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.

List view
  • Upper panel: artistic view of the merger of Gaia-Enceladus with the Milky Way progenitor, and the CMD inferred for their stars 10 billion years ago. Lower panel: artistic view of the current Milky Way and the CMD of the stars in the halo near the Sun, as observed by the Gaia satellite.
    Research news
    The early sequence of events that shaped the Milky Way
    Among the myriad discoveries presented in the second data release of the Gaia mission, there was an enigmatic color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of Milky Way halo stars, showing a striking double (blue/red) sequence. The blue sequence was linked to a major merger that our Galaxy experienced early in its history (Gaia-Enceladus). The origin of the red sequence was unclear, and it was generally associated, because of its chemical composition, with the Milky Way thick disk. However, the lack of accurate ages precluded a clear understanding of its nature. We compared this double-sequenced observed
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  • A view of the Mayall Telescope (tallest telescope at right) at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. (Credit: Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab)
    Press release
    DESI opens its 5.000 eyes to capture the colors of the Cosmos
    The new instrument, the result of an international collaboration of almost a hundred institutions, including the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, has made its first trial observation. Designed to explore the mystery of dark energy, its installation is about to be completed at the Mayall telescope of the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona (United States).
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  • Recreación artística de MAXI J1820+070
    Press release
    Violent flares in the centre of a black hole system
    A international team of astronomers, led by the University of Southampton and with participation by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias has used the camera HiPERCAM on the Gran Telescopio Canarias and NASA’s NICER space observatory to make a high frame-rate movie of a growing black hole system. In the process they have discoverd violent flares in visible light and in X-rays which give new clues to help understand the immediate surroundings of these intriguing objects. The results of this study are published in the prestigious journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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  • Physics Nobel Prize Winners 2019
    Press release
    Didier Queloz, Physics Nobel Prize Winner 2019, Is Developing an Advanced Terrestrial Planet Hunter for the Isaac Newton Telescope
    The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) and the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) warmly congratulate James Peebles (Princeton University), Michel Mayor (University of Geneva) and Didier Queloz (Universities of Geneva and Cambridge) on the award of the Physics Nobel Prize 2019. The Swedish Academy awarded the prize "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos". For Mayor and Queloz, the award recognises their discovery, published in 1995, of the first planet outside the solar system, orbiting a solar-type star
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