Scientific Highlights

Euclid space telescope’s Near-Infrared instrument ready to draw a 3-D map of galaxies of the distant Universe

July 9, 2020

ESA’s Euclid mission to study more than a billion galaxies is a step closer to launch as its two instruments are now built and fully tested, including the complex near Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument

Cosmic Cataclysm allows precise test of General Relativity

July 9, 2020

The detection of a gamma ray burst by the MAGIC telescopes allows to study whether the speed of light in vacuum is a constant of nature. The results, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, show that photons of different energies emitted about 4.5 billion years ago reach Earth with a time difference of less than one minute, thus putting a limit on the hypothesis that the velocity of photons depends on their energy.

Virgo and LIGO spot a mystery object merging with a black hole

June 23, 2020

Virgo and LIGO have announced the discovery of a compact object of about 2.6 solar masses, placing it in a range between the heaviest neutron star and the lightest black hole ever seen.

CTA Prototype LST-1 Detects Very High-Energy Emission from the Crab Pulsar

June 22, 2020

The first prototype of the Large Size Telescope (LST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Network (CTA), the LST-1, has detected the Crab Pulsar, the neutron star at the centre of the Crab Nebula. This observation certifies the proper functioning of this telescope, which is currently in the commissioning phase.

T2K Results Restrict Possible Values of Neutrino CP Phase

April 15, 2020

The T2K Collaboration has published in Nature new results showing the strongest constraint yet on the parameter that governs the breaking of the symmetry between matter and antimatter in neutrino oscillations.

GW190412: The merger of two black holes with unequal masses

April 12, 2020

The LIGO and Virgo Collaborations have observed gravitational waves produced by the inspiral and merger of two black holes. The signal, named GW190412, was produced by a coalescing BBH system with unequal masses, one component being more than 3 times heavier than the other one.

IFAE coordinates the FET-Open project AVaQus to develop new quantum computing technologies

April 1, 2020

IFAE leads the AVaQus project, which aims to radically upgrade current quantum annealing technology by engineering novel superconducting quantum circuits.

Breaking the limits: Discovery of the highest-energy photons from a gamma-ray burst

November 19, 2019

The first GRB detected by the MAGIC telescopes, known as GRB 190114C, reveals for the first time the highest energy photons measured from these objects.

DESI Opens Its 5,000 Eyes to Capture the Colors of the Cosmos

October 28, 2019

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a new instrument designed to accurately map the Universe, begins its final testing stage.