Just as archaeology examines the ground with great care to find valuable objects which helps us to get to know ancient civilizations, astronomers look at the stars in the Milky Way in the hope of finding clues to help us understand the earliest period of development of our Galaxy. A team of researchers, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias participates, publishes today in Nature the discovery of the oldest globular cluster remnant discovered to date. This study combines data from ESA's GAIA satellite with observations made at the Gran Telescopio Canarias, installed at the Roque

An international team, including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), used combined data from different radio telescopes located in Spain to probe the mode of star formation in a galaxy when the universe had less than 30% of its current age. They revealed that the properties of the molecular gas reservoir are similar to the one of our own Galaxy, unseen up to now in the distant universe. The paper is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. A major question in the study of galaxies is on the mode of star formation, how efficient the conversion of cold gas

The Cabildo of La Palma, the Town Council of Garafía, and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) yesterday inaugurated the Visitor Centre at the Roque de los Muchachos. Present at the ceremony were the Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the President of the Government of the Canaries, Angel Victor Torres, among other personalities. During the first months of tests, the Visitor Centre can be visited by the population of the Island, and by tourists free of charge, so that they can enjoy and get to know at close quarters the working of this centre specialising in the scientific