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.

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  • Five exoplanet system
    Press release
    Astronomers discover a planetary system with three super-Earths and two super-Mercuries
    International research, led by the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) and with the participation of the the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has confirmed the discovery of five exoplanets in the same planetary system, two of them similar to Mercury. The finding provides clues about how these unusual, very high-density planets form. The study is published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. An international science team has found a system orbiting the cool star HD 23472 with three super-Earths and two super-Mercuries. "We wanted to observe this planetary
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  • Sextans A
    Press release
    The first extensive catalogue of massive stars with low metallicity
    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
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  • Artistic impression of the BL Lac nucleus. The particle jet emerging from the black-hole follows the spiral structure of the magnetic field. In the inset the brightness variations are shown as observed in red light (2020, August).
    Research news
    Rapid quasi-periodic oscillations in a relativistic jet
    Active galactic nuclei (AGN) consist of a supermassive black hole fed by the circumnuclear material close to the galaxy center. Around 10% of the AGNs develop a pair of jets that are launched to the interstellar medium at speed close to velocity of light. Blazars are observed when one of the jets points very close to our line of sight, which produce an extraordinary boosting of the emission by relativistic effects. Jets produce electromagnetic emission that varies rapidly and covers from radio waves to gamma rays. The observed light is mostly random without an apparent pattern. The source BL
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  • CLASP2.1
    Press release
    The CLASP2.1 mission team receives a NASA award
    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
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  • Press release
    The Rector of the University of La Laguna (ULL) visits the Gran Telescopio de Canarias to give an impulse to the Sustainability Plan for the telescope
    A team form the Department of Botany, Ecology, and Vegetable Physiology of the University of La Laguna (ULL) and representatives of the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) and of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) met yesterday, September 20th at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) to work together to develop a “Sustainability Plan” for the GTC. The Rector of the ULL, Rosa María Aguilar Chinea joined the meeting in order to get to know the project at first hand, and to give it an impulse. This is a new step in the commitment to sustainability for the Canary Observatories
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  • Errant intermediate-mass black holes
    Press release
    The possible detection of elusive intermediate mass black holes
    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
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