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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
    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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  • Una imagen ilustrada de un púlsar viuda negra y su compañera estelar. Créditos: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Cruz deWilde
    Press release
    Astronomers discover a “black widow” binary star system with the shortest orbital period known

    The research, carried out by an international group incuding the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias(IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) also show that the binary system has a third star orbiting it , and which could have originated from close to the centre of the Milky Way. While the Earth takes 365 days to complete its orbit round the Sun, the star which orbits the new found pulsar ZTF J1406+1222 does it in 62 minutes, which makes it a neutron star in a binary system termed a “black widow”, with the shortest period measured until now. These data were obtained using the ultra-high

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  • Rocky planets
    Press release
    Astronomers discover a four-planet system with a peculiar migration process

    An international research, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) participates, has discovered a new planetary system comprised of 4 planets orbiting the star TOI-500. This is the first system known to host an Earth analogue with a period shorter than one day and 3 additional low-mass planets whose orbital configuration can be explained via a non-violent and smooth migration scenario. The study is published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The inner planet, dubbed TOI-500b, is a so-called ultra-short period (USP) planet, as its orbital period is only 13 hours. It is regarded

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