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

This January, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is hosting, for the third time, the ‘ MIT Astronomy Field Camp’, the historic scientific camp that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers to its students of planetary sciences and astronomy with the aim of providing them with the real experience of working in a professional observatory. On this occasion, nine students have been at the Teide Observatory, in Tenerife, since 7th January, where they have carried out various astronomical observations. Dr. Michael Person has been the coordinator of this activity that began in

The IAC's Educational Project with Robotic Telescopes (PETeR) offers a new edition of its online teacher training entitled ‘ Investigate the Universe with Robotic Telescopes’. This activity, organised in collaboration with the STEAM area of the regional Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands Government, aims to provide knowledge and tools to incorporate astronomy in the classroom through the use of professional robotic telescopes, the analysis of scientific data and active learning methodologies. PETeR is an educational project that gives schools free access to professional telescopes