ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defense performed a flyby of Mars, as part of its gravitational assistance manoeuvre to shorten its journey to the binary asteroid system Didymos. During the flyby, the spacecraft came around 5000 km from the surface of Mars, having also the opportunity to obtain images of its two moons, Deimos (during the approach) and Phobos (when departing Mars). Julia de León, Javier Licandro, and George Prodan, researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, participate in this mission, successfully launched from Cape Cañaveral, Florida (USA) on October 7, 2024

An international team, led by a student from Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has detected a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of GJ 3998, a nearby red dwarf located 59 ly away. The new planet, named GJ 3998 d, is the third planet found in the system. ‘GJ 3998 d is a welcome addition to the planetary census of our cosmic neighbourhood’, states Atanas Stefanov, a "La Caixa" funded PhD student at the IAC and the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the study’s lead author, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics . 'This super-Earth appears to be in the habitable zone of one of

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is strengthening its commitment to Equality and, to coincide with the commemoration of March 8th, International Women’s Day, is presenting its IV Plan for Equality. This document covers the active work within the IAC to support Equality and Fairness in the working and institutional environment, and proposes specific measures to ensure that both of these aims are achieved. The IAC has pioneered the introduction of policies of Equality in the field of science in Spain. Even before the approval of the Organic Law 3/2007 for the effective equality

The IAC's Educational Project with Robotic Telescopes (PETeR) offers a new edition of its online teacher training entitled ‘ Investigate the Universe with Robotic Telescopes’. This activity, organised in collaboration with the STEAM area of the regional Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands Government, aims to provide knowledge and tools to incorporate astronomy in the classroom through the use of professional robotic telescopes, the analysis of scientific data and active learning methodologies. PETeR is an educational project that gives schools free access to professional telescopes

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Canary, La Palma Reserve of the Biosphere Foundation have signed a document agreeing on actions to be taken in prevention, early warning and rapid response to exotic invading species on the Island of La Palma, a World Biosphere Reserve.