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

The researcher Valentín Martínez Pillet has taken up his duties as Director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) today, Monday 1st July, in a ceremony with the participation of the Secretary General for Research of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities Eva Ortega-Paíno, and the outgoing Director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo. The new Director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, takes up the challenge of running the centre in which he is a Research Professor with “a great sense of responsibility” and with the aim of mainaining and enhancing its scientific and

The Technical Office for the Protection of the Quality of the Sky (OTPC) of the IAC is collaborating to advise about the implementation of energy efficiency and the reduction of light pollution in the port installations of general interest which belong to the public company Puertos Canarios. Specifically, the IAC has just issued a report which checks out the exterior lighting of the installations of the Port of las Nieves in Agaete (Gran Canaria), and in the coming months expects to carry out suitable tests in the Port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey (La Gomera) and the Port of Garachico