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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  • Two different frames of the galaxy evolution, being an oblate system at early times (left) which is transformed into a prolate spheroid (right) due to a merger. Top: Line of sight velocity map. Bottom: RGB rendering using I, V, B filters.
    Research news
    Origin of stellar prolate rotation in a cosmologically simulated faint dwarf
    In the current cosmological model, galaxies are formed in a hierarchical way, by merging with each other. These mergers can lead to kinematic anomalies that can be used to shed light onto the formation history of the galaxy. However, it is important to be able to distinguish whether these anomalies are an unambiguous signal of a past merger or if they can originate from different processes . One of these kinematic anomalies is prolate rotation. A galaxy shows prolate rotation if it rotates around its major axis. This kinematic characteristic is relatively frequent in massive galaxies and it
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  • Evolutionary history of Leo I. The large panel represents the rate of star formation as a function of time, while the small panel indicates the chemical enrichment in the same time interval. Three vertical lines separate the four periods described in the legend.
    Research news
    A dwarf irregular galaxy caught in transition
    Leo I is one of the youngest dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies in the Local Group. Its relative isolation, extended and complex star formation history (SFH), and recent perigalacticon passage ( ∼ 1 Gyr ago) make of Leo I one of the most interesting nearby stellar systems. We derived its SFH from a deep Hubble Space Telescope colour-magnitude diagram and found that global star formation enhancements in Leo I occurred ∼ 13, 5.5, 2.0, and 1.0 Gyr ago, after which it was substantially quenched, most probably due to ram pressure stripping with the Milky Way halo. We interpreted the most ancient
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  • Cosmic Seahorse
    Press release
    Astronomers find Milky Way analogue galaxy in the early universe
    An international team, including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), used combined data from different radio telescopes located in Spain to probe the mode of star formation in a galaxy when the universe had less than 30% of its current age. They revealed that the properties of the molecular gas reservoir are similar to the one of our own Galaxy, unseen up to now in the distant universe. The paper is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. A major question in the study of galaxies is on the mode of star formation, how efficient the conversion of cold gas
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  • Inauguración Centro de Visitantes del Roque
    Press release
    The Visitor Centre at the Roque de los Muchachos and the Starmus Festival: two gateways to the Universe and to the recovery of La Palma
    The Cabildo of La Palma, the Town Council of Garafía, and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) yesterday inaugurated the Visitor Centre at the Roque de los Muchachos. Present at the ceremony were the Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the President of the Government of the Canaries, Angel Victor Torres, among other personalities. During the first months of tests, the Visitor Centre can be visited by the population of the Island, and by tourists free of charge, so that they can enjoy and get to know at close quarters the working of this centre specialising in the scientific
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  • DES
    Press release
    Astronomers confirm the existence of a cosmic supervoid that challenges our understanding of dark energy
    Research by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) participates, has confirmed the presence of a supervoid, an extremely large region with a lower-than-average density of matter, in the constellation Eridanus. Its study could provide new clues to understanding the nature of dark energy. The result is published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The possibility of mapping the largest structures in the Universe has always been an aspiration of astrophysics. After the meticulous charting of our cosmic backyard
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  • GJ 367b illustration. The planet orbits around a red dwarf every 7.7 hours. Its bulk density is close to that of iron, interior structure models predict a similar structure to Mercury’s interior. (Image credit: SPP 1992 (Patricia Klein)).
    Research news
    A dense ultra-short period sub-Earth planet transiting a nearby red dwarf star
    Ultrashort-period (USP) exoplanets have orbital periods shorter than 1 day. Precise masses and radii of USP exoplanets could provide constraints on their unknown formation and evolution processes. We report the detection and characterization of the USP planet GJ 367b using high-precision photometry and radial velocity observations. GJ 367b orbits a bright (V-band magnitude of 10.2), nearby, and red (M-type) dwarf star every 7.7 hours. GJ 367b has a radius of 0.718 ± 0.054 Earth-radii and a mass of 0.546 ± 0.078 Earth-masses, making it a sub-Earth planet. The corresponding bulk density is 8
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