News

This section includes scientific and technological news from the IAC and its Observatories, as well as press releases on scientific and technological results, astronomical events, educational projects, outreach activities and institutional events.

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  • Research news
    Dating stars with magnetic activity
    Stellar ages are key to several fields of astrophysics such as exoplanet research, galactic-archeology, and of course stellar physics. Obtaining the ages of stars is however not straightforward and requires stellar modeling. The most widely used technique only requires stellar colors or temperature and surface gravity, but the uncertainties are quite large. This technique is most efficient for stars belonging to clusters, as they were born from the same molecular cloud and share the same ages. In the last decades, based on the study of stellar acoustic waves, asteroseismology became the most
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  • Poster of the CLASP2.1 Scientific Meeting
    Photomontage
    The IAC organises the CLASP2.1 space mission scientific meeting
    From 18 to 20 October, scientists from the USA, Japan and Europe meet at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) to discuss the results of the third CLASP space experiment to study the magnetic field of the solar chromosphere and the science of future solar missions. Several years ago, an international scientific team began developing a series of novel suborbital space experiments, with the goal of measuring the intensity and polarization of the ultraviolet radiation of the Sun emitted from one of the outer layers of its atmosphere, the chromosphere, very close to the base of the
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  • Instalation MiNiO Qaleraliq
    Press release
    How far does light pollution reach?
    Between 27th August and 7th September the Shelios 2023 expedition tool a group of researchers and students at the south of Iceland and Greenland, where they set up two experiments to measure the natural darkness of the arctic night, and from where they broadcast the aurora borealis. Among the apparatus they installed is the autonomous MiNiO ( Meteo Nano Observatory) controller, developed by the Technological Institute for Renewable Energies (ITER), for the Interreg EELabs project, coordinated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). As well as making people aware of the problems of
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  • Photomontage
    The Infrared: beyond the rainbow
    From today the new edition of the monographic magazine Paralajes, produced and edited by the IAC, is available in both digital and paper formats. This volume is on the theme of astronomy in the infrared, radiation outside the range visible to the human eye, very important in the history of the IAC, described in detail in over 170 pages. A major fraction of the energy emitted within the universe is in the infrared, but we cannot detect it except using instruments specially developed to do this. The IAC has been aware of this since its beginning, and has been developing infrared instruments
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  • Photomontage
    The Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda visits the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
    Today, 10 October, the Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, David Lucas, visited the facilities of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma), accompanied by the Observatory's administrator, Emilio García, and the island director of the State Administration, Ana María de León. The visit took place after the start of the meeting of the European Union's Directors-General for Housing, which was chaired by the Secretary of State and held at the Roque de los Muchachos Visitors' Centre. The conference of the most senior officials responsible for European
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  • Arranca en La Palma el congreso de la Unión Astronómica Internacional sobre  las constelaciones de satélites y su impacto en el cielo nocturno
    El Teatro Circo de Marte, en Santa Cruz de La Palma, ha acogido hoy a primera hora la inauguración del congreso de la Unión Astronómica Internacional (IAU) “IAUS385 Symposium: Astronomy and Satellite Constellations”(Astronomía y constelaciones de satélites: caminos a seguir) organizado por el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) con la colaboración del Cabildo Insular de La Palma, el Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de La Palma, la Fundación Starlight, la Consejería de Educación del Gobierno de Canarias y la Sociedad de Promoción y Desarrollo Económico y Social de La Palma. El congreso tiene
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