The Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos, part of the Organismo Autónomo de Museos y Centros del Cabildo de Tenerife, will host a conference by the astrophysicist and 2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics, John Mather, entitled ‘Unsolved mysteries of physics and astronomy’, on Friday 9th May. Mather receives this week the recognition as Doctor Honoris Causa of the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) with the sponsorship of the researcher of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Doctor Honoris Causa of the ULL, John Beckman. Mather's lecture, which will be in English, will be presented by the
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
The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has received a visit from Robert P. Kirshner, Executive Director of the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory (TIO) . During his stay at the IAC headquarters in La Laguna, he was welcomed by the center’s director, Valentín Martínez Pillet, and by the deputy director, Eva Villaver Sobrino, along with other members of the research institute. During his visit, he was able to learn firsthand about the institution’s scientific and technological capabilities and gave a colloquium titled The Thirty Meter Telescope and Science of the Future
