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

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is one of the international researches centres which is following actively the asteroid 2024 YR4 which has been qualified by the United Nations (UN) as potentially dangerous, because it has a 1.5% probability of impacting the Earth during 2032.The asteroid was discovered in 2024 and has an estimated size of between 40 and 90 metres. Given these figures, the UN has activated the protocols of planetary defence to obtain more accurate estimates of the orbit, the size and the threat which might be presented by 2024 YR4. The protocols of the UN are

An international study led by Almudena Prieto, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has found places where new stars are forming, as faint star clusters, around the centre of an evolved galaxy. This is the first time that young populations of stars have been picked out and dated in this type of galaxies dominated by very old stars, which can be called “rejuvenated old galaxies”. The research has combined observations from various telescopes, both ground based and space based, and has used innovative techniques of data analysis. The results are published in the