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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  • IV Technical Conference of the Knowledge Transfer Offices
    The IAC contributes its experience at the 4th Technical Conference of Knowledge Transfer Offices
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), through its Office of Transfer and Institutional Actions (OTAI), has taken part in the IV Technical Conference of the Canarian Knowledge Transfer Offices (OTCs) and European Project Offices (OPEs) that took place this Friday at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). The meeting addressed how to promote the transfer of knowledge from universities and public research centres in the Canary Islands to the productive fabric and society. The opening of the conference was attended by Migdalia Machín, Councillor for Universities, Science
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  • Feria de la Ciencia La Orotava
    Press release
    El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias participa en la Feria de la Ciencia de La Orotava
    El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias participa una vez más en la Feria de la Ciencia de La Orotava que este año cumple su XXI edición. Se trata del encuentro de divulgación más longevo de Canarias y que en esta ocasión está dedicada a nuestra estrella: el Sol. Esta edición se celebrará el próximo domingo, 10 de noviembre, en la Plaza de la Constitución de La Orotava, entre las 10:30 y las 18:30 horas. El IAC participará en esta feria con un stand donde ofrecerá actividades coordinadas por el equipo de Divulgación de la Unidad de Comunicación y Cultura Científica (UC3) del IAC junto a
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  • CLASP2 observation from the sounding rocket.
    Research news
    Mapping the Magnetic Field in the Chromosphere of Solar Active Regions
    The magnetic field in the solar chromosphere plays a key role in the heating of the outer solar atmosphere and in the build-up and sudden release of energy in solar flares. However, uncovering the magnetic field vector in the solar chromosphere is a difficult task because the magnetic field leaves its fingerprints in the very faint polarization of the light, which is far from easy to measure and interpret. We analyse the spectropolarimetric observations obtained with the Chromospheric Layer Spectropolarimeter on board a sounding rocket. This suborbital space experiment observed the near
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  • Claude Nicollier tells of his experience as an astronaut at the IAC / Inés Bonnet (IAC)
    Press release
    Claude Nicollier tells of his experience as an astronaut at the IAC
    On Wednesday 30 October, the headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) received a talk by the first Swiss astronaut, Claude Nicollier, who wanted to share his experience in space with the personnel of the IAC. Claude Nicollier is the first Swiss astronaut to have flown into space. After his studies at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, Claude joined ESA as a member of their first group of astronauts. Since 2007 Nicollier has been a Professor at the Federal Polytechnical School at Lausanne. He has spent more than 1000 hours in space (more than 42 days) including a
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  • El director del IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, recibió al embajador de Japón en España, Takahiro Nakamae. / Inés Bonet (IAC)
    Press release
    El embajador de Japón en España visita el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
    El embajador de Japón en España, Takahiro Nakamae , visitó esta semana la sede central del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) y el Observatorio del Teide, junto con Shinji Yamada, cónsul de Japón en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, junto a personal de su equipo. En la sede central fueron recibidos por Valentín Martínez Pillet, director del IAC; y por el responsable de Instrumentación, Marcos Reyes; y por la jefa de la Unidad de Comunicación y Cultura Científica (UC3), Verónica Martín. En la sede central del IAC conocieron las instalaciones y las principales líneas de investigación del
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  • TOI-2768 b is a Neptune-like exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 7.41 Earths, it takes 1.5 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.027 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2024.
    Press release
    Several Neptune-like planets discovered in a theoretically barren region
    The distribution of planets in the over five thousand distant solar systems discovered to date forms a complex puzzle. There is a region in the planetary orbit graph, known as the " Neptunian desert", where very few Neptune-like planets with orbits of between two and four days period around their star have been recorded to date. Now, a scientific team led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IAA-CSIC) , using a novel technique, new planets around red dwarf stars located precisely in
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