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.

List view
  • Image of several of the protective screens manufactured in the Mechanical Workshop of the IAC in La Laguna. Credit: IAC.
    Press release
    The IAC is designing and making material for protection against COVID-19
    The Technology Division of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has started to design and manufacture protective screens and other sanitary material to shield against the COVID-19 virus. At the request of a number of institutions, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the IAC has designed a protective screen, which, after receiving the approval of a prototype, has started to be manufactured in series in the Mechanical Workshop of the IAC in La Laguna. At the time of writing, a total of 150 units has been distributed to the City Council of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, and the
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  • Image of several lines of Geminides observed from the Teide Observatory in the early morning of 14/12/2013. The telescope in the foreground is the OGS (ESA) and above the Teide is the constellation of Orion. Credit: J.C. Casado (StarryEarth).
    Press release
    Lyrids 2020: wishes through the window
    On the night of 21st April we will be treated to the maximum of the Lyrids meteor shower. Just as for the other recent astronomical events we will have to see them from home, so that we will need to be very patient, because they will appear with a frequency of barely one every 10 or 15 minutes.
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  • Three images of the Supermoon of August 10, 2014, taken in the Teide National Park. In the image, the VTT and GREGOR telescopes. Author: Ovidio García (SECAT).
    Press release
    How to see April's Supermoon from home
    On April 8th, you will be able to see the third and biggest Supermoon of 2020. If you follow the recommendations we present below you will be able to obtain some beautiful images of the full Moon from your home.
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  • The egyptologist José Lull.
    Interview
    JOSÉ LULL: "The Egyptian astronomers used to observe from the terraces of the temples and palaces"
    José Lull knows a lot about the royal Egyptian tombs of the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period. In fact this was the theme of the doctoral thesis – published as a monograph by Oxford University Press- of this Egyptologist, with degree at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and a doctorate from the University of Valencia. He is presently at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and is also an expert in the astronomy of ancient Egypt. He showed this recently at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, where he has been collaborating with Juan Antonio Belmonte, archeoastronomer
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  • Image of the public version of the 3D radiative transfer code PORTA
    Press release
    Public version of PORTA, a novel 3D radiative transfer code
    The POLMAG research team of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), which includes scientists from other international institutions, has released the public version of PORTA, an advanced radiative transfer code to solve the problem of the generation and transfer of polarized radiation in realistic three-dimensional (3D) models of stellar atmospheres. PORTA allows scientists to plan and model spectropolarimetric observations with today’s telescopes. This public version of PORTA offered to the astrophysical community comes with several modules useful for considering several problems of
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  • Image of the campaign "#IACUniversoEnCasa" (IAC Universe at Home)
    Press release
    The IAC joins the cultural and educational initiatives to help confront Covid-19 with the campaign "#IACUniversoEnCasa"
    Confronted by the health emergency generated by COVID-19, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) wants to help by letting the citizen’s responsibility implied by staying at home be an opportunity to bring everyone closer to astronomy and knowledge of the universe, as well as continuing to offer training and support to the educational community, which is carrying on with its work by Internet. With this objective, we at the Press and Outreach Unit (UC3) have set in motion a plan of activities with the name "#IACUniversoEnCasa" (IAC Universe at Home) about which we will be issuing
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