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.

  • Relative stability measurement of two laser frequency combs (LFCs). LFC1 (18 GHz mode spacing) is in channel A and LFC2 (25 GHz mode spacing) in channel B. a, Series of 100 spectrograph calibrations with one exposure every 61 s, 102 min in total. b, Results obtained with binned exposures of increasing size. The filled circles represent the standard deviation in A-B. The error bars quantify the uncertainty of the standard deviation estimated from the size of the statistical sample.
    Laser frequency combs (LFCs) are well on their way to becoming the next-generation calibration sources for precision astronomical spectroscopy. This development is considered key in the hunt for low-mass rocky exoplanets around solar-type stars whose discovery with the radial-velocity method requires cm/s Doppler precision. In order to prove such precise calibration with an LFC, it must be compared to another calibrator of at least the same precision. Being the best available spectrograph calibrator, this means comparing it to a second - fully independent - LFC. Here, we report on a test in
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  • LST-1 en el Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (Garafía, La Palma)
    The first prototype of the Large-Size Telescope (LST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the LST-1, located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma), has detected an emission of very high-energy gamma rays from the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star at the centre of the nebula of the same name. This observation confirms the successful operation of this telescope, which is being commissioned.
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  • 83rd CCI meeting
    The International Scientific Committee (CCI for its Spanish initials) of the Canary Island Observatories offers the mechanism by which the institutions which are members to participate effectively in the decisión making which affects the operation of the telescopes. This morning the CCI has celebrated, in virtual form, the first of its two meetings per year, in which some thirty people took part.
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  • Rebeca Galera
    We are deeply moved by the death of our colleague Rebeca Galera Rosillo, predoctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL). Born in La Puebla de Don Fadrique, in Granada, Rebeca was the only female astronomer in the history of her municipality. After completing her studies at the University of Granada, where she excelled as a student, she joined the IAC in 2014 through a pre-doctoral contract for research staff in training under the supervision of the researchers Antonio Mampaso and Romano Corradi. She was currently working as an
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  • Facade of the IACTEC building. Credit: Inés Bonet (IAC).
    The Cabildo Insular of Tenerife, the Tenerife Science and Technology Park (INtech Tenerife), the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) today, Monday 8th June signed, at the Headquarters of the Cabildo, the five year agreement for the use of the IACTec building by the IAC. The IACTEC initiative, in collaboration with the Cabildo Insular of Tenerife and INTech Tenerife, on land ceded by the University of La Laguna, is aimed at developing in the Canaries an innovative environment for the transfer of high technology between the public sector and
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