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.

List view
  • Colorful geminid over the peak of mount Teide. Credit: Juan Carlos Casado/IAC.
    Press release
    Jewitt-Li GeminidPHOTONEWS
    This image was obtained during December 12 small hours, from Teide Observatory (IAC). It shows a colorful geminid over the peak of mount Teide. Teide, the highest mountain in Spain, that emerges 7.500m from the bottom of the sea, belongs to its National Park, which is World Heritage. Although meteors normally last less than a second in the sky, cameras are able to catch a chromatic spectrum of color as the meteor advances through the atmosphere. Colors show the meteoroid composition -grains of dust originally ejected from asteroid 3200 Phaethon- as well as atmospheric composition (oxygen and
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  • Artist’s impression of a cosmic “ocean” of cold gas, discovered at heart of an embryonic cluster of galaxies, some 10 billion light years away. The central region has been given the name “Spiderweb” though it was previously known as MRC 1138-262, because
    Press release
    Where giant galaxies are born
    An international team of scientists, with IAC participation, has discovered that the biggest galaxies in the universe develop in cosmic clouds of cold gas. This finding, which was made possible using radiotelescopes in Australian and the USA, is being published today in the journal Science.
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  • Noemí Pinilla, a researcher at the Florida Space Institute of the University of Central Florida at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canrias (IAC). Credit: Elena Mora (IAC).
    Interview
    NOEMÍ PINILLA: “If there really is a Planet X, finding it would force to revise the models of the creation and evolution of the Solar System that didn’t include it”
    Noemí Pinilla, a researcher at the Florida Space Institute of the University of Central Florida, has a very close relationship with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canrias (IAC). She studied astrophysics at the University of La Laguna (ULL) and after obtaining her doctorate she made the jump across the Atlantic to the NASA Ames Research Center as a postdoc. Now, as on previous occasions, she continues to collaborate with the IAC, to be specific in the preparation of a spectroscopic catalogue of asteroids, and studying the ices and the surfaces of the dwarf planets of the Solar System. Even
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  • Press release
    El IAC participa en la misión espacial AIM que estudiará mecanismos para desviar asteroides peligrosos
    La próxima semana, la Agencia Espacial Europea (ESA) decide si lanza en 2020 la misión AIM cuyo objetivo es estudiar al asteroide Dydimos y probar la tecnología necesaria para desviar su trayectoria mediante un impacto. El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) participa en AIM a través de Javier Licandro, Julia de León y Miquel Serra-Ricart, investigadores que forman parte del grupo científico, además de desarrollar un innovador sistema de comunicaciones ópticas de la nave.
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