Researchers from around the world are taking part in the China–Spain Astronomical Collaboration on High-Resolution Spectroscopy 2025, an event organised by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in collaboration with the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technology (NIAOT), and the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) team. The aim of the conference is to strengthen and consolidate scientific cooperation between China and Spain in the field of high-resolution spectroscopy, one of the key areas for studying stars, galaxies
The new infrared spectrograph NIRPS, built with the participation of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and installed on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has achieved its first scientific results, with four articles published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and one more accepted for publication. The data confirm its ability to detect Earth-like planets in the infrared for the first time with a precision better than one metre per second. One of the papers, led by IAC researcher Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, confirms the presence of a
The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is designing and developing, as ordered by the Spanish company Thales Alenia Space , the adaptive optics which will be a parto f the ground station for the GARBO project, the first Spanish geostationary system for distributing quantum keys by satellite. This is a decisive step in the field of secure quantum communication on a large scale, and will strengthn the position of Spain, and of Europe at the Forefront of this technology. Within the framework of the project the IAC will lead the development of the adaptive optics systems, and will participate