Research on the formation, origin, and evolution of the dichotomy between the thin and thick disk components of the Milky Way has been a major topic of study, as it is key to understanding how our Galaxy formed. However, this is not an easy task, since populations defined by their morphology or kinematics show a mixture of chemically distinct stellar populations. Age therefore becomes a fundamental parameter for understanding the evolution of the Galactic disk. Our goal is to derive the age and metallicity distributions of the thin and thick disks defined kinematically, in order to reveal
An international team of researchers led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), has unveiled a breakthrough explanation for the origin of tiny, jet-like plasma ejections in the solar atmosphere, known as “nanojets.” These elusive events which are recently discovered by the NASA’s solar telescopes are thought to play an important role in heating and sustaining the solar corona at temperatures above one million Kelvin. Why Study Nanojets? For decades, solar physicists have been puzzled by the so-called “coronal heating problem.” While the Sun
Understanding the magnetic field in the corona is key for explaining the fascinating physical processes occurring there. However, the extreme conditions in the outer solar atmosphere hamper the possibility of acquiring observations with enough quality to infer the coronal magnetic field. Analyzing observations of overdensities of cold plasma supported by coronal magnetic fields, including filaments and prominences, allows us to understand such magnetic fields and their interaction with plasma. In this study, we have analyzed an active region prominence, a type of prominence that has barely