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.

  • Figure CaptionLeft: SDSS image of Mrk 709 (RGB=zrg), which appears to be a pair of interacting dwarf galaxies. We designate the northern and southern galaxies Mrk 709 N and Mrk 709 S. A logarithmic scaling is used to show extended emission. The white circ
    The incidence and properties of present-day dwarf galaxies hosting massive black holes (BHs) can provide important constraints on the origin of high-redshift BH seeds. Here we present high-resolution X-ray and radio observations of the low-metallicity, star-forming, dwarf-galaxy system Mrk 709 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). These data reveal spatially coincident hard X-ray and radio point sources with luminosities suggesting the presence of an accreting massive BH (M BH ∼ 10 5−7 M ⊙). Based on imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
    Advertised on
  • Picture of GHαFaS interferometer taken once the instrument is assembled in the Nasmyth focuss of the WHT, in La Palma.
    We have obtained two-dimensional velocity fields in the ionized gas of a set of eight double-barred galaxies, at high spatial and spectral resolution, using their Hα emission fields measured with a scanning Fabry-Perot spectrometer. Using the technique by which phase reversals in the non-circular motion indicate a radius of corotation, taking advantage of the high angular and velocity resolution we have obtained the corotation radii and the pattern speeds of both the major bar and the small central bar in each of the galaxies; there are few such measurements in the literature. Our results
    Advertised on
  • Figure Caption: LIRIS (red dots) and NIRSPEC (black line) spectra of Pleiades proper motion candidates. The NIRSPEC spectrum of Calar 21 is normalized to the K-band LIRIS spectrum. The left panel illustrates the comparison of the Pleiades data with field,
    We report on the near-infrared low-resolution spectroscopy and red optical (Z-band) photometry of seven proper-motion, very low-mass substellar member candidates of the Pleiades cluster with magnitudes in the interval J=17.5-20.8 and K=16.1-18.5 mag. Spectra were acquired for six objects with the LIRIS and NIRSPEC instruments mounted on the 4.2-m WHT and the 10-m Keck II telescopes. Z-band images of two of the faintest candidates were collected with ACAM/WHT. The new data confirm the low temperatures of all seven Pleiades candidates. From the imaging observations, we find extremely red Z-J
    Advertised on
  • Image of Messier 6, one of the galaxies in the study. Superposed dashed ellipses are rings indicating concentric density waves in this galaxy. Source: SLOAN + IACbia
    Astronomers at the IAC have discovered complex patterns of resonances in the discs of spiral galaxies not previously described by theories. Using the GHaFaS 2dimensional spectrometer they have measured the velocities of the density waves in the discs of over a hundred galaxies Within the discs of spiral galaxies there are waves which propagate concentrically in the form of spirals. This is somewhat similar to the waves on the surface of a lake, or the standing waves on the strings of a violin, or on the surface of a drum, to use a musical metaphor. These are the so-called “density waves”
    Advertised on