The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located in Chile, today released its first images of the universe, known in astronomy as an instrument's “first light”. This event marks the beginning of a project that will revolutionise our understanding of the universe over the next decade. Jointly funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is participating, as part of a consortium of Spanish institutions, in its scientific exploitation and contributing observation time from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is actively participating in the observation of object 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1 ATLAS), initially included as A11pl3Z in the confirmed list of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre (IAU/MPC). The object, which has been shown to be the third interstellar object detected in our solar system, was discovered by one of the telescopes in the ATLAS network for the detection and early warning of asteroids on an Earth-impact trajectory. The IAC is part of this network with its new telescope structure, ATLAS

The international CTAO LST Collaboration , in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) plays a prominent role, released remarkable findings from observations of GRB 221009A—the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded. The results were published by the renowned journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJ Letters) . The publication presents in-depth observations conducted in 2022 with the Large-Sized Telescope (LST ) prototype, the LST-1, during its commissioning phase at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) on the CTAO-North site in La Palma, Spain. The