the University of Liège and collaborators in UK, Chile, the USA, and Europe, has discovered a transiting giant planet orbiting the smallest known star to host such a companion — a finding that defies current theories of planet formation. The host star, TOI-6894 , is a red dwarf with only 20% the mass of the Sun , typical of the most common stars in our galaxy. Until now, such low-mass stars were not thought capable of forming or retaining giant planets. But as published today in
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  • Installation of the LST-4 camera at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.
    Press release
    The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory takes a further step into the future with the installation of the LST-4 camera
    The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), located on La Palma, has reached another important milestone with the installation of the camera of the LST-4, one of the four Large-Sized Telescopes (LST), which will be part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), currently under construction. The installation of the camera represents the completion of the telescope assembly and marks its transition to the commissioning phase. After a thorough performance evaluation at the IACTEC building, the IAC's technological and business
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  • figura_prominence_galeria_resultados
    Research news
    The magnetic and dynamic properties of an active region prominence inferred from spectropolarimetric observations in the He I D3 multiplet
    Understanding the magnetic field in the corona is key for explaining the fascinating physical processes occurring there. However, the extreme conditions in the outer solar atmosphere hamper the possibility of acquiring observations with enough quality to infer the coronal magnetic field. Analyzing observations of overdensities of cold plasma supported by coronal magnetic fields, including filaments and prominences, allows us to understand such magnetic fields and their interaction with plasma. In this study, we have analyzed an active region prominence, a type of prominence that has barely
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