The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is once again participating in the Miniferias de la Ciencia y la Innovación en Canarias, reinforcing its commitment to popularising science and bringing astronomy closer to the Canarian public. Through its Scientific Communication and Culture Unit (UC3), the research centre is taking part in the activities organised in La Palma from 22 to 24 May. Become astro-detectives for a day Astrophysicists and popularisers Alfred Rosenberg and Alejandra Goded lead the activity ‘Astro-detectives: How do astrophysicists study the Universe?’, an interactive

On Wednesday 30 October, the headquarters of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) received a talk by the first Swiss astronaut, Claude Nicollier, who wanted to share his experience in space with the personnel of the IAC. Claude Nicollier is the first Swiss astronaut to have flown into space. After his studies at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, Claude joined ESA as a member of their first group of astronauts. Since 2007 Nicollier has been a Professor at the Federal Polytechnical School at Lausanne. He has spent more than 1000 hours in space (more than 42 days) including a

An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the IAC, have performed a unique cosmic test - measuring the mass of an ancient star using two entirely different methods, finding agreement to within just 1.4%. This result marks a milestone in our ability to determine the ages of old stars and use them as living fossils to study the Milky Way’s distant past. The team analysed the red giant in the binary system KIC 10001167 using two independent approaches: firstly, by measuring the brightness and radial velocity variations due to the orbital motion of the binary, and secondly