DRAGO, the infrared camera developed by the team at IACTEC-Space of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, has seen its “first light”. The instrument, placed in orbit in January from Cape Canaveral is in its commissioning phase. The images taken show the mouth of the rio Meghna in the Ganges delta, the largest delta in the world. Even though it is a preliminary test, the quality of the results is well above expectation and show what DRAGO will be able to do once it is fully operational. On January 24th 2021 the infrared camera DRAGO (Demonstrator for Remote Analysis of Ground Observations

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias wants to extend its solidarity and support to the island of La Palma, to all who are suffering the consequences of the volcanic eruption, and especially to those who had to abandon their homes or have suffered damages to their properties. We share the pain that this has caused them and the wish for the circumstances to change for the better as soon as possible. The authorities and all the institutions involved in the emergency plan have the material and staff resources of the IAC at their disposal for whatever they consider necessary.

According to the latest cosmological models, large spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way grew by absorbing smaller galaxies, by a sort of galactic cannibalism. Evidence for this is given by very large structures, the tidal stellar streams, which are observed around them, which are the remains of these satellite galaxies. But the full histories of the majority of these cases are hard to study, because these flows of stars are very faint, and only the remains of the most recent mergers have been detected.