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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  • Installation of the LST-4 camera at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.
    Press release
    The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory takes a further step into the future with the installation of the LST-4 camera
    The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), located on La Palma, has reached another important milestone with the installation of the camera of the LST-4, one of the four Large-Sized Telescopes (LST), which will be part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), currently under construction. The installation of the camera represents the completion of the telescope assembly and marks its transition to the commissioning phase. After a thorough performance evaluation at the IACTEC building, the IAC's technological and business
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  • Artistic recreation of the ExoLife Finder (ELF) telescope
    Press release
    The IAC opens the call for its Winter School focused on key optical technologies for Astronomy
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has opened the application period for the XXXVI Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics , which will be held from 17 to 22 November 2025. This edition is carried out in the framework of the CELESTE (Centre for Optical and Space Technologies of the IAC) programme funded by the European Union and will focus on key optical technologies for astronomy, a field that is driving 21st century discoveries about the universe. Applications will be accepted until Friday, 13 June. The IAC’s Winter School is renowned for its educational approach and
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  • Momento de la rueda de prensa celebrada en el edificio IACTEC en el que se aprecia una de sus salas de armado, integración y verificación (AIV)
    Press release
    El Cabildo de Tenerife subvenciona con 2,2 millones la fabricación de la cámara DRAGO-3
    La presidenta del Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, ha anunciado esta mañana la aprobación de una subvención de 2,2 millones de euros al Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) para la fabricación de DRAGO-3, una cámara de última generación que se integrará en una constelación global de satélites en órbita baja. Esta red de satélites interconectados está concebida para ofrecer servicios globales o regionales para Tenerife. El importe exacto de la subvención asciende a 2.208.120 euros. El anuncio se ha realizado durante una visita a las instalaciones de IACTEC, la división tecnológica del
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  • Donna Strickland, Nobel Laureate in Physics 2018, during the talk at the IAC Aula
    Photomontage
    Nobel Physics Laureate Donna Strickland Visits IAC
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has welcomed Donna Strickland, 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, who delivered a lecture entitled " From Nonlinear Optics to High-Intensity Laser Physics". The talk, held at the IAC Auditorium, was introduced by Garik Israelian, researcher at the center and co-founder of the Starmus Festival, an event in which Strickland participated previously in La Palma last week. During her presentation, Strickland explained in an accessible manner the fundamentals of her pioneering research on Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA), work for which she was awarded the
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  • savita_sph_ro_galeria
    Research news
    Evolution of stellar magnetic activity: the Sun has similar magnetic activity as its pairs
    It’s been decades since the need to study other stars to understand the past, present and future of the Sun was realized. One important aspect that has been investigated is the magnetic activity of stars for which we cannot fully grasp the mechanisms involved. Indeed, the origin of stellar magnetic cycles or the dependence of the magnetic activity on the stellar properties are not completely understood. This knowledge improves not only our understanding of the physics involved in stellar evolution but also affects the study of the Sun to better predict high-energy events and the better
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  • James Webb Space Telescope image of the planetary nebula NGC 1514
    Press release
    The James Webb Space Telescope captures 'the wedding rings' of a stellar couple
    An international team, including a researcher from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has obtained an incredible image of the planetary nebula NGC 1514 using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), revealing the nebula's spectacular dusty rings in unprecedented detail. NGC 1514 was one of the first nebulae to be studied by astronomer William Herschel, who noted that when viewed through his telescope (the biggest in the World at the time) the nebula looked like a fuzzy cloud somewhat similar in appearance to one of his other discoveries: the planet Neptune. The new images acquired
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