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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  • Research news
    On the magnetic nature of quiet-Sun chromospheric grains
    CaII Kgrains, i.e., intermittent, short-lived (about 1 minute), periodic (2-4 minutes), pointlike chromospheric brightenings, are considered to be the manifestations of acoustic waves propagating upward from the solar surface and developing into shocks in the chromosphere. After the simulations of Carlsson and Stein, we know that hot shocked gas moving upward interacting with the downflowing chromospheric gas (falling down after having been displaced upward by a previous shock) nicely reproduces the spectral features of the CaII K profiles observed in such grains, i.e., a narrowband emission
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  • JWST SMACS0723 galaxies
    Research news
    The JWST view of the barred galaxy population in the SMACS0723 galaxy cluster
    The cosmic evolution of the barred galaxy population provides key information about the secular evolution of galaxies and the settling of rotationally dominated discs. We study the bar fraction in the SMACSJ0723.37323 (SMACS0723) cluster of galaxies at z = 0.39 using the Early Release Observations obtained with the NIRCam instrument mounted on the JWST telescope. We visually inspected all cluster member galaxies using the images from the NIRCam F200W filter. We classified the galaxies into ellipticals and discs and determine the presence of a bar. The cluster member selection was based on a
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  • Artist's impression of the evolution of the galaxy ceers-2112
    Press release
    Discovered: the most distant barred spiral galaxy (until now)
    An international team of scientists, with participation by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) have found a barred spiral galaxy, similar to the Milky Way, in the early universe, when it was only 15% as old as it is now. The galaxy, ceers-2112, is the most distant barred spiral observed, and its existence poses a challege to the current model of formation and evolution of galaxies. The discovery, made with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is published in the journal Nature. In astrophysics studying the structure of galaxies
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  • La nebulosa Cabeza de Caballo
    Press release
    Euclid release its first images: the dazzling edge of darkness
    ESA’s Euclid space mission reveals its first full-colour images of the cosmos. Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant Universe. These images illustrate the telescope's potential to create the largest and most accurate 3D map of the Universe to date. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has led one of the first five Euclid Early Release Objects (ERO) programmes. 95% of our cosmos appears to be made of these mysterious ‘dark’ entities But we don’t understand what
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  • John Beckman, 60 years in Astrophysics
    Photomontage
    A conference celebrates 60 years in astrophysics by IAC researcher John Beckman
    On November 6th and 7th a meeting will be held in the Museum of Science and the Cosmos in La Laguna, to celebrate the dedication to astrophysics during 60 years of John Beckman, Emeritus Research Professor of the IAC. Among those present will be scientists who have collaborated with him, and some of his doctoral students, who include the present Director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo López, and the Deputy Director, Casiana Muñoz Tuñón. John arrived at the Institute in 1984, invited by the Director at that time, Francisco Sanchez Martínez, and the Professor of Astrophysics Carlos Sánchez Magro
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  • Photomontage
    William Herschel Telescope inaugurates its new WEAVE spectrograph
    Yesterday, 30 October 2023, from the telescope itself at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, the WEAVE instrument, a powerful state-of-the-art multi-fibre spectrograph, was publicly unveiled. The inauguration ceremony brought to La Palma the leaders of the science funding agencies from the partner countries of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING), as well as a strong representation from the 500 members of the science teams and the organisations involved in the design and construction of WEAVE, making it the largest ever gathering of people inside the dome
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