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 third telescope of the Two-metre Twin Telescope (TTT3) situated in the Teide Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has seen its “first light”. This robotic 2 meter telescope, managed by the Canary company Light Bridges, is one of the largest of its kind in the world.