El ciclo de divulgación “Del Cielo a la Tesis” regresa este mes de febrero para acercar el trabajo de los jóvenes investigadores del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) al público. En esta ocasión, la sesión se celebrará el próximo jueves 19 de febrero, en el Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos (MCC) del Organismo Autónomo de Museos y Centros del Cabildo de Tenerife. Eso sí, esta vez cambiará de horario y la sesión dará comienzo a las 17:00h. La jornada contará con dos ponencias centradas en la Astrofísica de altas energías y la búsqueda de respuestas sobre los componentes invisibles del

IAC researchers have confirmed the possible existence of large fullerene molecules in the Universe. These are the most complex molecules discovered to date

The Universe in 3D, a brief presentation, will open the exhibition in Tegueste next Saturday, 19 January, at 19:30 in the Prebend Pacheco Hall

Stellar-mass black holes (BHs) are mostly found in X-ray transients, a subclass of X-ray binaries that exhibit violent outbursts. None of the ~50 galactic BHs known show eclipses, which is surprising for a random distribution of inclinations. Swift J1357.2−093313 is a very faint X-ray transient detected in 2011 by the Swift telescope. Our spectroscopic evidences show that it contains a BH in a 2.8h orbital period. High-time resolution optical light curves display profound dips of up to 0.8 mag (50% of the optical flux) in 2min without X-ray counterparts. The observed properties are best

Rotation is thought to drive cyclic magnetic activity in the Sun and Sun-like stars. Stellar dynamos, however, are poorly understood owing to the scarcity of observations of rotation and magnetic fields in stars. Here, inferences are drawn on the internal rotation of a distant Sun-like star by studying its global modes of oscillation. We report asteroseismic constraints imposed on the rotation rate and the inclination of the spin axis of the Sun-like star HD52265, a CoRoT prime target known to host a planetary companion. These seismic inferences are remarkably consistent with an independent

Supernova remnants are among the most spectacular examples of astrophysical pistons in our cosmic neighborhood. The gas expelled by the supernova explosion is launched with velocities ∼1000 km/s into the ambient, tenuous interstellar medium, producing shocks that excite hydrogen lines. We have used an optical integral-field spectrograph to obtain high-resolution spatial-spectral maps that allow us to study in detail the shocks in the northwestern rim of supernova 1006. The two-component Halpha line is detected at 133 sky locations. Variations in the broad line widths and the broad-to-narrow