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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  • gdwarfs
    Research news
    Hints of enhanced magnetic activity after the intermediate rotation period gap as traced by the chromospheric Ca II infrared triplet
    New study reveals enhanced magnetic activity across the stellar atmosphere after the intermediate rotation-period gap Stars change as they age. Like our Sun, they rotate and generate magnetic fields, producing phenomena such as dark spots on their surfaces and influencing the activity of their atmospheres. As stars age, they generally rotate more slowly and their magnetic activity declines. However, observations have revealed an unexpected feature in this evolution: a shortage of stars with certain intermediate rotation periods. This intermediate rotation-period gap suggests that stellar
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  • Artist’s impression of MAXI J0637−430 during an eruption
    Press release
    The shadow cast by a black hole’s disc reveals how it devours matter
    When MAXI J0637−430, a binary system containing a black hole, began to fade after a major outburst, something unexpected happened: the outer regions of its disc became more illuminated, rather than less. A study published in Nature Astronomy, led by Montserrat Armas Padilla, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, has revealed that this behaviour is due to changes in the shape of the inner part of the disc, which can cast a shadow over the regions furthest from the black hole. During the brightest phase of the outburst, this structure had swollen, blocking some of the
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  • Distribution and arrangement of stars in the Milky Way’s disc
    Press release
    Research by the IAC reveals that the Milky Way’s disc formed in two very distinct stages
    An international team, led by a pre-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has discovered with great precision how the Milky Way’s disc became flattened. Using data from the Gaia satellite and thanks to the precise ages derived by the ChronoGal project, the researchers have identified two stages: a very rapid thinning that ended around 10.8 billion years ago, and a much slower process that continues to the present day. The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Most of the stars in the Milky Way are distributed across two discs: a thin, young
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  • Imagen de los cuatro LST instalados en el Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos / Daniel López
    Press release
    El Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos alberga los cuatro telescopios que inician una nueva era en la exploración del universo extremo
    Doscientos cincuenta científicos y representantes de destacadas instituciones de investigación de todo el mundo se reúnen este 15 de octubre para visitar las instalaciones de los cuatro Large-Sized Telescopes (LST, por sus siglas en inglés) del Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO, por sus siglas en inglés), en el Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), en La Palma, con motivo de la puesta en marcha de este nuevo conjunto de telescopios. El director del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Valentín Martínez Pillet, destaca que “la
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  • Asistentes al workshop «Del cosmos a la clínica» en la sala multipropósito de IACTEC, en San Cristóbal de La Laguna. Crédito: IAC.
    Press release
    El IAC sienta a un grupo de profesionales en la misma mesa para llevar la tecnología astrofísica al hospital
    El workshop «Del cosmos a la clínica», celebrado el 2 de octubre en la sede de IACTEC, reunió a 51 profesionales del IAC, el sistema sanitario, la universidad, la empresa y la administración de Canarias. En cuatro mesas de trabajo identificaron necesidades clínicas concretas y las primeras propuestas de colaboración para 2027. Extraer información fiable de señales muy débiles es el reto que comparten la astrofísica y la medicina. Con esa premisa, el equipo de Tecnología Médica (TECMED) de IACTEC, el espacio de colaboración tecnológica y empresarial del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
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  • The Evolution of the Universe from Cosmic Inflation to the Present Day
    Press release
    Unraveling the mysteries of the early Universe with galaxy surveys
    An international team, led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) through the UNDARK project (Unravelling the Dark Universe from the Canary Islands Observatories), funded by the European Union through the Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence programme, has developed a new method to extract information from galaxy maps tracing the large-scale structure of the Universe and to better understand the physics governing the earliest moments of the Universe after the Big Bang. The study is published in the journal "Astronomy & Astrophysics" . The current best
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