V404 Cygni is a black hole within a binary system where a black hole of around 10 times the mass of the Sun is swallowing material from a very nearby star. During this process material falls onto the black hole and forms an accretion disc, whose hotter, innermost zones emit in X-rays. On June 2015 V404 Cygni went into outburst after a quiescence of over 25 years. During this period its brightness increased on million fold in a few days, becoming the brightest X-ray source in the sky. Optical observations carried out with the GTC 10.4m discovered the presence of a wind of cold material, which

Using a specialized technique sensitive to the presence of expanding ionized gas, we have detected a set of three concentric expanding shells in an H ii region in the nearby spiral galaxy M33. The detection was done using Fabry-Pérot spectroscopy, which allows us to map the ionized gas emission line Hα with exceptional precision in the spatial and spectral coordinates. We also took long-slit spectra of colisionally excited emission lines, which showed that the shells are likely originated from supernova explosions. Using the flux and the kinematics we estimated the kinetic energy in the

Dark matter is a type of material which has not been observed through any telescope, but whose existence is deduced from its gravitational effects on visible matter. In 1974 the astronomer Vera Rubin measured the rotation curves of the stars in orbit around the centres of spiral galaxies and noticed that at distances greater than a certain radial distance from the nucleus the stars rotate at virtually constant velocity, independently of their distance from the  centre of rotation. However the estimates of the mass of the visible matter, the stars and the gas in the galaxy lead to predictions

Several telescopes at the Teide Observatory (IAC) followed comet Catalina with the aim of characterizing its orbit dynamically. It should be possible to see the central zone of the comet with the naked eye, but to see details you would need binoculars.

The contrats, which last for two years, are young people, less than 30 years old, that will carry out different tasks according their specalized abilities.

CARMENES, an outstanding novel astronomical instrument, which has been designed to look for Earth-like planets, has successfully passed first “on-sky” tests at the telescope. Scientists and engineers of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have participated in the design and construction of the new “planet hunter”.