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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  • Frame of the video Traveling on a Comet. Credit: Virtualisrealitates
    Press release
    Activities for Asteroid Day
    To celebrate Asteroid Day, which commemorates the impact of the Tunguska Fireball in 1908, several researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) will participate in on-line chats to talk about the nature of these lesser bodies of the Solar System, and about the risk of impact on the Earth.
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  • Artists impression of an active galactic nucleus. Credit: University of Boston-Cosmovision
    Press release
    La Palma telescopes participate in the discovery of a young blazar produced by the merger of two galaxies
    An international team of scientists has obtained the first unequivocal detection of a very high speed jet of matter emitted by a galaxy in the process of merging with another. The flux of particles and radiation, which is emitted by the supermassive black hole in the centre of the galaxy and which is observed face on, shows that it is a precursor structure to the formation of a blazar, one of the most energetic objects known. This discovery was made by combining observations from several telescopes, among them the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the William Herschel Telescope at the Roque de
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  • Night landscape in the Teide National Park. Total Eclipse of Moon and Red Tajinastes -endemic to Tenerife-. Image J.C. Casado @ starryearth.com.
    Press release
    EELabs: sustainable use of artificial lighting
    Initiation of the European project EELabs. The recent visit of the Mayor of Gúímar to the Teide Observatory sees the start of the Energy Efficiency Laboratories project, coordinated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, for the protection of night-time ecosystems through energy efficiency.
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  • Japanese delegation at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma)
    Press release
    The Japanese ambassador to Spain visits the IAC and the Canary Observatories
    The Japanese ambassador to Spain, Kenji Kiramatsu, yesterday visited the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Canary Island Observatories, together with Masahiro Aoki, secretary to the Embassy, Yoshihiro Miwa, the consul of Japan in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Josep Piqué Camps, President of the Council of the Spain Japan Foundation. Yesterday, they were received by Rafael Rebolo López, the Director of the IAC and Jesús Burgos, administrator of the General Services of the IAC at its headquarters in La Laguna. After a short visit, the delegation went up to the Teide
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  • Artistic image of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in La Palma, with the TMT and GTC identified
    Press release
    The Report on the Socio-economic Impact of the TMT on La Palma has been presented
    This morning, in the Cultural Space of the CajaCanarias Foundation in Santa Cruz de La Palma there was a public presentation of the Report on the Socio-economic impact of the Thirty Metre Telescope on the Island, by the Professor of the Department of Economy, Accountancy, and Finance of the University of La Laguna, its author. The report shows that the installation of the TMT on La Palma would not only be a milestone in the development of astrophysics, but it would have a significant positive economic impact on the Island. As well as Juan José Díaz, the others who spoke before the
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  • VI Meeting on Science with GTC opening conference. From left to right: María Rosa Zapatero, Rafael Rebolo, Rafael Rodrigo, María Vicenta Mestre, José Carlos Guirado, José de Jesús González and Vicent Martínez. Credut: Silvia Granja (IAC).
    General
    The VI Conference “Science with the Gran Telescopio Canarias” opens
    The scientific meeting about the largest optical and infrared telescope in the world was inaugurated today, Wednesday 12th December, in the centre of the University-Business Foundation of the University of Valencia. The meeting, which will continue until Friday, is focused on the analysis of the most recent resuilts obtained with the GTC and on future observational strategies.
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