Omega Centauri is a large globular cluster, containing almost ten million stars, in the direction of the constellation of Centaurus, which has been studied to understand its stellar kinematics, the motions of its stars under the action of the gravitational forces which act on them. A research team at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has just published a study which shows that a group of black holes dominates the movements of its stellar kinematics. This result can be extended to certain other structures in the universe and goes against some previous claims about the role of low

An international scientific team, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) participates, has discovered the extremely eccentric orbit of a gas giant exoplanet. This world, called TIC 241249530 b, not only follows one of the most drastically stretched-out orbits of all known transiting exoplanets, but also is also orbiting its star backwards, lending insight into the mystery of how these high-mass gas giants evolve into hot Jupiters , with very close and circular trajectories. The study is published in Nature. Within the population of known exoplanets, there are those that

On January 7, 2025, the European Commission established the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), furthering its mission to become the world’s largest and most powerful observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. The creation of the CTAO ERIC will enable the Observatory's construction to advance rapidly and provide a framework for distributing its data worldwide, significantly accelerating its progress toward scientific discovery. “The ERIC will streamline the construction and operation of the Observatory in a way that will undoubtedly