The first results on the analysis of the images of Bennu obtained using OCAMS, OVIRS, and OTES instruments on-board NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft have been published today in a paper on Nature Astronomy, co-authored by four researchers of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL).

Stars with masses between one and eight times the mass of the Sun evolve along the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) before ending their lives as white dwarfs. It is during this rapid but crucial phase when the stars expand to huge dimensions and cool down, losing a major fraction of their mass due to the strong stellar winds. The low temperature and high density of the winds provide ideal conditions for the condensation of dust grains in their circumstellar envelopes. The dust produced by the stars in their AGB phase and expelled into the interstellar medium is important for the lives of the

The study, which has combined images from the Hubble Space Telescope with spectroscopic observations from the GTC, has confirmed the existence of a new example of a gravitational lens, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity.

The Gran Telescopio Canarias today inaugurates its website grantecan.es which will communicate the telescope with the wide public during its observing nights. Furthermore this coming Saturday, March 9th, there will be the first of a series of broadcasts in real time from GRANTECAN during which it will be possible to talk to the professional astronomers and ask them questions. This initiative is co-financed by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.

The World’s largest optical and infrared telescope will be part of this space project by observing binary asteroid Didymos in order to assess the impact that NASA DART mission will have on its orbit.

A building for technological cooperation with companies, with over 4,000 square metres of room available for companies who want to pursue R+D+I jointly with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The collaboration will be aimed principally at three areas: Space, Medical Technology, and Large Telescopes.