An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the IAC, have performed a unique cosmic test - measuring the mass of an ancient star using two entirely different methods, finding agreement to within just 1.4%. This result marks a milestone in our ability to determine the ages of old stars and use them as living fossils to study the Milky Way’s distant past. The team analysed the red giant in the binary system KIC 10001167 using two independent approaches: firstly, by measuring the brightness and radial velocity variations due to the orbital motion of the binary, and secondly

An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), has observed a dramatic change in a supermassive black hole. Located about 10 billion light-years away, the object dimmed to roughly one-twentieth of its former brightness in just two decades — an extraordinarily short interval on cosmic timescales. The discovery was made within a collaborative observing framework linking Japan’s Subaru Telescope with the GTC in Spain’s Canary Islands at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in La Palma

El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) ha celebrado, este jueves 24 de julio de 2025, el 40 aniversario de la inauguración oficial de su sede central y de sus dos observatorios. Un acto que ha estado centrado en destacar el trabajo de los cientos de personas que han contribuido a convertir el IAC en uno de los centros de excelencia investigadora y técnica más importantes del mundo. En el acto, el director fundador del IAC, Francisco Sánchez, ha tenido un papel fundamental pese a que sus problemas de salud no le hayan permitido participar en el mismo. El lema de este 40 aniversario ha