An international scientific team, involving the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has identified the cause of an unusually long dimming of a distant star . The phenomenon is explained by the passage of a substellar object with a giant ring system, similar to a ‘cosmic saucer’, in front of the host star. The star, named ASASSN-24fw, is located in the Monoceros constellation at about 3,000 light-years away from Earth. The star faded steadily for more than nine months between late 2024 and mid-2025 to about 97% dark before returning to its normal

On Tuesday, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) held a workshop at the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in Tenerife (Spain), focused on promoting successful participation in the European Research Council (ERC) calls for proposals under the European Horizon Europe framework programme, the European Union’s main instrument for funding research and innovation. The event, organised as part of the Alpha Star project (funded by the Spanish State Research Agency Ref. GPE2025-001690-P), brought together research staff from the IAC and other organisations within the regional R&D ecosystem