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.

  • Strength of the large-scale magnetic field in nearby galaxies vs. their rotation speed.
    Magnetic fields are present on all scales in the Universe from planets and stars to galaxies and galaxy clusters, and even at high redshifts. They are important for the continuation of life on the Earth, the onset of star formation, the order of the interstellar medium, and the evolution of galaxies. Hence, understanding the Universe without understanding magnetic fields is impossible. The origin and evolution of cosmic magnetic fields is among the most pressing questions in modern astronomy. The most widely accepted theory to explain the magnetic fields on stars and planets is the α-Ω
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  • Oxygen and chlorine abundances in low-mass planetary nebulae (PNe) (black dots, from Delgado-Inglada et al. 2015) versus the new AGB model predictions for different masses (a few relevant masses are marked) and metallicities. The new models predict that O
    Recently, Delgado-Inglada and collaborators have shown that low-mass (between one and three times the mass of the Sun) planetary nebulae are rich in oxygen, but the standard theoretical models do not predict this. In this work we explain this phenomenon for the first time using theoretical models of nucleosynthesis (production of chemical elements in the interiors of stars) in their precursor AGB stars, which include convective processes, (which transport chemical elements created in the interior to the surface of the star) more efficient than in the standard models. This discovery calls
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  • Edge-on I-band images for the flared and non-flared models. Intermediate panels: The same for the face-on discs. Bottom panels: Surface brightness profiles in the major axis of the galaxy for edge-on (left) and the face-on (right) views of the two models
    Previous numerical studies had apparently ruled out the possibility that flares in galaxy discs could give rise to the apparent breaks in their luminosity profiles when observed edge-on. However the studies have not, until now, analysed this hypothesis systematically using realistic models for the disc, the flare, and the bulge. We revisit this theme by analysing a series of models which sample a wide range of observationally based structural parameters for these three components. Using observational data, we have considered realistic distributions of bulge-to-disc ratios, morphological
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  • A graph of the results of the study, showing the relative abundances of Al and Mg relative to Fe for the evolved stars in the globular cluster M3. We can see an anticorrelation between Al and Mg for the stars in the cluster (black filled circles). The pre
    Historically, globular clusters (GCs) have been used as laboratories for studying stellar evolution, because it was thought that all the stars in a globular cluster formed at the same time and thus have the same age. However since a couple of decades ago it has been known that almost all the globular clusters contain several stellar populations. In the first generation the chemical abundances, for example those of elements such as Al and Mg, show the composition of the original interstellar (or intra-cluster) medium. In the short time (astronomically) of only 500 million years the medium is
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  • Wide angle view from the Teide Observatory towards the east. Above the horizon you can see the planet Venus, an a little higher up and to the left of Venus is comet Catalina (C/2013 US10). The lights and villages are on Grand Canary. J.C. Casado-staryeart
    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.
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