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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  • Eclipse de Luna y Vía Láctea sobre el PN del Teide
    Press release
    Una alianza macaronésica para reducir la contaminación lumínica
    "Por una noche con más vida", este es el lema del nuevo proyecto de conservación de la naturaleza, LIFE Natura@night, cuya presentación tendrá lugar el 9 de junio a las 11 horas en el museo Casa Colón de Las Palmas. "Cada residente en Madeira, Azores y Canarias paga unos 30 euros al año en electricidad desperdiciada, según las estimaciones. Así que el problema de la contaminación lumínica nos afecta a todos. Tiene un impacto financiero, pero también en nuestra salud y amenaza a las especies incluso en zonas protegidas, fuera de los entornos urbanos", afirma Cátia Gouveia, coordinadora
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  • Star cluster Westerlund 1,
    Press release
    The star cluster Westerlund 1: a nursery of giant stars within the shadows
    A scientific team led by the University of Alicante, with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has produced a detailed study of the most massive young star cluster in the Milky Way. This cloud of stars contains different types of giant stars in diverse phases of evolution, and can be used as an excellent laboratory for the study of the formation and evolution of massive stars. Stars tend to form in clusters, containing from just a few to several thousand stars, which share the same age and composition, although they show evolutionary differences. Among the clusters
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  • Research news
    The synchronized dance of the Magellanic Clouds star formation history
    According to the current theories of galaxy formation, these generally form as small entities that grow through fusion, collision and accretion, eventually becoming the majestic galaxies that we observe nowadays. As an example of such process we can mention our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Around it we can find tens of dwarf galaxies and even stellar “streams” formed by already dissolved systems. We have focused in the study of our two most prominent satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, a system in the process of falling towards our Galaxy, whilst also having a mutual interaction. Their
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  • Simulation of the Formation and Evolution of a Cluster of Galaxies
    Press release
    A new algorithm that simulates the intergalactic medium of the Universe in seconds is developed
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has led the development of a new numerical procedure that allows to reproduce in a few seconds with Big Data and machine learning techniques the intergalactic medium obtained from a cosmological simulation of 100,000 hours of computation. Thanks to this algorithm, called Hydro-BAM, researchers have been able to exploit the hierarchy in the relationship between the properties of dark matter, ionized gas and intergalactic neutral hydrogen, ingredients that make up the large-scale structure of our universe. The research has also made it possible to
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  • Sculptor dwarf
    Press release
    Dwarf galaxies: key laboratories for the study of dark matter
    The journal Nature Astronomy publishes today, in its collection of reviews dedicated to dwarf galaxies, a new article written by Giuseppina Battaglia, researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and the University of La Laguna, and Carlo Nipoti, researcher at the University of Bologna. The study describes the latest results on the search for dark matter in Local Group dwarf galaxies. Dark matter in dwarf galaxies is the subject of a review article published today in the journal Nature Astronomy in its living collection of articles that, from December 2021, is dedicated to the
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  • 1ES 1927+654
    Press release
    Astronomers observe potential magnetic flip around a supermassive black hole
    An international research, in which a team from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has participated, has provided new evidence for an enigmatic outburst from a galaxy 216 million light-years away, proposing a new interpretation based on a spontaneous flip of the magnetic field surrounding its central black hole. The study has used joint data from different satellites and telescopes, including the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), both located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma). The results will be published in
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