Severo Ochoa Programme

Research News

  • Recreación artística de GJ 3512
    Press release
    Astronomers find an unusual planetary system which challenges models of planet formation
    A team of astronomers of the CARMENES consortium, with participants form the Institutode Astrofísica de Canarias, has discovered a planetary system around the red dwarf star GJ 3512, at some 30 light years from Earth, with an unusual gas giant planet whose excentric orbit could imply the presence of another massive planets. In the study the 40 cm telescope of the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) at the Teide Observatory, was used. This discovery is published today in the journal Science.
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  • Image, left-hand panel, and reflectance spectrum, right-hand panel, of interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) obtained by the 10.4~m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), located at the El Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain), which is managed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) together with the Teide Observatory in the island of Tenerife.
    Press release
    The Gran Telescopio Canarias obtains the visible spectrum of C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), the first confirmed interstellar comet
    The spectrum acquired by GTC of interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) reveals that this object has a surface composition not unlike that found in Solar System comets. Shortly before dawn on September 13th, Julia de León, Miquel Serra-Ricart, Javier Licandro, all members of IAC's Solar System Group, and Carlos Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, from the Complutense University of Madrid, obtained high resolution images and visible spectra of comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov) using the OSIRIS instrument at the 10.4m GTC, installed in the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma). Observations were
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  • Kilonova Evento 2016 GTC
    Press release
    A “gold mine” is detected in a collision of two distant stars
    An international team of astronomers, including researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the CSIC has found evidence of a “kilonomva” in the data from a gamma ray burst detected in August 2016. This is a phenomenon similar to the supernovae which produce large quantities of heavy elements, such as gold and platinum. This event is similar to another explosion detected by LIGO in 2017, for which the combined observation of light and gravitational waves opened the door to an understanding of this type of objects. The results are to be published in the journal Monthly
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  • Sistema planetario GJ 357
    Press release
    Astronomers find a nearby system of exoplanets with a potentially inhabitable world
    A team of astronomers, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias has found three new planets orbiting a star, one of which might have conditions favourable for life. The discovery was possible with data from NASA’s TESS satellite, and with data from several ground-based observatories, among them the Spanish Calar Alto Observatory with its CARMENES instrument. The results are published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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  • Fernando Moreno Insertis
    Press release
    A study of the whole Sun
    The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded one of its prestigious “ERC Synergy Grants” to a team led by Fernando Moreno Insertis, researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Professor at the University of La Laguna (ULL) as a member of a consortium of five European institutions.
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  • Artistic recreation of the Teegarden Star system.
    Press release
    New Earths discovered around a very small star
    An international team led by the University of Göttingen (Germany) with participation by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have discovered, using the CARMENES high resolution spectrograph at the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería) two new planets like the Earth around one of the closest stars within our Galactic neighbourhood.
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