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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  • A Milky Way-like spiral galaxy, a dwarf and a faint ultra-diffuse galaxy shown to the same physical scale using images of similar depth. On average, the diffuse galaxy is 10 times smaller than the Milky Way analogue. Credit: Adapted from Chamba, Trujillo & Knapen (2020).
    Research news
    Are ultra-diffuse galaxies Milky Way-sized?
    Now almost 70 years since its introduction, the effective or half-light radius has become a very popular choice for characterising galaxy size. However, the effective radius measures the concentration of light within galaxies and thus does not capture our intuitive definition of size which is related to the edge or boundary of objects. For this reason, we aim to demonstrate the undesirable consequence of using the effective radius to draw conclusions about the nature of faint ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) when compared to dwarfs and Milky Way-like galaxies. Instead of the effective radius
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  • Composición espectro LFC
    Press release
    Sucessful test of new technology which should help to discover “other Earths”
    A scientific team, led by the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, with participation from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, confirms the high degree of precision of the new calibration system known as a “laser frequency comb” which could be the key to the detection of planets like the Earth. The study is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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  • (From left to right) Antonia María Varela, Antonio López González, Ana Rosa Mena, Ricardo Chico Marrero, Candelaria de la Rosa González, Eladia Mª López Lutzardo, Julián Rodríguez Pérez and Campbell Warden. Credit: Inés Bonet (IAC)
    Press release
    The Town Council of Tequeste visits the IAC
    Ana Rosa Mena, the Mayoress of Tegueste, on February 7th, visited the Headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), in La Laguna, and the Teide Observatory (OT) in Tenerife, together with several of the town councillors: Ricardo Chico Marrero, Councillor of New Technologies and Services; Antonio López González, Councillor of Culture, Sport, and Civil Protection; Julián Rodríguez Pérez, Councillor of Agriculture; Eladia María López Lutzardo, Councillor of Festivals and Ethnography; and Candelaria de la Rosa González, Councillor of Social Services. The Council was received by
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  • Sandra Benítez Herrera, Ana Fragoso López, Estrella Zatón Martín and Alejandra Martín Gálvez
    Press release
    New edition of "Girls who broke a glass ceiling while looking at the sky"
    With the aim of motivating interest in scientific and technological (STEM) careers among the younger girls, and to publicise the work of the women astrophysicists and engineers at the IAC, in 2017 the audiovisual series "Girls who broke a glass ceiling while looking at the sky" was initiated. The series, inspired in the project "No-Nancies" by the astrophysicist Pilar Montañés is included in the project "The return of Henrietta Leavitt: from school to a research career via the theatre", an initiative of the IAC in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)
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  • Poster of February 11th, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Design: Inés Bonet (IAC)
    Press release
    February 11th: an unceasing commitment to equality
    Again this year the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is showing its commitment to gender equality by organizing a large number of activities around February 11th, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The main aim of this day, which was declares by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015 is: ‘to recognize the important role that women and girls play in science and technology’ In recent years the number of women in science and technology carrees has increased significnatly. In 2017 there were six countries with more women scientists and engineers than men
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  • 1D-LTE oxygen-to-iron abundance ratios [O/Fe] vs. metallicity [Fe/H] of the iron-poor star J0815+4729 (large star symbol) compared with literature measurements from the [O I] forbidden line (diamonds), the near-IR O I triplet (circles), and the near-UV OH lines (squares). The two triangles at [Fe/H] ∼ −3.6 correspond to the oxygen measurement from OH lines in the metal-poor binary stars CS 22876–032 AB (González Hernández et al. 2008).
    Research news
    The extreme CNO-enhanced composition of a primitive iron-poor dwarf star
    We present an analysis of high-resolution Keck/HIRES spectroscopic observations of J0815+4729, an extremely carbon-enhanced, iron-poor dwarf star. These high-quality data allow us to derive a metallicity of [Fe/H] = −5.49 ± 0.14 from the three strongest Fe I lines and to measure a high [Ca/Fe] = 0.75 ± 0.14. The large carbon abundance of A(C) = 7.43 ± 0.17 (or [C/Fe] ∼ 4.49 ± 0.11) places this star in the upper boundary of the low- carbon band in the A(C)–[Fe/H] diagram, suggesting no contamination from a binary AGB companion. We detect the oxygen triplet at 777 nm for the first time in an
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