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
  • Piero Benvenuti
    Interview
    PIERO BENVENUTI: “La Palma and the Canary Islands are among the best astronomical sites in the world”.
    Since it started on October 3rd the conference “ Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society” has been discussing the consequences of artificial lighting at night (ALAN). But on Tuesday and Wednesday October 5th and 6th specialists from all over the world are discussing, on-line, solutions which reconcile the development of recent satellite constellations with scientific activity, and humanity’s right to enjoy the starry sky. Prof. Piero Benvenuto, the representative of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on the UN Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and one of
    Advertised on
  • Poster Dark & Quiet Skies
    Press release
    The silent beauty of the night sky
    Yesterday saw the start of the Conference on Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society) organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) with the support of NOIRLab (The National Laboratory for Research in Optical and Infrared Astronomy of the National Science Foundation (NSF). As had been announced a few months ago, after last year’s Workshop, the aim of this new meeting is to focus on putting into practice the recommendations made in the exhaustive report which resulted
    Advertised on
  • The mass–concentration relation from dark matter simulations (blue line), and from hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies (open and solid circles). The red square and triangle show galaxy AGC242019 for a cuspy halo fit and for our shallow fit used in this work. Our results agree with theoretical expectations.
    Research news
    Are ultra-diffuse galaxies structurally similar to low-surface-brightness galaxies?
    A central question regarding ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) is whether they are in a separate category from low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies, or just their natural continuation toward low stellar masses. In this Letter, we show that the rotation curve of the gas rich UDG AGC 242019 is well fit by a dark matter halo with an inner slope that asymptotes to ~-0.54, and that such a fit provides a concentration parameter that matches theoretical expectations. This finding, together with previous works in which shallow inner profiles are derived for UDGs, shows that the structural properties of
    Advertised on
  • Photometric magnetic activity index, Sph, as a function of the Rossby for the Kepler stars showing the comparison between an older relation to compute the Rossby number (left panel, Noyes 1984) and the Rossby number from this work (right panel).
    Research news
    Calibrating the Rossby number, a key parameter to study the magnetic activity of stars
    In a star like the Sun, surface magnetic activity results from the interaction between rotation, convection, and magnetic field. One of the key parameters to study the magnetic activity of stars is the Rossby number, which is the ratio between the surface rotation period of the star and the convective turnover time. The convective turnover time measures the time that takes a bubble of plasma to go from the base of the convective zone in a star like the Sun to the surface, similarly to a bubble reaching the surface in a pan with boiling water heated by the bottom. While the surface rotation
    Advertised on
  • Linear polarization pattern of the solar D1 and D2 spectral lines, comparing observations to the results of the modeling (see legend). An excellent agreement with observations is found when assuming that the solar atmosphere is significantly magnetized.
    Research news
    Solving the paradox of the enigmatic solar sodium D1 line polarization
    In 1998 the journal Nature published a seminal letter concluding that the mysterious polarization (a particular property of light) that had been recently observed in the solar sodium D1 line implies that the solar chromosphere (a very important layer of the solar atmosphere) is practically unmagnetized, in sharp contradiction with common wisdom. This paradox motivated laboratory experiments and theoretical investigations which, instead of providing a solution, raised new issues and even led some scientists to question the quantum theory of radiation-matter interaction. Here, we have carried
    Advertised on
  • Result of the field test made with the copy of DRAGO on September 22nd 2021 at 08.00 local time.
    Press release
    The Cumbre Vieja volcano taken with the DRAGO camera from orbit
    The eruption on La Palma has provided a unique scenario for testing the DRAGO instrument, the infrared camera of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) which has been observing the Canary Islands from space since January. One of the objectives for which DRAGO was designed is monitoring natural disasters, especially those which could occur in the Canaries, such as forest fires, petroleum spills, or volcanic eruptions. The role of DRAGO is to provide infrared images from space to help the management and control of these disasters. In the case of the eruption which began on September
    Advertised on