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.

  • Our visible and NIR spectropolarimetric measurements of the earthshine compared to literature data. A 10-pixel binning was applied to the NIR spectrum. The uncertainty per wavelength is plotted as vertical gray error bars. Wavelengths of strong telluric a
    Aims. We aim to extend our current observational understanding of the integrated planet Earth spectropolarimetry from the optical to the near-infrared wavelengths. Major biomarkers like O2 and water vapor are strong flux absorbents in the Earth’s atmosphere, and some linear polarization of the reflected stellar light is expected to occur at these wavelengths. Methods. Simultaneous optical (0.4−0.9 μm) and near-infrared (0.9−2.3 μm) linear spectropolarimetric data of the earthshine were acquired by observing the nightside of the waxing Moon. The data have sufficient spectral resolution (2.51
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  • Figure:  GTC/ORISIS Spectroscopy. Upper Panel: 2-D spectral image. Center Panel: Obj1. Lower Panel: Obj2. The Lyα lines, marked with a red line, are clearly seen in both spectra. The blue dashed line, at the bottom of each frame, shows an off-scale sky sp
    We are undertaking a search for high-redshift low-luminosity Lyman Alpha sources in the SHARDS (Survey for High-z Absorption Red and Dead Sources) survey. Among the pre-selected Lyman Alpha sources two candidates were spotted, located 3.19 arcsec apart, and tentatively at the same redshift. Here, we report on the spectroscopic confirmation with Gran Telescopio Canarias of the Lyman Alpha emission from this pair of galaxies at a confirmed spectroscopic redshifts of z=5.07. Furthermore, one of the sources is interacting/merging with another close companion that looks distorted. Based on the
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  • Figure Caption: Teff and log gc estimates for the Galactic (red circles) and LMC (gray triangles) O-type dwarfs as a function of SpT; corresponding linear fits are overplotted with red and black dashed lines.  The figures show the scatter found in effecti
    We are now in an era of large spectroscopic surveys of OB-type stars. Quantitative spectroscopic analysis of these modern datasets is enabling us to review the physical properties of blue massive stars with robust samples, not only revisiting mean properties and general trends, but also incorporating information about the effects of second-order parameters. We investigate the spectral type -- effective temperature (SpT - Teff) calibration for O-type dwarfs, and its claimed dependence on metallicity, using statistically-meaningful samples of stars extracted from the IACOB and VFTS surveys. We
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  • 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”
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