To celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we publish the fourth chapter in the audiovisual series “Girls who broke a glass ceiling looking at the sky”. It will be available in the social networks and the video channels (YouTube and Daylimotion) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and its objective is to continue drawing attention to the work that women in this Institute carry out, and to encourage the youngest girls to opt for scientific and technical careers.

El equipo preparó las observaciones que se realizarán con el espectrógrafo EMIR instalado en el Gran Telescopio Canarias.

Because of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and International Women’s Day, women scientists and engineers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias will participate, throughout February and March, in a number of activities to show the role of women in science and to arouse interest in science in young girls.

Casiana, an astrophysicist expert in galaxies, and Principal Investigator of the international collaboration ESTALLIDOS, will also lead the Sky Quality Group of the Canary Island Observatories. She succeeds the astrophysicist Carlos Martínez Roger who recently retired.

Gas is essential to the process of forming a galaxy. During the first stages the amount of gas present determines the number of stars which will be in the galaxy. The galaxies with active nuclei (AGN) are those with a region of intense brightness in their centres. This brightness is produced by the presence of a supermassive black hole whose gravity makes it accumulate matter around it, in a process known as accretion. Supermassive black holes cause the surrounding gas to heat up, and some of it is driven towards the outer part of the galaxy (feedback effect). Until now it was believed that

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Museum of Science and the Cosmos (MCC) of Museums of Tenerife, have produced the astronomical calendar “100 Square Moons” for 2019 which can be consulted and downloaded in digital format.