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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  • Nucleus od M74
    Research news
    A nuclear star cluster as the fossil record of the very early stages of a star forming galaxy
    Nuclear star clusters are dense and compact stellar systems, with sizes of a few parsecs, found at the centers of many galaxies. Their formation is thought to be closely connected to the assembly history of their host galaxies, and astronomers think that these clusters contain important clues about how galaxies formed and evolved over cosmic time. Recent studies suggest that different formation pathways may operate in late- and early-type galaxies, but the dominant mechanisms and their dependence on galaxy morphology remain unclear. While most observational studies have focused on early-type
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  • Illustration of the ‘cosmic time capsule’ NGC 1277
    Press release
    The Gran Telescopio Canarias finds the "fossil fingerprint" of the Universe's first stars in a neighboring galaxy
    Clues to the first stars may be hiding much closer to home than expected. An international team led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has detected potential chemical traces of the very first stars in the Universe within a neighboring galaxy. The setting for this discovery is NGC 1277, a well-known "relic" galaxy. While normal galaxies grow and transform by merging with others throughout their history, this compact system formed most of its stars very quickly in the early Universe and became frozen in time. Acting as a cosmic time capsule, this galaxy is perfect for
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  • Dark galaxies in the Local Group
    Press release
    Galaxies that don’t shine: simulations predict a hidden population in the nearby universe
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna are leading an international study on dark galaxies. ULL PhD student Guacimara García Bethencourt, together with her thesis supervisors Arianna Di Cintio and Sébastien Comerón, both lecturers in the Department of Astrophysics at the ULL and researchers at the IAC, presents a pioneering study in Astronomy & Astrophysics on one of the most intriguing objects in modern astrophysics: dark galaxies, systems rich in gas and dark matter but incapable of forming stars, and therefore invisible to traditional telescopes
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  • Día de Nuestra de Ciencia 2026
    Press release
    El IAC celebra la XVII edición del “Día de Nuestra Ciencia”, un encuentro interno para compartir avances científicos y tecnológicos
    El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias reúne a su personal investigador y técnico para presentar los resultados más destacados del último año y abordar los retos científicos de la próxima década El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) ha celebrado hoy la XVII edición del “Día de Nuestra Ciencia”, un encuentro anual de carácter interno que ha reunido a personal investigador, técnico y de apoyo a la investigación en la sede de IACTEC, en La Laguna. La jornada se ha consolidado como un espacio para compartir los avances científicos y tecnológicos más relevantes desarrollados en el último
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  • Roberta Zanin, responsable científica del CTAO; Valentín Martínez Pillet, director del IAC; y Juan Ramón Felipe San Antonio, vicepresidente del Cabildo de La Palma.
    Press release
    The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory will host the inauguration of the four CTAO LST telescopes in October
    El Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) , el futuro observatorio de astronomía de rayos gamma más grande y potente del mundo, continúa su avance constante hacia su fase de operaciones iniciales. En una rueda de prensa conjunta celebrada en Santa Cruz de La Palma, Islas Canarias (España), representantes de la Organización Central del CTAO (CTAO ERIC), la Colaboración LST del CTAO , el Cabildo de La Palma y el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) se reunieron para destacar el avance del proyecto hacia una ciencia pionera. Este progreso está marcado por la próxima inauguración de
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  • Milky Way-like galaxies from the BEARD project
    Press release
    The first results of the BEARD project explain the survival of our Galaxy
    The international BEARD project, led from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL), has used data from several telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, and computer simulations to explain how galaxies similar to the Milky Way have managed to survive the most violent stages of the history of the Universe. The present model for the evolution of the universe predicts an epoch dominated by important mergers of galaxies some ten thousand million years ago. “It’s a case of violent interactions, in which it is foreseeable that weak structures
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