We present deep imaging observations of activated asteroid P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS) using the 10.4m Gran Telescopio Canarias ( GTC)  from 2016 late April to early June.  Activated asteroids are objects in orbits typical of asteroids with unlike origin in the cometary reservoirs (the Oort Cloud or the trans-neptunian belt), that ejected dust by any mechanism: sublimation of volatiles (like comets do); collision with another asteroid or rotational disruption. The images of P/2016 G1 show a dust cometary-like coma and were analysed by comparing them with simulated images obtained using a computed

We present new medium-resolution spectroscopic observations of the black hole X-ray binary Nova Muscae 1991 taken with X-Shooter spectrograph installed at the 8.2-m VLT telescope. These observations allow us to measure the time of inferior conjunction of the secondary star with the black hole in this system that, together with previous measurements, yield an orbital period decay of (dP/dt)= −20.7±12.7 ms yr −1 (−24.5 ± 15.1 μs per orbital cycle). This is significantly faster than those previously measured in the other black hole X-ray binaries A0620-00 and XTE J1118+480. No standard black

In some AGN, nuclear dust lanes connected to kpc-scale dust structures provide all the extinction required to obscure the nucleus, challenging the role of the dusty torus proposed by the Unified Model. In this letter we show the pc-scale dust and ionized gas maps of Circinus constructed using sub-arcsec-accuracy registration of infrared VLT AO images with optical Hubble Space Telescope images. We find that the collimation of the ionized gas does not require a torus but is caused by the distribution of dust lanes of the host galaxy on ~10 pc scales. This finding questions the presumed torus

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.

The contrats, which last for two years, are young people, less than 30 years old, that will carry out different tasks according their specalized abilities.

CARMENES, an outstanding novel astronomical instrument, which has been designed to look for Earth-like planets, has successfully passed first “on-sky” tests at the telescope. Scientists and engineers of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have participated in the design and construction of the new “planet hunter”.