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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  • Photomontage
    The WEAVE spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope takes its first light data at the ORM
    The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) and the WEAVE instrument team present the first observations with this new instrument. This is a powerful latest generation multi-fibre spectrograph which, in synergy with the Gaia satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), will be used to obtain spectra of several million stars in the disc and the halo of our Galaxy, permitting in-depth “archaeology” of the Milky Way. In addition, other galaxies, both nearby and distant, will be studied, some of them detected by the LOFAR radio telescope, in order to get to know their evolution. WEAVE, on the
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  • Exo-Earths in GJ 1002
    Press release
    ESPRESSO and CARMENES discover two potentially habitable exo-Earths around a star near the Sun
    An international scientific team led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has discovered the presence of two planets with Earth-like masses in orbit around the star GJ 1002, a red dwarf not far from the Solar System. Both planets are in the habitability zone of the star “Nature seems bent on showing us that Earth-like planets are very common. With these two we now know 7 in planetary systems quite near to the Sun” explains Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, an IAC researcher, who is the first author of the study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The
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  • Webb's First Deep Field
    Press release
    The James Webb telescope produces an unparalleled view of the ghostly light in galaxy clusters
    A recent study, entirely done by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has produced the most complete analysis to date of the intracluster light, the diffuse and faint light emitted by stars in galaxy clusters which are not gravitationally bound to any galaxy. This result was based on data obtained by the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The research gives new clues about the formation processes of galaxy clusters, and the properties of dark matter. The article was published in the specialized journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters . In clusters of galaxies
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  • Malcolm Longair
    Photomontage
    The challenges of Astrophysics and Cosmology
    This Friday 2nd December at 17.30 will take place the public lecture “Challenges of Astrophysics and Cosmology”, which will tackle the role of technology in the comprehension of exoplanets, stellar formation and dark holes, among others, and the new questions that arise with the advancement of knowledge. The rendezvous is at the lecture theatre of the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos, La Laguna (Tenerife). Malcolm Longair (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) will give this public lecture on the occasion of the XXXIII Canary Islands Winter School - Overlaps at the Frontiers of
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  • Poster of the public lecture of the 33rd Winter School
    Photomontage
    Can we listen to dark matter?
    Tomorrow, Friday 25th November at 18.30, will take place the public lecture “Listening to dark matter”, in which the mystery of dark matter will be approached from the perspective of Physics and Art. The rendezvous is at the lecture theatre of the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos, La Laguna (Tenerife). Rebecca Collins, of the University of Edinburgh and the Instituto de Física Teórica (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), and David G. Cerdeño of the Instituto de Física Teórica (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), will give this public lecture on the occasion of the XXXIII Canary Islands Winter
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  • Jorge Martín Camalich (left) and Carlos Hernández Monteagudo (right), researchers at the IAC and the organisers of the present edition of the School, with Rafael Rebolo, Director of the IAC (middle).
    Press release
    XXXIII Canary Islands Winter School - Overlaps at the Frontiers of Astrophysics, Cosmology and Particle Physics
    From 21th November till 2nd December at the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos (San Cristóbal de La Laguna), and organised by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias The 33rd edition of the Winter School of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias will focus on the efforts of astrophysics, cosmology and particle physics to understand the mysteries of the dark universe. The XXXIII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, which is taking place between November 21st and December 2nd, was inaugurated yesterday in the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos, with a welcome address by Rafael Rebolo
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