CARMENES instrument gets the first exoplanet detection alerts from TESS (MIT-NASA) mission
September 20th 2018
It is expected that the TESS mission, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and NASA, finds about one thousand five hundred planets around other stars in its two years of operation.
CARMENES spectrograph team, located at the Calar Alto Observatory, has begun to receive the alerts in order to confirm and analyze TESS detections.
TESS mission (MIT-NASA), with will examine more than two hundred thousand stars along its two years life, constitutes one of the presently most important project for the search of exoplanets, as it will detects planets that can be studied and characterized with instruments that exist today on earth. One of such instruments that will analyze TESS data is CARMENES, operating at the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería) 3.5m telescope, and whose team has already began receiving TESS planets detections alerts.
El Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) obtiene el distintivo de Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa
13 de Julio de 2018
El distintivo dota a los centros con un millón de euros anual durante cuatro años
El programa tiene como objetivo financiar y acreditar a los centros de investigación que demuestran impacto y liderazgo a nivel internacional El IAA es el único centro andaluz acreditado como Severo Ochoa
El Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) ha obtenido el distintivo de Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa, una acreditación que reconoce a los centros que realizan investigación básica de frontera y se encuentran entre los mejores del mundo en su área de trabajo. Destacan por su alta competitividad, sus ambiciosos planes estratégicos, una producción de máxima calidad y gran capacidad para atraer talento. Dotado con un presupuesto de un millón de euros anual durante cuatro años, el distintivo forma parte del Subprograma de Fortalecimiento Institucional del Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica Técnica y de Innovación.
Call for letters of intent for the construction of the next generation instrument for CAHA 3.5m telescope
May 11th 2018
Calar Alto is looking for competitive science cases and associated instrumentation concepts for its flagship telescope, the CAHA 3.5m. It is expected that the current observatory mode of operation will remain in the future, with most of the time devoted to high impact science cases requiring large allocations of time.
The atmosphere of Kelt-9b, the hottest known planet, is being dragged towards its star
July 3rd 2018
Similar to Jupiter, Kelt-9 is hotter than some stars
Thanks to the CARMENES instrument at Calar Alto Observatory, astronomers detected an extensive hydrogen envelope around Kelt-9b that escapes and is being captured by the star
The Kelt-9b conditions are infernal: it rotates extremely close to its host star, Kelt-9, whose temperature doubles that of the Sun. It is the hottest exoplanet discovered, and a recent study with the CARMENES instrument at Calar Alto, has revealed the presence of an hydrogen atmosphere around Kelt-9, which is being dragged and captured by the gravitational force of its star. Led by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the result has been published in Nature Astronomy.
Recovering of comet Catalina with the Schmidt telescope
April 27th 2018
In the framework of the Space Situational Awareness program, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), astronomers observing remotely with the Calar Alto Schmidt telescope managed to recover comet P/2011 CR42 Catalina.
Solar System objects like asteroids and comets appear like moving targets in the stellar fields observed with telescopes. Observations spread over various nights allow us to compute accurately their orbits. Comets, in particular, can present elongated (elliptic), periodic orbits, like the famous comet Halley, passing close to the Earth every 76 years or so, and visible to the naked eye (the last time in 1986, but it was probably observed since prehistoric times).
Best 2017 PhD in Astronomy uses CALIFA data
June 28th 2018
Laura Sánchez-Menguiano was awarded the best 2017 PhD thesis in Astronomy by the Spanish Astronomical Society. Laura’s thesis uses CALIFA data, taken with the PMAS Integral Field Spectrograph at the 3.5-m Calar Alto telescope, to scrutinize the spiral structure in disk galaxies.
Most galaxies in the local Universe display beautiful spiral arms, concentrations of bright stars in a rotating disk, like a whirl around a bulge made of older stars. Although omnipresent, the formation and persistence of this twisting spiral structure is still not well understood, despite the arms should play a major role in the chemical and dynamical evolution of disk galaxies.
Discovery of an exoplanet which helps us to understand the formation of Mercury
Almería, April 6th, 2018
The planet K2-229b has a similar composition to Mercury, because the vicinity to its sun blows its mantle, forming an atmosphere of evaporated silicates. This finding is partly based on data obtained from Calar Alto.
An international team has found a planetary system around a star (named K2-229) similar to our Sun, which helps us to understand the formation and properties of the planet Mercury. The planet K2-229b, lying in this system, has a composition very similar to that of Mercury. The finding, published in Nature Astronomy, is the result of an international cooperation led by Alexandre Santerne, from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France).
