The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the European Solar Telescope Fundación Canaria (EST-FC) have signed thos Friday October 4th the agreement to promote the construction of the European Solar Telescope (EST). This ambitious project aims to consolidate and expand the Canary Islands' position as a world leader in solar physics research. The agreement was ratified by the director of the IAC, Valentín Martínez Pillet, and the representive of EST-FC, Manuel Collados. The signing act was attended by other members involved in the project: Héctor Socas-Navarro, Alejandra Martín; and

The single star nearest to the Sun is called Barnard’s star. A team of researchers led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has recently detected a ‘sub-Earth’ orbiting it. This exoplanet, called Barnard b has at least half the mass of Venus and orbits rapidly around its star, so that its year lasts only a little over three Earth days. This new exoplanet is sixteen times nearer to Barnard’d star than Mercury is to the Sun, and has a surface temperature close to 125oC, so it does not have liquid water on its surface. This discovery, led by the IAC in collaboration with a number