Never Before Detected – Organic Molecule Essential for Life Found in Interstellar Space
Tryptophan is among the 20 vital amino acids necessary for protein synthesis, crucial for life’s evolution on Earth. This amino acid has many spectral features…
Instituto De Astrofísica De Canarias News
Uncovering Stellar Mysteries – Astrophysicists Observe Blue Supergiants in Detail
Stars serve as the fundamental building blocks of galaxies and, by extension, the entire observable universe. Among the diverse spectrum of stars, those with a…
Cosmic Mystery: A Massive Galaxy Defying Dark Matter Theories
International research led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) has found the first evidence of a…
Galactic Mistake? Astronomers May Have Solved the Mystery of the Runaway Supermassive Black Hole
A study carried out by a team of researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has shown that an unusually thin structure of…
Explosive Secret of Massive Quasar: Relativistic Jets Blowing Bubbles in the Teacup Galaxy’s Core
A study led by Anelise Audibert, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), reveals a process that explains the peculiar morphology of…
Galactic Revelations: Molecular Precursors of Life Discovered in the Perseus Cloud
A study led by the researcher Susana Iglesias of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias has detected the presence of large quantities of complex organic…
Two Potentially Habitable Earth-Like Planets Discovered Around a Star Near the Sun
An international scientific team led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has discovered the presence of two planets with Earth-like masses…
James Webb Telescope’s Unparalleled View of the Ghostly Light in Galaxy Clusters
Data obtained by the new James Webb Space Telescope was used by a recent study that has produced the most complete analysis to date of…
Astronomers Discover Ancient “Failed Star” With Lithium Deposits Intact
A team of researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Mexico, has discovered…
Exoplanet-Hunting Satellite CHEOPS Unexpectedly Detects a Strange Planet “Without a Known Equivalent”
The exoplanet satellite hunter CHEOPS of the European Space Agency (ESA), in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is participating along with other…
Solved: Mysterious Solar Paradox That Puzzled Physicists for 25 Years
In 1998, the journal Nature published a seminal letter concluding that the mysterious polarization signal that had been recently discovered in the light emitted by…
Astronomers Discover How to Feed a Supermassive Black Hole
The black holes at the centers of galaxies are the most mysterious objects in the Universe, not only because of the huge quantities of material…
Three Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies Discovered to Be Rotating in Orbit Around the Milky Way
An international team of astrophysicists has discovered the presence of transverse rotation (in the plane of the sky) in three dwarf spheroidal galaxies, a very…
Astronomers Discover a Massive Star Cluster – Hiding in Plain Sight – in the Constellation Scutum
An international team of astrophysicists led by the Stellar Astrophysics Group of the University of Alicante (UA), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and…
Finding “Missing” Matter: New Light on Baryonic Matter and Gravity on Cosmic Scales
Scientists estimate that dark matter and dark energy together are some 95% of the gravitational material in the universe while the remaining 5% is baryonic…
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…
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…