The existence of dark matter is likely one of the most perplexing problems facing the scientific community, and unraveling its nature has become one of the primary goals of modern physics. In simple terms, we do not know what dark matter is made of, despite accounting for 85% of all the matter in the Universe. A study led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias concludes that dark matter does not behave as described by the dominant paradigm, which states that dark matter particles only interact with each other and with ordinary matter through gravity. The IAC study reveals that dark
Research, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias has participated has analyzed object 2023 FY3, a member of a group of asteroids which have trajectories similar to that of the Earth. The available data suggest that it could collide with the Earth during the next hundred years, but its small size implies that it is not a major threat The study of the physical characteristics and the dynamical evolution of object 2023 FY3, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) have participated, enhances our limited knowledge about the
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has signed an agreement with an international consortium of institutions, including the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) and the Centro de Astrobiología de Madrid (CSIC-INTA), for the design and construction of ANDES, the ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph. The instrument will be installed on ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). It will be used to search for signs of life in exoplanets and look for the very first stars, as well as to test variations of the fundamental constants of