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.

List view
  • Planet absorption signature. a) In the stellar rest frame, the planetary absorption signal appears close to the expected Keplerian of the planet, superimposed in white with its 1σ uncertainty. Transit contacts are shown by white horizontal dashed lines. The gap around 0 km/s corresponds to the position of the Doppler shadow before its subtraction. b) In the planet rest frame, the shimmer is asymmetric and progressively blueshifts after ingress.
    Research news
    Nightside condensation of iron in an ultrahot giant exoplanet
    Ultrahot giant exoplanets receive thousands of times Earth’s insolation. Their high-temperature atmospheres (greater than 2,000 kelvin) are ideal laboratories for studying extreme planetary climates and chemistry. Daysides are predicted to be cloud-free, dominated by atomic species and much hotter than nightside. Atoms are expected to recombine into molecules over the nightside, resulting in different day and night chemistries. Although metallic elements and a large temperature contrast have been observed, no chemical gradient has been measured across the surface of such an exoplanet
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  • A snapshot from TESS of part of the southern sky showing the location of ν Indi (marked by the blue circle), the plane of the Milky Way (bottom left) and the southern ecliptic pole (top). These snapshots come from data collected in TESS observing sectors 1, 12 and 13 Credit: J. T. Mackereth.
    Research news
    TESS satellite dates an ancient collision with our galaxy
    Earlier this year, a team of astrophysicists has revealed new insights on an ancient collision that our galaxy the Milky Way underwent with another smaller galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus early in its history. However the details on how and when that collision happened are not precisely known. The study of a single bright star called nu Indi, for which data from the NASA mission TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), the ESA Gaia mission, and ground-based observations were combined, led to better characterize this event. Indeed, by applying a novel approach based on asteroseismology
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  • Práctica guiada en el Teide para aprender a manejar el telescopio nocturno y realizar una observación astronómica. Crédito: Donovan Mclean/Enrique Mesa/IAC.
    Press release
    El proyecto educativo "CosmoLAB" cumple dos años
    Gracias a este proyecto educativo, más de 200 profesores se han formado ya en los distintos cursos ofrecidos y han realizado actividades con 7.700 estudiantes de Primaria, Secundaria, Bachillerato y Formación Profesional en 90 centros escolares de Tenerife. En 2018 se inauguraba oficialmente el proyecto “CosmoLAB: El Sistema Solar como laboratorio en el aula” (https://www.iac.es/es/divulgacion/noticias/cosmolab-el-sistema-solar-co…), desarrollado por el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) y financiado por el Cabildo de Tenerife, a través del programa Tenerife
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  • Guido Münch. Crédito: Alchetron.
    Interview
    GUIDO MÜNCH: «En Marte pudo haber vida, de la que tal vez se podrían encontrar restos fósiles si buscásemos en el lugar apropiado”
    Entrevista publicada en IAC Noticias. N° 1- 1994. Sección "A través del prisma" Propuesto por el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias al «Premio Príncipe Asturias de Investigación Científica y Técnica 1989», el Prof. Guido Münch es el primer astrónomo que ha recibido este galardón. Su contribución a la Ciencia incluye tanto análisis teóricos y observacionales sobre la atmósfera del Sol y de las estrellas, como aplicaciones tecnológicas que resultaron decisivas en la exploración del espacio: programas Mariner, Viking y Pioneer. Actualmente, Guido Münch reside en Tenerife, atraído por el clima
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  • Guido Münch. Crédito: Alchetron.
    Press release
    The astronomer Guido Münch, a great friend of the IAC, has died
    Professor Guido Münch was the first astronomer to receive the Principe de Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation in 1989 for which he was proposed by the IAC. His contributions to science included both theoretical and observational analysis of the atmosphere of the Sun and of the stars, as well as technolgical contributions which were important for the space exploration programmes Mariner, Viking, and Pioneer. Guido Münch lived for several years (1992-1996) in Tenerife, attracted by the IAC, and its observatories, and he attended conferences such as that held in La Palma
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  • RGB image of PSZ1 G158.34-47.49, one of the clusters studied, which has a spectroscopic redshift z=0.311. In the image you can see a gravitational lens arc. The photometric image was taken with ACAM/WHT; the spectroscopic data are from DOLORES/TNG.
    Press release
    IAC Scientists have characterized over 200 new clusters of galaxies first detected by the Planck satellite using the telescopes on La Palma
    An international team led by the group of Cosmology with Galaxy Clusters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), including researchers from the University of Paris-Saclay (France) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany) has finished the optical characterization of new clusters of galaxies in the northern hemisphere, detected first by the Planck satellite using tjhe Suyaev-Zel’dovich signal. These studies allow more accurate determination of the mean matter density in the universe and other cosmological parameters. The observations, which have
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