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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    Research news
    The origin of the brightest stars in any Galaxy lies in stellar mergers
    Massive stars, those over ten times heavier than our Sun, are the conduits of most elements of the periodic table and drive the morphological and chemical makeup of their host galaxies. Yet the origin of the most luminous and hottest stars among them, called 'blue supergiants', has been debated for many decades. Blue supergiants are strange stars. First, they are observed in large numbers, despite conventional stellar physics expecting them to live only briefly. Second, they are typically found alone, despite most massive stars being born with companions. Third, the majority of them harbour
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  • Artist's impression of a binary star system
    Press release
    Study reveals how binary stars change their stellar dance with age
    Research led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has discovered that, in binary systems, stars that evolve into red giants change the way they rotate with their companions, making their orbits more circular. The result was achieved after studying nearly 1000 solar-like oscillating stars in binary systems, the greatest yield to date of such objects. For their identification, the third Gaia Data Release (Gaia-DR3) and NASA Kepler and TESS catalogs have been explored. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics and has been selected as the most recent
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  • TST en el Observatorio del Teide
    Press release
    The new TST telescope at the Teide Observatory celebrates its First Light
    The robotic Transient Survey Telescope (TST) installed in the Teide Observatory of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has successfully started its scientific observations. It is a 1 metre telescope which permits the detection of rapidly varying objects, and is set up to map the sky. The TST has been built and run via a public-private collaboration with Canary funding. The Transient Survey Telescope (TST) is a telescope with a 1 metre primary mirror, built to take long-term observations called surveys, for the detection of faint, rapidly varying objects over a wide area of the sky
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  • Webb's first deep field
    Press release
    A study suggests that there are galaxies which might be older than the currently accepted age of the universe
    An observationally based study, led by Martín López Corredoira, researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has found that certain very distant massive galaxies appear to be older than the limit set by standard cosmology. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, is based on the analysis of data recently obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope of galaxies that existed when the universe was only between 4% and 5% of its present age, according to the accepted standard model of cosmology. The researchers infer that the mean age of some of these galaxies would not be
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  • Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio, director of the AEACI, welcomes the participants of the school
    Press release
    The IAC is celebrating 10 years of Educational Adventure in Astronomy
    Yesterday saw the start of the 10th International School Astronomy Education Adventure in the Canary Islands (AEACI 2024) which will be celebrated during the full week in the IACTEC building in La Laguna (Tenerife), and which 65 teachers from 23 countries are attending. This school, organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) together with other scientific and educational institutions, has reached its tenth anniversary, and has given training in the teaching of astronomy to 600 teachers from all over the world. With the title “Explore the Universe with us” the AEACI 2024 has
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  • Artificial intelligence at the service of astrophysics
    Press release
    Machine learning reveals the merging history of nearby galaxies
    Research led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has used an innovative technique based on artificial intelligence to study how stars form in galaxies. By analysing 10 000 nearby galaxies, the team have discovered that most stars are born within their own galaxy. Galactic mergers, while important, are not the main source of new stars. Furthermore, the study reveals that more massive galaxies are more affected by these mergers. These results, published in Nature Astronomy, provide new clues about the complex history of galaxies and their evolution over time. Most galaxies do not
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