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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  • Geminid and volcano
    Press release
    Last wishes of the year: Geminids 2022
    During the nights of 13th and 14th of December we will enjoy the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. This event will be broadcast live from the Canary Islands Observatories via the sky-live.tv channel, with the collaboration with the Energy Efficiency Labs, and from Extremadura, thanks to Extremadura Buenas Noches project. For more than 10 years, Geminids have been the most intense meteor shower of the year, exceeding 100 meteors per hour (ZHR), followed by the Perseids and the Quadrantids. However, on the night of 13-14 December, the Moon will be 72% illuminated, making it difficult to see
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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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  • The tholos of Cerro de la Barca. Credit: Daniel Padrón (sky-live.tv)
    Press release
    The autumnal equinox from the Dolmen of Magacela
    Next Friday, September 23nd, at 01:04 UT the Earth will be at a specific point in its orbit round the Sun: the September equinox. The September and March equinoxes are the only days in the year when the Sun rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west, across the whole planet. In practical terms the days at both the vernal and the autumnal equinoxes are divided equally into daytime and night-time, with each lasting approximately 12 hours. In fact the literal meaning of the word equinox, is “equal night” and comes from the latin word aequinoctium. Live from the Dolmen of Magacela
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  • Contexto del modelo a través de un mapa de la temperatura (izquierda) y una imagen sintética de cómo se vería en el extremo ultravioleta con la misión Solar Orbiter/EUI-HRI 174 (derecha)
    Press release
    Solar physicists build a 2D model which can explain the bright points in the solar corona
    A numerical experiment conducted by two researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Daniel Nöbrega Siverio and Fernando Moreno Insertis, has allowed them to show, for the first time, how one of the most widely distributed structures in the solar atmosphere, the coronal bright points, can form and acquire energy by the action of the solar granulation. When the Sun is observed from space detectors of X-rays or the extreme-ultraviolet, its atmosphere is found to be full of bright points, both during solar active epochs when a large number of sunspots is observed, and during
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  • Photomontage
    Over a hundred local inhabitants of Garafía attended the Open Day at he Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory
    The traditional Open Day at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory was held on Friday August 19th. After a gap during the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the scientific institutions which participate in the observatory, together with the Town Council of Garafía and its area of Culture have renewed the celebration of this community event. The aims of this open day, for the benefit of the population of the municipality of Garafía, are to explain the scientific activity carried out at the telescopes, and also to encourage
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