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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  • auriglobes
    Research news
    Introducing AuriGLOBES: The effects of compressive tides, compact object-induced mass loss, and size evolution on modelling globular clusters
    Globular clusters are dense, ancient groupings of stars that have survived the long history of galaxy formation and evolution, yet the exact processes that shape them from birth to the present day remain unclear. Here, we present AuriGLOBES (Auriga GLOBular clustEr Simulations), a new physical model designed to track how star clusters form and evolve within large-scale cosmological simulations. Using this model, we simulated nine galaxies similar in mass to the Milky Way and five lower-mass galaxies. Our simulations successfully produce realistic globular cluster systems that match
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  • Artist’s impression of a massive binary system
    Press release
    Research led by the IAC reveals that massive stars inherit their composition from hidden companions
    An international team, led by a pre-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has revealed that the heaviest chemical elements on the surfaces of the youngest massive stars originate from their more evolved companions. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics . ‘Throughout their lives, stars produce energy by fusing lighter chemical elements into heavier ones.’ “Stars are the universe’s great factories for chemical elements: as they evolve, they take the lighter ones and fuse them into heavier ones, changing their original
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  • Participants in the IAC’s cross-disciplinary project ‘Dark Matter: Observations, Models and Detection’, held at the IAC’s headquarters in La Laguna
    Press release
    The IAC brings together its research staff to make progress in the search for the nature of dark matter
    On the occasion of International Dark Matter Day, the IAC transversal project “Dark matter: observations, models and detection” — coordinated by G. Battaglia — celebrated its first internal workshop on October 29th at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), with the support of the DiaLoGues project. The IAC transversal project “Dark matter: observations, models and detection”, created in 2026, brings together IAC researchers with complementary expertise united by a common goal: understanding the fundamental nature of dark matter (DM), one of the main constituents of the Universe
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  • gdwarfs
    Research news
    Hints of enhanced magnetic activity after the intermediate rotation period gap as traced by the chromospheric Ca II infrared triplet
    New study reveals enhanced magnetic activity across the stellar atmosphere after the intermediate rotation-period gap Stars change as they age. Like our Sun, they rotate and generate magnetic fields, producing phenomena such as dark spots on their surfaces and influencing the activity of their atmospheres. As stars age, they generally rotate more slowly and their magnetic activity declines. However, observations have revealed an unexpected feature in this evolution: a shortage of stars with certain intermediate rotation periods. This intermediate rotation-period gap suggests that stellar
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  • Artist’s impression of MAXI J0637−430 during an eruption
    Press release
    The shadow cast by a black hole’s disc reveals how it devours matter
    When MAXI J0637−430, a binary system containing a black hole, began to fade after a major outburst, something unexpected happened: the outer regions of its disc became more illuminated, rather than less. A study published in Nature Astronomy, led by Montserrat Armas Padilla, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, has revealed that this behaviour is due to changes in the shape of the inner part of the disc, which can cast a shadow over the regions furthest from the black hole. During the brightest phase of the outburst, this structure had swollen, blocking some of the
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  • Distribution and arrangement of stars in the Milky Way’s disc
    Press release
    Research by the IAC reveals that the Milky Way’s disc formed in two very distinct stages
    An international team, led by a pre-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has discovered with great precision how the Milky Way’s disc became flattened. Using data from the Gaia satellite and thanks to the precise ages derived by the ChronoGal project, the researchers have identified two stages: a very rapid thinning that ended around 10.8 billion years ago, and a much slower process that continues to the present day. The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Most of the stars in the Milky Way are distributed across two discs: a thin, young
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