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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  • Beatriz Villarroel
    Press release
    Beatriz Villarroel is awarded the L’Oréal-Unesco Prize for Women in Science
    Every year the L’Oréal Foundation and Unesco recognize five importan women scientists from the five continents. This year, for its 25th edition, the International Prize for Rising Talents has been awarded, in Europe, to Beatriz Villarroel, a researcher at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA, a joint institute of the University of Stockholm and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) for the project Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) which tries to identify astronomical objects which
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  • Photomontage
    The six-monthly meeting of the International Scientific Committee of the IAC observatories met in La Palma
    It took place on May 24th and 25th in the meeting room of the Parador in Breña Baja A large group of representatives of the various institutions which take part in the International Scientific Committee met face to face on the Island of La Palma last Tuesday and Wednesday, 24th and 25tnh of May, and they were joined remotely by further participants on-line. In this meeting of the CCI (International Scientific Committee Spanish initials), they discussed, among other matters, the most recent scientific achievements at the Canary Observatories, as well as the status of new projects. In addition
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  • Star cluster Westerlund 1,
    Press release
    The star cluster Westerlund 1: a nursery of giant stars within the shadows
    A scientific team led by the University of Alicante, with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has produced a detailed study of the most massive young star cluster in the Milky Way. This cloud of stars contains different types of giant stars in diverse phases of evolution, and can be used as an excellent laboratory for the study of the formation and evolution of massive stars. Stars tend to form in clusters, containing from just a few to several thousand stars, which share the same age and composition, although they show evolutionary differences. Among the clusters
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  • Research news
    The synchronized dance of the Magellanic Clouds star formation history
    According to the current theories of galaxy formation, these generally form as small entities that grow through fusion, collision and accretion, eventually becoming the majestic galaxies that we observe nowadays. As an example of such process we can mention our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Around it we can find tens of dwarf galaxies and even stellar “streams” formed by already dissolved systems. We have focused in the study of our two most prominent satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, a system in the process of falling towards our Galaxy, whilst also having a mutual interaction. Their
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  • visita eurodiputados
    Photomontage
    A delegation from the Commission for Regional Development of the European Parliament visited the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
    Yesterday May 23rd, a group of Members of the European Parliament belonging to the Regional Development Commission visited the Installations of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM). They also were given informatjon about the use of the European Funds for Regional Development which have been used to build world class sceintiric installations such as the Gran Telescopio Canarias, and the telescopes of the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array). The visit was in the framework of the visit by the Commisson to the island of La Palma to see directly the consequences of the eruption of the volcano
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  • Simulation of the Formation and Evolution of a Cluster of Galaxies
    Press release
    A new algorithm that simulates the intergalactic medium of the Universe in seconds is developed
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has led the development of a new numerical procedure that allows to reproduce in a few seconds with Big Data and machine learning techniques the intergalactic medium obtained from a cosmological simulation of 100,000 hours of computation. Thanks to this algorithm, called Hydro-BAM, researchers have been able to exploit the hierarchy in the relationship between the properties of dark matter, ionized gas and intergalactic neutral hydrogen, ingredients that make up the large-scale structure of our universe. The research has also made it possible to
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