An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the University of Liège and collaborators in UK, Chile, the USA, and Europe, has discovered a transiting giant planet orbiting the smallest known star to host such a companion — a finding that defies current theories of planet formation. The host star, TOI-6894 , is a red dwarf with only 20% the mass of the Sun , typical of the most common stars in our galaxy. Until now, such low-mass stars were not thought capable of forming or retaining giant planets. But as published today in

From Thursday, May 8th, to Friday, May 9th, the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) is hosting the meeting of the Research Advisory Committee (CAI). This is the center's highest advisory body on research and analyzes its scientific and technological output. At this meeting, the director, Valentín Martínez Pillet, will present the center's main scientific and technological milestones, as well as a proposal for future lines of action. The director will also be joined by Eva Villaver, deputy director of the IAC; Romano Corradi, director of Gran Telescopio Canarias; Jonay González

A study published today in Nature Astronomy , in which a researcher from the IAC has participated, outlines the discovery of an extremely rare type of binary system composed of two high mass white dwarfs. The two stars are so close together that they will eventually collide resulting in a supernova explosion which, due to its proximity to the Earth, will appear ten times brighter than the Moon. Type 1a supernovae are a class of cosmic explosion often used as "standard candles" to measure the expansion of the Universe. They occur when a white dwarf exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass - the limit