Researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), in collaboration with the Instituto de Ciencias del Cosmos de la Universidad de Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Instituto de Estudios Espaciales de Cataluña (IEEC), have carried out the largest observational study to date on massive runaway stars including rotation and binarity in the Milky Way. This work, recently published in Astronomy & Astrophysics , sheds light on how these stellar “fugitives” are launched into space and what their properties reveal about their intriguing origins. Runaway stars are stars that travel through

As part of Open Government Week, which is being held from 19 to 25 May, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has organised open days at its facilities in La Laguna (Tenerife) to bring its research and technological activity closer to the public. This international initiative aims to promote the values of transparency, citizen participation and accountability in public administrations. The visits, in which dozens of people took part in different shifts, were held on Monday 19 May at the IAC headquarters and on Tuesday 20 May at the IACTEC building, the Institute's technological and

An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the IAC, have performed a unique cosmic test - measuring the mass of an ancient star using two entirely different methods, finding agreement to within just 1.4%. This result marks a milestone in our ability to determine the ages of old stars and use them as living fossils to study the Milky Way’s distant past. The team analysed the red giant in the binary system KIC 10001167 using two independent approaches: firstly, by measuring the brightness and radial velocity variations due to the orbital motion of the binary, and secondly