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
  • Luminosity - X-ray colour diagram of the black hole MAXI J1820+070 (black, solid line). The different traces indicate wind detections at different wavelengths throughout the entire outburst.
    Research news
    Discovery of continuous infrared winds during the outburst of a black hole
    X-ray binaries are stellar systems composed of a compact object (either a stellar-mass black hole or a neutron star) and a donor star that transfers mass to the former. Outflows represent fundamental physical phenomena to understand accretion processes in these systems. Black holes show three types of outflows: radio-jets and optical winds during the hard accretion states, and highly ionised winds observed in X-rays during the soft states. The black hole transient MAXI J1820+070 showed optical winds with velocities up to 1800 km/s during the hard state of its 2018-2019 outburst. In this work
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  • The proyect moved around a part of the zone of Allande, and visited the villages of Berducedo, Monón, Fonteta, and Pola de Allande. Credit: Raquel González Cuesta.
    Press release
    Allande Stars: beyond the stars, closer to our culture
    The Allande Stars project, funded and supported by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), is bringing Astronomy to more than 300 people to the zone of Allande, in Asturias, under the strictest safety measures, and in a spirit of unity under the same sky. Last weekend saw the activities in the Allande Stars project ( www.allandestars.com ), an initiative in itinerant science outreach whose aim is to bring Science and in particular Astronomy closer to the rural villages in the south west of Asturias, who in general have less access to museums, cultural lectures, and other similar
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  • Artistic impression of the constant emission of winds produced during the eruption of a black hole in an X-ray binary. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC).
    Press release
    Continuous infrared winds discovered during the eruption of a stellar mass black hole
    A team of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has detected for the first time the constant infrared emission from winds produced during the eruption of a black hole in an X-ray binary. Until now, these flows of material had been detected only in other wavelength ranges, such as X-rays or the visible, depending on the phase in which the black hole is consuming its surrounding material. This study provides the first evidence that the winds are present throughout the evolution of the eruption, independently of the phase, and this is a step forward in our
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  • Logo del IAC
    Press release
    Communiqué from the IAC about the recent fire in Garafía
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the international institutions of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory would like to give due recognition to the outstanding work carried out by the personnel who have participated in the tasks of extinguishing the fire declared last Friday, 21st August, in the municipality of Garafía (La Palma) and which on the Sunday was “stabilized”, thanks to their professionalism, effort and courage in extremely difficult labour. We would also like to praise the efficiency and the coordination shown by the various administrations involved, especially
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  • The stellar source for phosphorus, element so important for life, is still unknown. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC).
    Research news
    The phosphorus that came from the stars
    All chemical elements in the Universe (except for H and most of the He) have been made in stellar interiors. But among those elements, the ones that allowed to build life such as we find on Earth are of particular interest (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and phosphorus). However, the stellar origin of phosphorus (P) is still unknown as none of the current models of Galactic chemical evolution can explain all the phosphorus we observe in the Galaxy and notably in our Solar System, highlighting a still lacking phosphorus source. In this work we report the discovery of stars very rich in
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