ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defense performed a flyby of Mars, as part of its gravitational assistance manoeuvre to shorten its journey to the binary asteroid system Didymos. During the flyby, the spacecraft came around 5000 km from the surface of Mars, having also the opportunity to obtain images of its two moons, Deimos (during the approach) and Phobos (when departing Mars). Julia de León, Javier Licandro, and George Prodan, researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, participate in this mission, successfully launched from Cape Cañaveral, Florida (USA) on October 7, 2024

The headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and its technological headquarters, IACTEC, open their doors to the public at their Open Days as part of Open Government Week 2025. This initiative, promoted by the Open Government Partnership worldwide, seeks to bring public administrations closer to citizens and promote the values of transparency, integrity, participation and accountability. The event at the IAC headquarters will take place on Monday 19 May, while the IACTEC will open its doors on Tuesday 20 May. Both days will be held in person, with two visiting hours

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) announces the arrival of the Astronomy on Tapinternational talk series in Spain, with its very first edition to be held in Tenerife. This outreach initiative, which was created in the United States and has since expanded worldwide, will now take place in the Canary Islands under the name "Astronomy on Tap – Canary Islands” and the local nickname “AstroTragos,” and is carried out within the framework of the EDUCADO and ExGal-Twin projects at IAC. The debut event will be held at the Búho Club (Calle Catedral, 3, La Laguna, Tenerife) on Thursday