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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  • The amplitude of metallicity variations (indicated by the height of the colored rectangles) in neutral clouds is much larger and inconsistent with that found in HII regions, B-type stars, classical Cepheids and young open clusters.
    Research news
    About metallicity variations in the local Galactic interstellar medium
    In this work we discuss and confront recent results on metallicity variations in the local interstellar medium, obtained from observations of H II regions by our group and neutral clouds (from literature) of the Galactic thin disk, and compare them with recent high-quality metallicity determinations of other tracers of the chemical composition of the interstellar medium as B-type stars, classical Cepheids, and young clusters. We find that the metallicity variations obtained for these last kinds of objects are consistent with each other and with that obtained for H II regions but
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  • AEACI 2022
    Press release
    The IAC once again celebrates its Astronomical Education Adventure in face-to-face format
    The eighth edition of the international summer school for teachers "Astronomy Education Adventure in the Canary Islands" will take place from 24 to 29 July in Tenerife and will focus on the relationship between Astronomy and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), together with other scientific and educational institutions, organises the eighth edition of the international school for teachers "Astronomy Education Adventure in the Canary Islands" (AEACI) which this year will be dedicated to "Astronomy for Sustainable Development" on the occasion of
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  • Artist's impression of a system with two super-earths
    Press release
    Two new rocky planets in the solar neighborhood
    An international scientific collaboration, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) participates, has discovered two new super-Earths orbiting a bright red dwarf star only 33 light-years away. Both objects are among the closest-known rocky planets yet found outside our solar system . The results are presented today at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Pasadena (California, USA). Two new exoplanets, HD 260655 b and HD 260655 c, have been detected using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space telescope designed to look for planets in orbit
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  • Orion Protoplanetary Disk
    Press release
    Possible evidence of planet formation found in the Orion Nebula
    International research led by scientists at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has shown the existence of solid sulphur compounds in HH514, a jet of gas coming from the centre of the Orion Nebula. The concentration of this chemical element could be related to the process of exoplanet formation. The researchers have used three of the most important optical telescopes in the world: the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC or Grantecan) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The results are published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal
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  • Research news
    The synchronized dance of the Magellanic Clouds star formation history
    According to the current theories of galaxy formation, these generally form as small entities that grow through fusion, collision and accretion, eventually becoming the majestic galaxies that we observe nowadays. As an example of such process we can mention our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Around it we can find tens of dwarf galaxies and even stellar “streams” formed by already dissolved systems. We have focused in the study of our two most prominent satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, a system in the process of falling towards our Galaxy, whilst also having a mutual interaction. Their
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  • Simulation of the Formation and Evolution of a Cluster of Galaxies
    Press release
    A new algorithm that simulates the intergalactic medium of the Universe in seconds is developed
    The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has led the development of a new numerical procedure that allows to reproduce in a few seconds with Big Data and machine learning techniques the intergalactic medium obtained from a cosmological simulation of 100,000 hours of computation. Thanks to this algorithm, called Hydro-BAM, researchers have been able to exploit the hierarchy in the relationship between the properties of dark matter, ionized gas and intergalactic neutral hydrogen, ingredients that make up the large-scale structure of our universe. The research has also made it possible to
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