Scientific Highlights

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Creates Largest 3-D Map of the Cosmos

January 13, 2022

DESI has already mapped out more galaxies than all previous 3-D surveys combined — and it’s just getting started. Several Spanish institutions participate in the project: IFAE, ICE-CSIC, ICCUB, CIEMAT and IFT/UAM.

Deep Detection raises 1M€ in funding for X-ray inspection technology

November 22, 2021

The IFAE's spin-off Deep Detection has secured the investment from specialist photonics VC Vigo Ventures, Clave Capital, ESOM, and public financing. Founded in July 2020, Deep Detection is preparing to launch its first product, PhotonAI, an X-ray camera with deep learning capabilities.

35 new spacetime quakes detected by Virgo and LIGO

November 8, 2021

35 new events detected by LIGO and Virgo in their latest observation period bring to 90 the gravitational waves detected so far. The dataset, published today outlines the features of new populations of black holes, the masses of which, together with those of the observed neutron stars, provide clues about how stars live and die, further broadening the horizons of gravitational astronomy.

Einstein Telescope approved for ESFRI Roadmap 2021

July 1, 2021

The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has included the Einstein Telescope (ET) in the 2021 upgrade of its roadmap. This confirms the relevance of this major international project for a next generation gravitational waves observatory. IFAE researcher Mario Martínez is a member of the Einstein Telescope Steering Committee that prepared the ESFRI candidature.

First observations of ‘mixed’ black hole and neutron star pairs

June 29, 2021

The Virgo, LIGO and KAGRA scientific collaborations today announced the first observation ever of binary systems consisting of a neutron star (NS) and a black hole (BH). The existence of these systems was predicted by astronomers several decades ago, but they had never been observed with confidence, either through electromagnetic or gravitational signals, until now.

Dark Energy Survey (DES) releases most precise look at the universe’s evolution

May 27, 2021

The Dark Energy Survey collaboration has created the largest ever maps of the distribution and shapes of galaxies, tracing both ordinary and dark matter in the universe out to a distance of more than 7 billion light years. The analysis, which includes the first three years of data from the survey, is consistent with predictions from the current best model of the universe, the standard cosmological model. Nevertheless, there remain hints from DES and other experiments that matter in the current universe is a few percent less clumpy than predicted.

Successful Start of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Follows Record-Setting Trial Run

May 17, 2021

International collaboration aims for 3D map of the universe, unraveling of mysterious ‘dark energy'. IFAE participates in the DESI Barcelona-Madrid Regional Participation Group, made up of researchers from IFAE, ICE-CSIC, CIEMAT and IFT-UAM. The instrumental contribution to DESI of the group consisted of the design, construction and installation of the complete Guiding, Focusing and Alignment system (GFA).

New Instrumented baffle installed at Virgo

April 28, 2021

The installation culminates more than two years of work at IFAE for the design and construction of a novel and innovative device to control and monitor the stray light inside the experiment, a persistent source of noise at interferometers. For the first time a Spanish Institution is making a significant hardware contribution to a worldwide leading gravitational waves experiment using ground-based interferometry.

Dark Energy Survey makes public catalog of nearly 700 million astronomical objects

January 14, 2021

The international collaboration releases a massive, public collection of astronomical data and calibrated images from six years of surveys. This data release is one of the largest astronomical catalogs issued to date.