Using observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) a study led from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) has confirmed that the asteroid 2023 FW14, discovered last year, is accompanying the red planet in its journey around the Sun, ahead of Mars and in the same orbit. With this new member, the group of Trojans which accompany Mars has increased in number to 17. But it shows differences in its orbit and chemical composition which may indicate that it is a captured asteroid, of a primitive type. The results are published in
An international research team, with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) shows that the satellite galaxy NGC 5195 has passed twice through the disc of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), in relatively recent times, stimulating star formation, and defining the structure of its arms. The research is published in the prestigious The Astrophysical Journal. The Whirlpool Galaxy M51, is a ”grand design” spiral galaxy: its spiral form is dominated by two well defined arms. Discovered by Charled Messier in 1771 M51 lies some 31 million light years from Earth, As it is face-on
El embajador de Japón en España, Takahiro Nakamae , visitó esta semana la sede central del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) y el Observatorio del Teide, junto con Shinji Yamada, cónsul de Japón en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, junto a personal de su equipo. En la sede central fueron recibidos por Valentín Martínez Pillet, director del IAC; y por el responsable de Instrumentación, Marcos Reyes; y por la jefa de la Unidad de Comunicación y Cultura Científica (UC3), Verónica Martín. En la sede central del IAC conocieron las instalaciones y las principales líneas de investigación del