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.

  • Redshift evolution of the ratio of the relic galaxies to the total number of massive galaxies. The three different lines represent the three considered models. Coloured areas, orange (orange-red) show galaxies that have increased their masses less than a
    The number of present-day massive galaxies that has survived untouched since their formation at high-z is an important observational constraint to the hierarchical galaxy formation models. Using three different semianalytical models based on the Millenium simulation, we quantify the expected fraction and number densities of the massive galaxies form at z>2 which have evolved in stellar mass less than 10% and 30%. We find that only a small fraction of the massive galaxies already form at z~2 have remained almost unaltered since their formation (<2% with Delta_M*/M*<0.1 and <8% with Delta_M*/M
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  • Image en banda z of a Y dwarf, WISE1217+1626. The red circle indicates the position of the Y dwarf on the GTC image whereas the black circle denominates the position of the discovery image.
    The aim of the project is to contribute to the characterisation of the spectral energy distribution of the coolest brown dwarfs discovered to date, the Y dwarfs.We obtained z-band far-red imaging for six Y dwarfs and a T9+Y0 binary with the OSIRIS (Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy) instrument on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC).We detect five of the seven known Y dwarfs in the z-band, infer theioptical-to-infrared colours, and measure their proper motions. We find a higher dispersion in the z-J and z-H colours of Y0 dwarfs than in T dwarfs
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  • (a) Visible spectra of DA14 obtained with CAFOS at the 2.2m CAHA telescope (black) and OSIRIS at GTC (red). Filled circles are the reflectance R values obtained from the fotometry. (b) Same as the top panel, but adding the R values for the near-infrared.
    Near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA 14 made its closest approach on February 15, 2013, when it passed at a distance of 27,700 km from the Earth’s surface. It was the first time an asteroid of moderate size was predicted to approach that close to the Earth, becoming bright enough to permit a detailed study from ground-based telescopes. Asteroid 2012 DA 14 was poorly characterized before its closest approach. The main objective of this work was to obtain new and valuable data to better understand its physical properties, and to evaluate the effects of such a close approach on the object. We acquired
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