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
  • Fernando Moreno Insertis
    Press release
    A study of the whole Sun
    The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded one of its prestigious “ERC Synergy Grants” to a team led by Fernando Moreno Insertis, researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Professor at the University of La Laguna (ULL) as a member of a consortium of five European institutions.
    Advertised on
  • Hα+[N II] imaging of the super-remnant in M31N 2008-12a taken with the Liverpool Telescope (left), and the Hubble Space Telescope and WFC3 (right).
    Research news
    A giant interstellar bubble being grown in the Andromeda galaxy
    The combination of a white dwarf mass close to the Chandrasekhar limit (1.4 solar masses) and a fast hydrogen accretion rate (10 -7 solar masses per year) from a companion star leads to frequent thermonuclear runaways in the accumulated envelope of gas on the white dwarf. These are known as nova eruptions and have recurrence times of years to decades. In this work we report that the recurrent nova with the shortest recurrence timescale known (approximately once a year), M31N 2008-12a in the Andromeda galaxy, is surrounded by a giant shell with a projected size of about 134 by 90 pc that is
    Advertised on
  • Artist’s impression of a planetary fragment orbits the star SDSS J122859.93+104032.9, leaving a trail of gas in its wake. Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick.
    Research news
    A planetesimal orbiting within the debris disc around a white dwarf star
    Numerous exoplanets have been detected around Sun-like stars. These stars end their lives as white dwarfs, which should inherit any surviving planetary systems. In fact, many white dwarf stars show signs of having accreted smaller bodies, implying that they may host planetary systems. A small number of these systems contain gaseous debris discs, visible through emission lines. Here, we report a stable 123.4-minute periodic variation in the strength and shape of the Ca II emission line profiles originating from the debris disc around the white dwarf SDSS J122859.93+104032.9. We used numerical
    Advertised on
  • Amanar: under the same sky
    Press release
    Amanar: under the same sky
    Today marks the official start of this outreach project in astronomy, which promotes scientific education and supports the young people and the teachers who live in the saharaui refugee camps. The activities of astronomical popularization and the visits to the Canary Observatories will start on July 20th, and will last until October, when an international team, with participation from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) will travel to the saharaui refugee camps near Tinduf, in Algeria. Amanar, which means The Pleiades” in Berber, is an astronomical outreach project to inspire the
    Advertised on
  • Image of the opening of the IAU Symposium 355
    Press release
    The hidden Universe: inauguration of the IAU Symposium
    In the University of La Laguna today the conference of the International Astronomical Union about the diffuse light in the sky, organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias was inaugurated. This meeting brings together over a hundred astronomers in a variety of fields from over 20 countries.
    Advertised on
  • The anti-correlation between the amount of metals and the star formation rate when comparing galaxies with similar stellar mass. Galaxies with more (lower image) and less (upper image) star-forming regions (the blue clumps) are shown.
    Research news
    Within galaxy variations in the chemical composition are responsible for the fundamental relation
    The so-called "fundamental metallicity relation" (FMR) has been known for almost 10 years, and it states that galaxies of the same stellar mass but larger star formation rate have more chemically primitive gas. It is thought to be fundamental because it naturally arises from the stochastic feeding of star-formation from external metal-poor gas accretion, a process extremely elusive to observe but essential according the cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. Galaxies transform gas into stars at a rate that quickly exhaust their gas reservoir. Therefore, a continuous supply of external
    Advertised on