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.
Known as the only building from the Visigoth era in the southern half of the Spanish península which is still conserved, this church, from the Municipality of Alcuéscar in the province of Cáceres, is the scene which has been chosen to welcome Autumn by the sky-live.tv channel.
The IAC expresses the solidarity of all its staff with La Palma in the face of the eruptive phenomenon that is affecting several municipalities on the island. We thank the authorities and all those involved in the security arrangements for the great work they are doing, which has prevented personal injury and has been of great help to the population. We deeply regret the material losses that many of the people living on the island are suffering. The eruption occurred about 20 km in a straight line from the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory and at an altitude of 600 m above sea level, so
Completely autonomous, not invasive, and low cost. This is the new SG-WAS (SkyGlow Wireless Autonomous Sensor) which will help to measure the impact of artificial night lighting on the natural protected areas of Macaronesia.
Between 3rd and 8th October the Conference “Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society” will be held in La Palma. It will convene a small group of specialists from throughout the world to suggest solutions to the problems facing Astronomy and citizens in general due to the increase of artificial lighting, the increase in radio signals produced by technological development, and the impact of the recent satellite constellations. Question: What is the objective of this Conference? Reply: In October 2020 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) together with the United Nations’ Office for
The black holes at the centres of galaxies are the most mysterious objects in the Universe, not only because of the huge quantities of material within them, millions of times the mass of the Sun, but because of the incredibly dense concentration of matter in a volume no bigger than that of our Solar System. When they capture matter from their surroundings they become active, eventually giving rise to the ejection of huge amounts of energy. It is however difficult to detect the black hole during these capture episodes because the event is rare. We detected l ong and narrow dust filaments
An international team led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has uncovered, with an new high degree of detail, the physical and chemical effects of the impact of a protostellar jet in the interior of the Orion Nebula. The study was made using observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and 20 years of images with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The observations show evidence of compression and heating produced by the shock front, and the destruction of dust grains, which cause a dramatic increase in the gas phase abundance of the atoms of iron, nickel
