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
  • Cónsul General de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Madrid
    The Consul General of the Embassy of the United States in Madrid visits the IAC
    The Consul General of the Embassy of the United States in Madrid, Liza Petrush, and the Consular Agent in the Canary Islands, Ana María Quintana, recently visited the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in La Laguna, accompanied by the director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo, in order to know the ongoing collaborative projects and the current situation regarding the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). His visit coincided with that of Dr. Nancy Levenson, deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in the United States.
    Advertised on
  • The project Amanar, under the same sky, Astronomy for Peace and Development
    Press release
    The project “Amanar, under the same sky”, Astronomy for Peace and Development
    “Amanar: under the same sky” is an initiative by GalileoMobile in collaboration with the Canary Association for friendship with the Saharawi People (ACAPS), funded by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), via its Office of Astronomy for Development and its centenary celebrations, and by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). On Tuesday 15thOctober the second part of the project will begin, in which an international team of astronomers and teachers will travel to the refugee camps in Tindouf to engage in outreach activity with the Saharaui students and teachers- Durint the stay
    Advertised on
  • Recreación artística de MAXI J1820+070
    Press release
    Violent flares in the centre of a black hole system
    A international team of astronomers, led by the University of Southampton and with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias has used the camera HiPERCAM on the Gran Telescopio Canarias and NASA’s NICER space observatory to make a high frame-rate movie of a growing black hole system. In the process they have discoverd violent flares in visible light and in X-rays which give new clues to help understand the immediate surroundings of these intriguing objects. The results of this study are published in the prestigious journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Advertised on
  • Physics Nobel Prize Winners 2019
    Press release
    Didier Queloz, Physics Nobel Prize Winner 2019, Is Developing an Advanced Terrestrial Planet Hunter for the Isaac Newton Telescope
    The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) and the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) warmly congratulate James Peebles (Princeton University), Michel Mayor (University of Geneva) and Didier Queloz (Universities of Geneva and Cambridge) on the award of the Physics Nobel Prize 2019. The Swedish Academy awarded the prize "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos". For Mayor and Queloz, the award recognises their discovery, published in 1995, of the first planet outside the solar system, orbiting a solar-type star
    Advertised on
  • Artist’s impression of the star GJ 3512, a red dwarf of approximately one tenth of the mass of the Sun, on which the newly discovered exoplanet GJ 3512b, a gas giant of high mass, orbits an unusual planet in this type of planetary systems.
    Research news
    A giant exoplanet orbiting a very-low-mass star challenges planet formation models
    Surveys have shown that super-Earth and Neptune-mass exoplanets are more frequent than gas giants around low-mass stars, as predicted by the core accretion theory of planet formation. We report the discovery of a giant planet around the very-low-mass star GJ 3512, as determined by optical and near-infrared radial-velocity observations. The planet has a minimum mass of 0.46 Jupiter masses, very high for such a small host star, and an eccentric 204-day orbit. Dynamical models show that the high eccentricity is most likely due to planet-planet interactions. We use simulations to demonstrate
    Advertised on