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.

  • Time-series photometry of KIC 8462852 in the r’ band taken by Telescopes of the Las Cumbres
    We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in 2015 October, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1%–2.5% dips, named “Elsie,” “Celeste,” “Skara Brae,” and “Angkor,” which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are as follows: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum
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  • The orbit-circularity λz distribution for each of 300 CALIFA galaxies
    Galaxy formation entails the hierarchical assembly of mass, along with the condensation of baryons and the ensuing, self-regulating star formation. The stars form a collisionless system whose orbit distribution retains dynamical memory that can constrain a galaxy's formation history. The ordered-rotation dominated orbits with near maximum circularity λz≃1 and the random-motion dominated orbits with low circularity λz≃0 are called kinematically cold and kinematically hot, respectively. The fraction of stars on `cold' orbits, compared to the fraction of stars on `hot' orbits, speaks directly
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