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.

  • Participants and attendees at DNC 2019. Credit: Iván Jiménez (IAC)
    Last Tuesday, in the Tenerife Space for the Arts (TEA) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the IAC celebrated the XI edition of the Day of Our Science, an annual meting at which the personnel present, for internal consumption, the latest novelties in its work, in research, technological development, and outreach, in order to promote discussions and collaborations between the different study groups and divisions of the Institute.
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  • A snapshot from a hydrodynamical simulation of the interior of a star
    Almost all massive stars explode as supernovae and form a black hole or neutron star. The remnant mass and the impact of the chemical yield on subsequent star formation and galactic evolution strongly depend on the internal physics of the progenitor star, which is currently not well understood. The theoretical uncertainties of stellar interiors accumulate with stellar age, which is particularly pertinent for the blue supergiant phase. Stellar oscillations represent a unique method of probing stellar interiors, yet inference for blue supergiants is hampered by a dearth of observed pulsation
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  • Mosaic image of asteroid Bennu
    Between August and December 2018, during the Approach and Preliminary Survey phases of the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission, a series of images and spectra of the surface of asteroid Bennu, target of the mission, was acquired. Images acquired with MapCam, using 5 different filters provide an average albedo (fraction of the light reflected by the surface of the asteroid) of about 4.5 %, consistent with the spectral type of Bennu as determined from ground-based observations, and in agreement with the results from OSIRIS-REx disk-integrated photometry. Such a dark surface and spectral behaviour are also
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  • Grey sphere surronded by yellow little spheres
    Recently, astrophysicists have studied the configuration of a planetary system (Kepler 107) discovered with the NASA Kepler mission, which was looking for exoplanets outside our Solar System. The planetary system Kepler 107 is constituted of a star similar to the Sun though slightly more massive and four planets orbiting around it. The detailed analysis of the configuration of the planets, in particular their densities, showed that the closest planet is not the densest, which is what is expected from the planet formation theory. Using some simulations, one of the most plausible explanation
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