Astrophysicists Surprised by Unexpected Effect of Black Holes Beyond Their Own Galaxies
At the heart of almost every sufficiently massive galaxy there is a black hole whose gravitational field, although very intense, affects only a small region…
Instituto De Astrofísica De Canarias
Galactic Warp: Does the Milky Way Move Like a Spinning Top?
An investigation carried out by the astrophysicists of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) Žofia Chrobáková, a doctoral student at the IAC and the…
The Natural Brightness of the Night Sky: Analyzing 44 of the Darkest Places in the World
A recent study analyses data collected at 44 of the darkest places in the world, including the Canary Island Observatories, to develop the first complete…
DALI Experiment: An Astro-Particle Telescope for Dark Matter
The detection of the axion would mark a key episode in the history of science. This hypothetical particle could resolve two fundamental problems of Modern…
Astronomers Detect a New Super-Earth Orbiting a Red Dwarf Star
In recent years there has been an exhaustive study of red dwarf stars to find exoplanets in orbit around them. These stars have effective surface…
Alien Super-Earth Planet Discovered Just 26 Light Years Away – Probably Has an Atmosphere
During the past 25 years astronomers have discovered a wide variety of exoplanets, made of rock, ice, and gas, thanks to the construction of astronomical…
Unprecedented Map of the Sun’s Magnetic Field Created by CLASP2 Space Experiment
Every day space telescopes provide spectacular images of the solar activity. However, their instruments are blind to its main driver: the magnetic field in the…
Astrophysicists Solve Mystery of How Dark Matter Is Distributed in Galaxies
The gravitational force in the Universe under which it has evolved from a state almost uniform at the Big Bang until now, when matter is…
Solved: The Puzzle of the Strange Galaxy Made of 99.99% Dark Matter
At present, the formation of galaxies is difficult to understand without the presence of a ubiquitous, but mysterious component, termed dark matter. Astronomers have measure…
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Verified by New Measurements of the Solar Spectrum
An international team of researchers led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has measured, with unprecedented accuracy, the gravitational redshift of the Sun,…
Astronomers Find Extreme Galaxy With Intense Ultraviolet Luminosity Comparable to a Quasar
It was found using observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, (Garafía, La Palma, Canary Islands), and…
A Multi-Decade Mystery Settled: Presence of Resonating Cavities Above Sunspots Has Been Confirmed
An international team of researchers, led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has confirmed the existence of resonant cavities above sunspots. These results,…
Astronomers Discover Continuous Infrared Winds During the Eruption of a Stellar Mass Black Hole
Until now, these flows of material had been detected only in other wavelength ranges, such as X-rays or the visible, depending on the phase in…
Astronomical First: Differences Detected Between Discs of Active and Non-Active Galaxies
A study led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), making comparison between the discs of several pairs of spiral galaxies, active…
Observed: Giant, Ultra-Hot Planet WASP-76b Where It Rains Iron
Nature magazine is published a surprising study about the giant, ultra-hot planet WASP-76b in which researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have…
Sequence of Events Which Gave Rise to the Milky Way Revealed
The universe 13,000 million years ago was very different from the universe we know today. It is understood that stars were forming at a very…
Scientists Solve the Mystery of the Galaxy with No Dark Matter
A group of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has clarified one of the mysteries of 2018 in the field of extragalactic…
Researchers Discover Planet-Forming Collision in Kepler 107 System
Two of the planets which are orbiting the star Kepler 107 could be the result of an impact similar to that which affected the Earth…