The PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars) space mission, led by the European Space Agency (ESA), has recently completed one of the most delicate phases of its development: the integration of its main components, the 26 scientific cameras and the service module that houses all the instrument's acquisition, processing, and control electronics. This stage, carried out at the facilities of the aerospace company OHB in Germany, marks a fundamental step toward the launch scheduled for December 2026 from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 6 rocket. “Almost eight years after ESA gave the

La ministra de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Diana Morant, ha anunciado que el Gobierno de España está dispuesto a ofrecer hasta 400 millones de euros, a través del Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación (CDTI), para atraer a la isla de La Palma, en Canarias, el Telescopio de Treinta Metros (TMT, por sus siglas en inglés). La ministra lo ha anunciado durante la reunión del Consejo Rector del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), que ha presidido hoy en La Palma, donde ha informado que esta tarde ha remitido una propuesta formal a la Fundación que gestiona el TMT

Astronomers have used telescopes around the world, includingthe Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or Grantecan) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, to study the asteroid 1998 KY26, revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spinning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 extended mission. The new observations offer key information for the mission’s operations at the asteroid. “We found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,” says astronomer Toni Santana-Ros, a