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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  • Ana Escorza receiving the La Caixa Foundation grant
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    La Caixa Foundation awards 5 research grants for doctoral and post-doctoral projects at the IAC
    One male and one female researcher received the Junior Leader postdoctoral fellowship and three others received INPhINIT Incoming PhD fellowships. The aim is to retain and attract talent to promote research excellence in Spain and Portugal. The Scholarship Programme of the "la Caixa" Foundation held the financial aid award ceremony yesterday, Tuesday 12 March, which will benefit research staff at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). This programme of INPhINIT Incoming PhD and Junior Leader postdoctoral fellowships will reach a total of 105 people from more than 60 research centres
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  • NEOMIR
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    The IAC hosts the meeting of the NEOMIR mission that will boost the early detection of asteroids.
    The mission is part of the planetary defence strategy of the European Space Agency (ESA) The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is hosting this week the meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) linked to ESA's NEOMIR (NearEarth Object Mission in the InfraRed) mission, which aims, among other things, to create a system for detecting near-Earth asteroids using a space telescope. The mission is part of the planetary defence strategy of the European Space Agency (ESA), which has set a possible launch date of 2030, using an Ariene 6-2 rocket. SAG coordinator and IAC researcher
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  • CARMENES 2024 Scientific Meeting
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    CARMENES exoplanet hunter scientific meeting
    The 19th scientific meeting of CARMENES, a collaboration of more than 100 scientists from 11 Spanish and German institutions aimed at studying extrasolar planets around M-type dwarf stars, the lowest mass stars, was held this week at the IACTEC facilities in La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain). Since it became operational in 2016, CARMENES has analysed more than 360 such stars, leading to the discovery of more than 65 new planets, making it the most efficient instrument and mapper in the study of planets around very low-mass stars, with 30 % of the total number of planets discovered in this range
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  • ALISIO-1 image of La Palma and El Hierro
    Press release
    First observations of the Canary Islands satellite ALISIO-1 from space
    The first satellite developed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias,, which was launched into space last December, has sent back its first images. The quality of the observations shows the perfect performance of its DRAGO-2 infrared camera. The pointing test of its laser optical communications module has also been successfully carried out, making it the first Spanish satellite to use this technology. Today, at a press conference, the first images obtained with the ALISIO-1 satellite (Advanced Land-Imaging Satellite for Infrared Observations), an Earth observation satellite whose
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  • 2nd LIOM International Workshop
    Press release
    LIOM, the IAC's technological laboratory for finding life beyond the Solar System
    From 14 to 16 February, the second scientific meeting of the Laboratory for Innovation in Opto-Mechanics (LIOM) will be held at the IACTEC building managed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in the Science and Technology Park of La Laguna (Tenerife). This project is dedicated to the development of new optical and mechanical technologies that will form part of the next generation of telescopes capable of detecting biomarkers on exoplanets. One year after its creation, the IAC's Laboratory for Innovation in Opto-Mechanics (LIOM), is holding its second international meeting
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  • The Geminids 2020 meteor shower over the Tejeda Valley (Grand Canary).
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    The light pollution in Macaronesia is on the increase
    The results obtained from the over two hundred photometers put in place by the Interreg EELabs project during the past four years have been used to evaluated the impact of artificial night lighting on the night-time ecosystems of the achipelagos, especially on sea birds, but also to make the local people aware of this type of contamination. In Macaronesia (the collective name for the Atlantic Islands comprising the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde), natural night-time darkness is preservedonly in highly isolated natural reserves, such as the islands of Corvo and Graciosa (the
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