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
  • Top: final transmission spectrum and retrieved models for HAT-P-65b. The white circles refer to the data. The blue line and shading show the results from the full retrieval, while the red line and shading from the K-muted retrieval. Bottom: retrieved temperature-pressure (T-P) profiles and mass fractions for the full retrieval (left two) and K-muted retrieval (right two), respectively.
    Research news
    Detection of TiO and Na in the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-65b
    We present the low-resolution transmission spectra of the puffy hot Jupiter HAT-P-65b (0.53 MJup, 1.89 RJup, Teq = 1930 K), based on two transits observed using the OSIRIS spectrograph on the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS. The transmission spectra of the two nights are consistent, covering the wavelength range 517–938 nm and consisting of mostly 5 nm spectral bins. We perform equilibrium-chemistry spectral retrieval analyses on the jointly fitted transmission spectrum and obtain an equilibrium temperature of 1645 (-244+255) K and a cloud coverage of 36 (-17+23) %, revealing a relatively
    Advertised on
  • Optical spectrum from the VHE gamma-ray blazar S4 0954+65. The detection of the emission lines allows us to firmly establish the redshift and the characteristics of the source.
    Research news
    Characterization of the host galaxy from gamma-ray blazars
    The most extreme electromagnetic radiation that can be observed is known as very high energy gamma rays (VHE, E>100 GeV). It is the last window open to the Universe, thanks to the development of the Cherenkov telescopes. The extragalactic VHE sky is still nowadays vastly unexplored, only composed of around 80 known sources. The great majority of them are classified as blazars, a type of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) whose relativistic jets point in the direction of the Earth boosting their emission. While the observation of the gamma-ray emission is crucial to understand the extreme physical
    Advertised on
  • Spectral energy distribution from radio to VHE gamma rays. For the first time a narrow spectral feature is detected in the VHE band. The proposed theoretical emission model is represented by the red curve (taken from Acciari et al. 2020, A&A, 637, A86).
    Research news
    Testing the extreme acceleration mechanisms in the supermassive black holes neighborhood
    Blazars, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) whose relativistic jets point in the direction of the Earth, dominate the VHE (VHE, E>100 GeV) gamma-ray extragalactic sky. One of the most famous archetypical VHE gamma-ray emitters is the blazar Markarian 501 (Mrk 501). During July 2014, the source displayed a strong flare detected across all wavelengths from VHE to the optical band. In particular, it is especially interesting that the source reached the maximum flux and harder spectrum measured in the X-ray band, compatible with the most extreme historical flare from this source. On 2014 July 19
    Advertised on
  • WASP-156b
    Photomontage
    IAC80 telescope detects faint transit of exoplanet WASP-156b
    Astronomers from the Agrupación Astrónomica de Sabadell together with the Telescopic Operations Technicians of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Marta Puig Subirà and Miguel Rodríguez Alarcón, have detected the transit of the exoplanet WASP-156b, catalogued as a high priority objective by the Exoclock project. The depth of the detected transit was only 6 millimagnitudes and will contribute to improve the ephemerides available for the ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) mission of the European Space Agency. Exoclock project: Kokori, A., Tsiaras, A
    Advertised on
  • The lines of flow of the magnetic field detected with SOFIA are shown superposed on an image of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Credits: NASA, the SOFIA science team, A. Borlaff; NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).
    Press release
    Magnetic turbulence hidden in the Whirlpool Galaxy
    There is a force hidden deep inside galaxies: magnetic fields. Invisible to conventional telescopes, they are a factor in galaxy evolution, regulating the formation of new stars and helping to drive intragalatic gas towards their central supermassive black hole.
    Advertised on
  • TMT
    Press release
    The committee of experts of the US Academy of Science considers that the TMT is a priority, and maintains La Palma as a possible site
    The National Academy of Science of the United States presented, yesterday afternoon, its report Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s, a decadal study which identifies priorities for research and makes recommendations for future investment in scientific projects for the next ten years. Among its conclusions the report specifies the Programme of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT) as a priority for ground-based astronomy, and stresses the need to invest in at least one of the projects proposed for this type of telescopes, among them the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)
    Advertised on