A new international study, using observations from the Gran Telescopio Canarias at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, has identified a plasma bubble as the source of the persistent emission observed in some of the so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs), one of the most powerful and unknown cosmic events in the Universe. The data also allow researchers to constrain the nature of the “engine” powering these mysterious sources. The results are published today in Nature. Discovered just over a decade ago, fast radio bursts (FRBs) emit millisecond-long pulses that release an immense

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the European Solar Telescope Fundación Canaria (EST-FC) have signed thos Friday October 4th the agreement to promote the construction of the European Solar Telescope (EST). This ambitious project aims to consolidate and expand the Canary Islands' position as a world leader in solar physics research. The agreement was ratified by the director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, and the representive of EST-FC, Manuel Collados. The signing act was attended by other members involved in the project: Héctor Socas-Navarro, Alejandra Martín; and

An international team of researchers, including staff from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has discovered a planetary nebula that destroyed its own planetary system, conserving the remaining fragments in the form of dust orbiting its central star. To date, more than 5000 exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars of all kinds and almost every stage of stellar evolution. However, while exoplanets have been discovered around white dwarfs – the final stage in the evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars like the Sun, no exoplanets have been detected in the previous