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.

List view
  • Artist's impression of a protocluster of galaxies in the early Universe
    Press release
    Astronomers find the key for detecting the largest structures in the early universe
    An international research team, led from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) together with a group of Italian universities, has confirmed a new method for finding protoclusters of galaxies, the largest structures in the early universe. These progenitors of present-day clusters of galaxies played an essential role in the evolution of the universe, but are not easy to find. This study shows that a specific type of galaxies, those which emit radiation at submillimetre wavelengths, are very good indicators of the presence of distant protoclusters
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  • Las tres imágenes que obtiene la aplicación PINRELL se combinan en una sola. Crédito: IACTEC.
    Press release
    IACTEC and the prompt detection of a diabetic foot
    The technology which is used in astrophysics research is useful not only in space; many of the sophisticated techniques can be put to very good use in the field of medicine. On this basis in IACTEC there is a team of Medical Technology (TECMED) who develop combinations of the methods of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning used in astrophysics for the diagnosis of pathologies. To celebrate the International Day of Diabetes the team stresses the magnitude of the problema in the Islands. Some experts call diabetes one of the worst “silent pandemics”. Spain is the second country in the
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  • Research news
    On the magnetic nature of quiet-Sun chromospheric grains
    CaII Kgrains, i.e., intermittent, short-lived (about 1 minute), periodic (2-4 minutes), pointlike chromospheric brightenings, are considered to be the manifestations of acoustic waves propagating upward from the solar surface and developing into shocks in the chromosphere. After the simulations of Carlsson and Stein, we know that hot shocked gas moving upward interacting with the downflowing chromospheric gas (falling down after having been displaced upward by a previous shock) nicely reproduces the spectral features of the CaII K profiles observed in such grains, i.e., a narrowband emission
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  • Villa de La Orotava Science Fair Awards
    Photomontage
    Carmen del Puerto receives the outreach award at the Villa de La Orotava Science Fair
    Yesterday, in the Noble Hall of the Town Hall of the municipality of La Orotava (Tenerife), took place the award ceremony of the Villa de La Orotava Science Fair Awards, a recognition to people and institutions that are committed to outreach and scientific research. In this first edition, the award in the outreach category went to the journalist and writer Carmen del Puerto, who has been in charge of communications at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) for more than three decades. She was joined by the parasitologist Basilio Valladares (Research Award) and the physicist and
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  • Julissa Reynoso, embajadora de Estados Unidos, durante su visita al IAC
    Photomontage
    US ambassador visits the IAC headquarters
    Julissa Reynoso, US Ambassador to Spain, together with other members of her team, visited yesterday the headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in La Laguna, accompanied by Rafael Rebolo, Director of the IAC. During their tour of the facilities, they were briefed on the various research programmes and technology projects under development. They also received a dossier on all the ongoing collaborations with US research centres and possible projects still under negotiation, such as the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
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  • JWST SMACS0723 galaxies
    Research news
    The JWST view of the barred galaxy population in the SMACS0723 galaxy cluster
    The cosmic evolution of the barred galaxy population provides key information about the secular evolution of galaxies and the settling of rotationally dominated discs. We study the bar fraction in the SMACSJ0723.37323 (SMACS0723) cluster of galaxies at z = 0.39 using the Early Release Observations obtained with the NIRCam instrument mounted on the JWST telescope. We visually inspected all cluster member galaxies using the images from the NIRCam F200W filter. We classified the galaxies into ellipticals and discs and determine the presence of a bar. The cluster member selection was based on a
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