News

This section includes scientific and technological news from the IAC and its Observatories, as well as press releases on scientific and technological results, astronomical events, educational projects, outreach activities and institutional events.

  • Spectra of DY Cen (in red) around 400 nm (or 4000 Å). The spectra of the nearby star HD 115842 (in blue) and the Extreme Helium star BD -9 4395 (in green) are also displayed for comparison. Note the presence of a new absorption band at 400 nm (the new 400
    Fullerenes and fullerene-related molecules have been proposed as explanations for unidentified astronomical features such as the intense UV absorption band at 217 nm and the enigmatic diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), In order to shed light on the a long-standing DIB’s problem, we search high-resolution and high-quality VLT/UVES optical spectra of the hot R Coronae Borealis (RCB) star DY Cen for electronic transitions of the neutral C 60 fullerene molecule and DIBs. We report the non-detection of the strongest C 60 electronic transitions (e.g., those at ∼376, 398, and 402 nm). DIBs towards
    Advertised on
  • Panels (a) and (b) correspond to the observation and best-fitted image for the observation on 2012 May 18. Panel (c) shows observed and modeled scans along the trail of those images. Panels (d), (e), and (f) give the same as (a), (b), and (c), respectivel
    We present observations and an interpretative model of the dust environment of the Main-Belt Comet P/2010 F5 (Gibbs). The narrow dust trails observed can be interpreted unequivocally as an impulsive event that took place around 2011 July 1 with an uncertainty of ±10 days, and a duration of less than a day, possibly of the order of a few hours. The best Monte Carlo dust model fits to the observed trail brightness imply ejection velocities in the range 8-10 cm s –1 for particle sizes between 30 cm and 130 μm. This weak dependence of velocity on size contrasts with that expected from ice
    Advertised on
  • Fig. 1: Top panel: orbital phase shift at the time of the inferior conjunction (orbital phase 0), Tn , of the secondary star in the low-mass black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480 versus the orbital cycle number, n, folded on the best-fit parabolic fit. Gr
    We report the detection of an orbital period decay of (dP/dt)= -1.83+-0.66 ms yr–1  in the black hole X-ray binary XTE J1118+480. This corresponds to a period change of –0.85 ± 0.30 μs per orbital cycle, which is ~150 times larger than expected from the emission of gravitational waves. These observations cannot be reproduced by conventional models of magnetic braking even when including significant mass loss from the system. The spiral-in of the star is either driven by magnetic braking under extremely high magnetic fields in the secondary star or by a currently unknown process, which will
    Advertised on
  • False colour image (blue=J, green=H, red=KS) for the massive stellar cluster Masgomas-1. Massive stars with spectral classification are marked with red circles.//LIRIS/ Telescopio William Herschel.
    Recent near-infrared data have contributed to the discovery of new (obscured) massive stellar clusters and massive stellar populations in previously known clusters in our Galaxy. These discoveries lead us to view the Milky Way as an active star-forming machine. Aims: The main purpose of this work is to  determine physically the main parameters (distance, size, total mass and age) of Masgomas-1, the first massive cluster discovered by our systematic search programme. Methods: Using near-infrared ( J, H, and K S) photometry we selected 23 OB-type and five red supergiant candidates for multi
    Advertised on