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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  • Upper panel: Example of a spectrum contained in the Fabry-Pérot data where we detect three pairs of emission peaks symmetrically spaced with the emission of the H ii region, which correspond to the presence of three expanding shells.Lower panel: Expansion
    Research news
    Three supernova shells around a young star cluster in M33
    Using a specialized technique sensitive to the presence of expanding ionized gas, we have detected a set of three concentric expanding shells in an H ii region in the nearby spiral galaxy M33. The detection was done using Fabry-Pérot spectroscopy, which allows us to map the ionized gas emission line Hα with exceptional precision in the spatial and spectral coordinates. We also took long-slit spectra of colisionally excited emission lines, which showed that the shells are likely originated from supernova explosions. Using the flux and the kinematics we estimated the kinetic energy in the
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  • Wide angle view from the Teide Observatory towards the east. Above the horizon you can see the planet Venus, an a little higher up and to the left of Venus is comet Catalina (C/2013 US10). The lights and villages are on Grand Canary. J.C. Casado-staryeart
    Press release
    Catalina, a Christmas Comet
    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.
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  • The 3.5m telescope on Calar Alto in Southern Spain. CARMENES is installed at this telescope, and will start searching for Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars in early 2016. Credits: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
    Press release
    First successful tests of new planet hunter “CARMENES”
    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”.
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  • Image composition of meteors observed from the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands) the night of 14 to 15 December 2015, during the Geminids meteor shower. Credits: J.C. Casado / IAC.
    Press release
    A spectacular Geminids night PHOTONEWS
    Every year at about this date the Earth in its orbit round the Sun meets up with a stream of particles from the asteroid 3200 Phaeton, which produces the meteor shower known as the Geminids. This year we had a good opportunity to observe them. The maximum of this shower, which was expected at 18.00 UT yesterday, December 14 th, occurred with the Moon just emerging from new. For that reason the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) wanted to present the spectacle to the general public through its website and the sky-live.tv portal. the meteor shower will be broadcast directly from
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