The prestigious journal Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics invites two researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) to publish an article reviewing the most important advances in the study of the magnetic fields in the outer regions of the solar atmosphere. Every year, the editorial committee of the journal Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ARAA) meets to decide which researchers to invite to prepare their reviews, one for each field in Astrophysics. One of the 12 articles of the recently published volume 60 has been written by the IAC researchers

A recent study, led by the Centre for Astrobiology (CAB, CSIC-INTA) with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) presents the first extensive sample of massive stars whose chemical composition shows a lower metal content than that of the Small Magellanic Cloud. This is a basic first step in performing an exhaustive characterization of the properties of massive stars with low metallicity. Massive stars with very low metallicity are important for interpreting the processes which took place in the early phases of the univers, such as reionization and early chemical

The international team of the “Chromospheric LAyer Spectro-Polarimeter” (CLASP) space missions, which includes three scientists of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has just received the NASA Group Achievement Honor Award for the successful execution of the recent CLASP2.1 mission. The goal of this mission is to map the magnetic field of the Sun in an extended region of the chromosphere. The Chromospheric Layer Spectro-Polarimeter series of heliophysics sounding rocket missions were designed to measure the polarization of the ultraviolet light emitted by the Sun to study the

A research team at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has observed an unusual type of emission in a sample of local galaxies which could indicate the presence of accretion discs around intermediate mass black holes (IMBH). The discovery would multiply by five the numer of known IMBH and opens a new way to detect and study this mysterious class of astronomica objects. Although only a few are known, via indirect evidence, the IMBH are a key to understand the formation of supermassive black holes and the galaxies which harbour them. The IMBH is a type of black hole whose mass is

A team of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the University of Manchester and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have detected an anomalously high lithium abundance in the atmosphere of the companion star of a binary millisecond pulsar. The lithium abundance is higher compared to stars with the same effective temperature and high-metallicity stars and so the study provides unambiguous evidence for fresh lithium production. Lithium is a fragile element and in stars similar to the Sun it is gradually destroyed in the interiors via low-temperature