News

This section includes scientific and technological news from the IAC and its Observatories, as well as press releases on scientific and technological results, astronomical events, educational projects, outreach activities and institutional events.

  • Artist’s impression of the star GJ 3512, a red dwarf of approximately one tenth of the mass of the Sun, on which the newly discovered exoplanet GJ 3512b, a gas giant of high mass, orbits an unusual planet in this type of planetary systems.
    Surveys have shown that super-Earth and Neptune-mass exoplanets are more frequent than gas giants around low-mass stars, as predicted by the core accretion theory of planet formation. We report the discovery of a giant planet around the very-low-mass star GJ 3512, as determined by optical and near-infrared radial-velocity observations. The planet has a minimum mass of 0.46 Jupiter masses, very high for such a small host star, and an eccentric 204-day orbit. Dynamical models show that the high eccentricity is most likely due to planet-planet interactions. We use simulations to demonstrate
    Advertised on
  • Fullerenes discovered in a star formation region in Perseus
    A study carried out by IAC researcher Susana Iglesias-Groth has detected molecules of pure carbon in one of the nearest star formation regions to the Solar System. The results of this work have recently been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Fullerenes are carbon molecules , whose structure contains pentagons and hexagons, which often appear in key molecules for life . They are also the third most stable form of carbon, together diamond and graphite. A study performed by the researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) Susana Iglesias
    Advertised on
  • Visibility of the cold wind as a function of the X-ray luminosity and colour. Hardness intensity diagram of MAXI J1820+070 using 1-day averaged X-ray fluxes from the MAXI instrument (black dots).
    Accretion disc winds are observed in accreting black holes across the full range of masses. In stellar-mass black holes, X-ray winds have been recently established as a fundamental property of their most radiatively efficient phases, the so-called soft states, impacting on the entire accretion process. However, these hot and powerful winds are scarcely observed during the dimmer hard states, where most of the black holes of the Universe exist and kinetic feedback from jets dominates. The disappearance of the wind is a matter of strong debate and has been suggested to be related to different
    Advertised on
  • Recreación artística de GJ 3512
    A team of astronomers of the CARMENES consortium, with participants form the Institutode Astrofísica de Canarias, has discovered a planetary system around the red dwarf star GJ 3512, at some 30 light years from Earth, with an unusual gas giant planet whose excentric orbit could imply the presence of another massive planets. In the study the 40 cm telescope of the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) at the Teide Observatory, was used. This discovery is published today in the journal Science.
    Advertised on
  • Averaged Spitzer spectra in the MIR of LRLL 21, 31 and 67, solid line and 4 interstellar locations (broken line) in IC348. The location of Fullerenes, organic molecules and water are indicated.
    We present the detection of fullerenes C 60 and C 70 in the star-forming region IC 348 of the Perseus molecular cloud. Mid-IR vibrational transitions of C 60 and C 70 in emission are found in Spitzer IRS spectra of individual stars (LRLL 1, 2, 58), in the averaged spectrum of three other cluster stars (LRLL 21, 31, and 67) and in spectra obtained at four interstellar locations distributed across the IC 348 region. Fullerene bands appear widely distributed in this region with higher strength in the lines of sight of stars at the core of the cluster. Emission features consistent with the three
    Advertised on