One of the biggest recent surprises in astronomy is the discovery that most stars like the Sun harbor a planet between the size of Earth and Neptune within the orbit of Mercury — sizes and orbits absent from our solar system. These ‘ super-Earths' and ` sub-Neptunes’ are the galaxy's most common planets, but their formation has been shrouded in mystery. Now, an international team of astronomers has found a crucial missing link. By weighing four newborn planets in the V1298 Tau system, they've captured a rare snapshot of worlds in the process of transforming into the galaxy's most common

The international consortium Sloan Digital Sky Survey-V (SDSS-V) has appointed Dr Sebastián Francisco Sánchez, researcher at the Institute of Astronomy of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and senior scientist on leave from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), as director of the Local Volume Mapper (LVM) project, one of the three surveys that make up the SDSS-V. This appointment recognises Dr Sánchez's academic excellence and consolidates the collaboration with the IAC, with which the researcher has maintained a close scientific relationship for many years. Dr Sánchez

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved the naming of asteroid (20747) Tanialepivert in honour of Tania Le Pivert Jolivet, a postdoctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), for her contributions to the study of primitive asteroids. The scientist thus joins the group of researchers affiliated with the IAC who have an asteroid named after them. Tania Le Pivert Jolivet, a postdoctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has been honoured with one of the most unique accolades a person dedicated to the study of the Solar System