Statement supporting the selection of La Palma for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) site: The Comité Científico Internacional (CCI) of the Canary Islands Observatories enthusiastically welcomes the possibility that the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) may ultimately choose the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) on La Palma as its site. The ORM offers outstanding astronomical conditions, decades of successful international cooperation in operating telescopes, and a robust legal framework protecting its dark skies. At its meeting on 27 November 2025 on the island of La Palma, the CCI

The members of the Comité Científico Internacional (CCI) of the Canary Islands Observatories met today on the island of La Palma. The ISC is the body established in the International Agreements that gave rise to the Canary Islands Observatories managed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and guarantees the effective participation of the User Institutions in decision-making regarding their use, maintenance and improvement. The meeting, held at the Hotel H10 Taburiente Playa, began with a minute's silence in memory of Professor Francisco Sánchez, founder of the IAC, whose legacy

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is designing and developing, as ordered by the Spanish company Thales Alenia Space , the adaptive optics which will be a parto f the ground station for the GARBO project, the first Spanish geostationary system for distributing quantum keys by satellite. This is a decisive step in the field of secure quantum communication on a large scale, and will strengthn the position of Spain, and of Europe at the Forefront of this technology. Within the framework of the project the IAC will lead the development of the adaptive optics systems, and will participate

Astronomers have used telescopes around the world, includingthe Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or Grantecan) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, to study the asteroid 1998 KY26, revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spinning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 extended mission. The new observations offer key information for the mission’s operations at the asteroid. “We found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,” says astronomer Toni Santana-Ros, a