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.

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  • 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
    Research news
    The Fast Spiral-in of the companion star to the black hole XTE J1118+480.
    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
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  • 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.
    Research news
    Discovery of a young and massive stellar cluster: Spectrophotometric near-infrared study of Masgomas-1.
    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
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  • Press release
    El GTC empleará la cámara ultrasensible más rápida del mundo
    OCAM 2 cuadriplica la resolución y multiplica por tres la velocidad de instrumentos similares. Con este dispositivo, que se unirá al sistema óptico adaptativo del GTC, el mayor telescopio del mundo podrá vencer las turbulencias de la atmósfera terrestre y obtener imágenes con una nitidez similar a la del telescopio espacial Hubble.
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  • Press release
    Las galaxias también cambian por dentro
    Las grandes transformaciones que experimentan las galaxias en su interior marcarán el futuro de las investigaciones sobre su evolución. Este candente campo de investigación ha centrado la XXIII edición de la 'Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics', organizada por el IAC. Dos semanas de charlas y debates que concluyen hoy en el Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife).
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