An international research, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has played a leading role, has found a planet of intermediate size between Earth and Venus orbiting a cool red dwarf 40 light-years away. The new world, named Gliese 12 b, lies within the habitable zone of its star, making it a promising candidate for the James Webb Space Telescope to study its atmosphere. The discovery was made possible thanks to observations from NASA's TESS satellite and other facilities such as CARMENES, at Calar Alto Observatory (CAHA), and MuSCAT2, installed at the Carlos Sánchez

The Euclid Consortium announces the publication of its first papers, demonstrating the space mission's ability to search for wandering planets, study the dark matter of galaxies and explore the evolution of the Universe. Five new images with unprecedented resolution are also published. Spain plays an important role in the Euclid mission where, in addition to being part of the consortium that has led the mission since its inception, it has also participated in the instrumental development of the project and contributes significantly to its scientific exploitation. The Instituto de Astrofísica

An international scientific team, with the participation of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has found a new world similar in size to our planet orbiting an ultra-cold red dwarf located about 55 light-years away. Observations from the SPECULOOS telescope network, which includes the ARTEMIS telescope at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, have made this discovery possible. The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, has also played a key role in confirming the discovery, providing some of the most accurate ground

An international team, led by a researcher from the University of Liège (Belgium) affiliated to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has discovered an extraordinarily light planet orbiting a distant star in our galaxy. This discovery, reported today in the journal Nature Astronomy, is a promising key to solving the mystery of how such giant, super-light planets form. The new planet, named WASP-193b, appears to dwarf Jupiter in size, yet it is a fraction of its density. The scientists found that the gas giant is 50 percent bigger than Jupiter, and about a tenth as dense — an

An international research team, with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) shows that the satellite galaxy NGC 5195 has passed twice through the disc of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), in relatively recent times, stimulating star formation, and defining the structure of its arms. The research is published in the prestigious The Astrophysical Journal. The Whirlpool Galaxy M51, is a ”grand design” spiral galaxy: its spiral form is dominated by two well defined arms. Discovered by Charled Messier in 1771 M51 lies some 31 million light years from Earth, As it is face-on