A study published today in Nature Astronomy , in which a researcher from the IAC has participated, outlines the discovery of an extremely rare type of binary system composed of two high mass white dwarfs. The two stars are so close together that they will eventually collide resulting in a supernova explosion which, due to its proximity to the Earth, will appear ten times brighter than the Moon. Type 1a supernovae are a class of cosmic explosion often used as "standard candles" to measure the expansion of the Universe. They occur when a white dwarf exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass - the limit

La reconocida astrofísica Jocelyn Bell ha sido reconocida con la quinta estrella del Paseo de la Ciencia de Santa Cruz de La Palma, reconociendo su labor en defensa de la igualdad y los descubrimientos realizados. Un reconocimiento que ha sido simbólicamente entregado por el presidente del Cabildo de La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, en un acto en el que ha participado la subdirectora del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Eva Villaver y el director del Festival Starmus, Garik Israelian. La subdirectora del IAC agradeció a Bell el trabajo científico realizado en toda su carrera y

Gravity has shaped our cosmos. Its attractive influence turned tiny differences in the amount of matter present in the early universe into the sprawling strands of galaxies we see today. A new study using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has traced how this cosmic structure grew over the past 11 billion years, providing the most precise test to date of gravity at very large scales. DESI is an international collaboration of more than 900 researchers, included the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), from over 70 institutions around the world and is managed by