The International Scientific Committee (ISC) of the Canary Islands Observatories held its 96th meeting on 9 and 10 November, during which it discussed the current state of the astronomical facilities managed by the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC), as well as the main measures planned to ensure their long-term operation and sustainability. The meeting took place online, although the IAC staff who sit on the Committee attended the sessions in person at the Institute’s headquarters in La Laguna. The issues discussed included the conditions of access to the observatories and the

The European Space Agency’s Euclid mission has released its first major batch of data. With this release, which captures the light of more than a billion objects and covers an area of sky as big as 9500 full Moons, ESA’s dark Universe ‘detective’ lays the foundation for its largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos. Launched in 2023, ESA’s Euclid space mission will map the sky for 6 years to create the largest and most accurate 3D map of the Universe. Spain has an important role in the mission, with a prominent role in the Euclid Consortium. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)

An international team, with the participation of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has developed a new generation of calibrations that make it possible to estimate the chemical composition (metallicity) of both nearby galaxies and the most distant and early galaxies in the Universe observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The study is based on the analysis of the largest collection of high-quality spectroscopic observations gathered to date, the result of more than a decade of compilation and analysis work. To understand the origin and evolution of galaxies

The 37th Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, to be held from 16 to 27 November in La Laguna, will bring together more than a hundred students and early-career researchers – with almost exact gender parity – to learn about the study of massive stars, from their birth through to core-collapse supernovae and gravitational-wave events. The programme combines lectures by international specialists, practical tutorials, visits to observatories in the Canary Islands and a series of activities open to the public. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) will host the 37th Canary

An international team, led by a pre-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has revealed that the heaviest chemical elements on the surfaces of the youngest massive stars originate from their more evolved companions. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics . ‘Throughout their lives, stars produce energy by fusing lighter chemical elements into heavier ones.’ “Stars are the universe’s great factories for chemical elements: as they evolve, they take the lighter ones and fuse them into heavier ones, changing their original