On 3-4 December, exactly ten years after the launch of the mission LISA Pathfinder, the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), in collaboration with the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), hosted a celebration marking the success of this remarkable ESA mission: “From LISA Pathfinder to LISA: Celebrating 10 years of the LPF Launch”. The event, that took place at the CSIC Delegation in Catalonia, aimed to commemorate the major scientific and engineering effort that validated the technology required for the forthcoming ESA mission LISA.

Much remains to be known about the chemical composition of small asteroids. Their potential to harbour valuable metals, materials from the early solar system, and the possibility of obtaining a geochemical record of their parent bodies makes them promising candidates for future use of space resources. A team led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) has analyzed samples of C-type asteroids, carbon-rich minor bodies of the Solar System, progenitors of the carbonaceous chondrites.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Scout missions are agile, low-cost Earth observation projects designed to test new technologies. The Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) participates in the first of these missions, called HydroGNSS, which was launched on 28 November 2025. Composed of two identical satellites launched from California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, its objective is to advance the global understanding of water availability and the effects of climate change on Earth's hydrological cycle.

The Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), an agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, has received an ERC Synergy grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for a project that it is co-leading with scientists from other European institutions. This project aims to revolutionize our current understanding of the Sun. With a budget of €14 million, LUNANOVA will eliminate the current uncertainty in nuclear physics regarding the solar model. 

Does dark matter follow the same laws as ordinary matter? The mystery of this invisible and hypothetical component of our Universe — which neither emits nor reflects light — remains unsolved. A team led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), with the participation of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), delved into whether, on a cosmological scale, this matter behaves like ordinary matter or whether other forces come into play. 

Com pot experimentar un eclipsi una persona cega o amb discapacitat visual? És possible que esdeveniments relacionats amb l'astronomia, de naturalesa visual, siguin inclusius? Els esdeveniments d'observacions astronòmiques poden arribar a col·lectius vulnerables? 

Recently, an innovative Earth observation program promoted by Portugal and Spain was officially announced: the Atlantic Constellation. It involves institutions and companies such as the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), Open Cosmos, Satlantis, Alén Space, and FOSSA Systems. 

En el marc de la Setmana de la Ciència i la Tecnologia, l'Institut de Ciències de l'Espai (ICE-CSIC) organitza diverses activitats per a públic general, així com per a públic universitari i escolar durant el mes de novembre.

The Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) researcher  Estel Cardellach has been one of the three winners of the “Terrassenca of the Year 2025 Prize”. The purpose of this award is to appoint every year between one and three people from Terrassa who, due to their civic and/or professional careers, have uplift the city in the fields of culture, art, sports, business and charity, among others.

Un any més, l’Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (ICE-CSIC) participa en la Nit de la Recerca, una iniciativa de divulgació científica que s'organitza en tota Europa on científics i científiques apropen la seva recerca a la ciutadania a través de projectes, tallers i xerrades per a públic general. Aquest any, l’ICE-CSIC participarà en la Nit de la Recerca a la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) el 26 de setembre amb tallers i xerrades.

Launched in July 2023, the Euclid mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) is currently in space scanning a third of the sky over a 6-year-period. Today, the largest synthetic galaxy catalogue ever built has been published by the Euclid Consortium, featuring simulations of more than 3.4 billion galaxies to match Euclid’s sharp eyes. The catalogue has been developed by an international team, led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Port d’Informació Científica (PIC), and is available on the CosmoHub platform.

An international team, involving nearly one hundred researchers worldwide, analysed the origin and properties of the asteroid 2023 CX1, detected on 12 February 2023, seven hours before it entered Earth's atmosphere and impacted the French region of Normandy. The results, published in the journal Nature Astronomy in which the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) participates, represent the first comprehensive tracking of an asteroid from space to its impact on Earth.

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration will receive the 2026 Lancelot M. Berkeley–New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy. Established in 2011 by the American Astronomical Society (AAS), the Berkeley prize includes a monetary award and an invitation to give the closing plenary lecture at the AAS winter meeting.

Supernovae are enormous explosions that mark the final stages of a star’s life. As they are sudden and unpredictable, they have long been difficult to study, but today, thanks to high-cadence sky surveys, astronomers can discover new ones almost daily. A new study led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP), presents a new method to detect supernovae hours after they erupt.

On July 4th, the sixth meeting of the Barcelona Initiative for Gravitation (BIG) took place at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC). The goal of this meeting is to bring together researchers from different parts of the Barcelona area working on different aspects of gravitational physics.

An international team of astronomers, led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics’ (INAF) Brera Observatory and the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), has uncovered new evidence to explain how  pulsing remnants of exploded stars interact with surrounding matter deep in the cosmos, using observations from NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) and other telescopes. The findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Spanish Network of Gravitational Wave Physics (REDONGRA), led by Carlos Fernández Sopuerta, a senior researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), has been granted significant funding under the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities 2024 call of Redes de Investigación. The financial support recognises REDONGRA’s strategic importance in consolidating and expanding Spain’s leadership in the field of gravitational wave science. 

Francisco Castander, research professor at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has been appointed scientific representative in the cosmology area at the Spanish National Astronomy Committee (CNA, for its acronym in Spanish). This recognition highlights his solid scientific career and his role as a leading figure in the study of the structure and evolution of the Universe.

The Rubin Observatory presents today its first images of the Universe via an online event that can be followed live on its YouTube channel. These snapshots, which in astronomy are called the ‘first light’ of an instrument, mark the beginning of a time-lapse that will be completed after mapping the southern sky for a decade. The results of this international collaboration, in which the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) participates, will allow us to delve deeper into questions about dark matter, catalog the solar system, and uncover the structure and history of our galaxy.

Aquest divendres 13 de juny a Igualada tindrà lloc l'última trobada del projecte Magnet. Després de quatre anys de col·laboració entre l’escola pública Gabriel Castellà i Raich amb l’ICE-CSIC, una iniciativa de divulgació liderada per la Fundació Bofill i el Departament d’Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya, arriba al seu final amb una festa familiar amb tallers científics que combinen ciència, educació i entreteniment.

An international team of astronomers led by Australia's International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), with the participation of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), has detected a new long-period transient object: a recently discovered type of cosmic phenomenon. The study is published today in the journal Nature. 

L'Institut de Ciències de l'Espai (ICE-CSIC) participarà a la dissetena edició de la Festa de la Ciència, que acollirà 156 activitats de divulgació per a tots els públics, que tindrà lloc els dies 31 de maig i 1 de juny al Born Centro de Cultura i Memòria i a la plaça Comercial. Durant aquestes jornades, personal investigador i de divulgació de l’ICE-CSIC participarà a la Festa de la Ciència amb quatre tallers on es podrà aprender sobre la vida i mort de les estrelles; veure com s’estudia la terra mitjançat satèl·lits GPS; fer un viatge a través de l'univers amb materials tàctils 3D; i aprendre sobre astronomia tradicional del poble sahrauí en una experiència de realitat virtual.

Pulsars are a type of neutron star with a very fast rotation and strong magnetic fields that form following a supernova explosion. When a supernova explosion is asymmetric, it can give the pulsar a powerful ‘kick’, accelerating it to supersonic speeds. As the pulsar moves, the nebula formed by its wind interacts with the surrounding environment, significantly altering its shape. A new study led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) published in a letter to the editor of the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal proves that the shape and emission properties of these nebulae are directly influenced by the past evolutionary history of their progenitor stars. 

Researcher from the Institute of Space Science (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia  (IEEC) Estel Cardellach received the Muncunill Award for Honorary Innovation on 8 May 2025 at an event at the Principal Theatre of Terrassa at 18:00. This is the 9th edition of the ceremony, organised by Terrassa’s City Council, with the support of the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona, with the goal of both bringing the innovation closer to the citizenship and recognising the companies who work in this field, as well as contributing to reinforcing Terrassa’s position as an innovation referent.

Using the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory's (NSF NRAO) U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA), astronomers have revealed for the first time the huge flow of gas near a massive star in the making, which allows its rapid growth. By observing the young star HW2 in Cepheus A, located 2300 light years from Earth, researchers have resolved the structure and dynamics of an accretion disk feeding material to this massive star.

The European Physical Society (EPS) recently announced the Fermi-LAT and Fermi-GBM collaborations have been awarded the 2025 Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize  in recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to the fields of particle astrophysics and cosmology. The pioneering work of the two groups has revolutionised our understanding of the high-energy Universe and enabled fundamental discoveries that will impact the field for decades to come.

Este evento es una oportunidad para que los estudiantes tomen contacto con las distintas entidades y puedan descubrir todas las líneas de investigación de los distintos ámbitos. El ICE-CSIC estará presente para mostrar el trabajo que desarrollamos en el ámbito de la astrofísica y la tecnología espacial, así como las oportunidades de colaboración y formación que ofrecemos.

In 2023, the Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Pulsar Catalogue presented 294 light curves associated with known pulsars, including 143 millisecond pulsars. It provides a wealth of information about the mechanisms that generate pulsar beams. A study led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, introduces a new methodology to compare the whole set of gamma-ray light curves reported in that catalogue.

Magnetars are ultra-dense stellar remnants with extremely strong magnetic fields. Researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the magnetar SGR 0501+4516 was not born in a neighbouring supernova as previously thought. The birthplace of this object is now unknown, and SGR 0501+4516 is the likeliest candidate in our galaxy for a magnetar that was not born in a supernova. This discovery, in which the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) participates, was made possible by Hubble’s sensitive instruments as well as precise benchmarks from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft.

The ICE-CSIC Annual Report 2024 is now available. It presents a summary of ICE-CSIC’s research, activities and highlights throughout the year. The year 2024 was a remarkable one for ICE-CSIC due to the many accomplishments achieved by our members. In addition, 2024 was very special because ICE-CSIC celebrated its 25th anniversary. On 21 December 1999, CSIC officially created our institute and since then we have been at the forefront of scientific discovery and innovation.

Nanda Rea, researcher from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) specialized in compact objects and high energy transients, has been selected as a member of the Senior Science Committee of ESO’s Expanding Horizons. The team will be responsible for defining ESO’s next major scientific project, which will begin after the completion of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in the Chilean Andes.

The fate of the universe hinges on the balance between matter and dark energy: the fundamental ingredient that drives its accelerating expansion. New results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration use the largest 3D map of our universe ever made to track dark energy’s influence over the past 11 billion years. Researchers see hints that dark energy, once thought to be a “cosmological constant,” might be evolving over time in unexpected ways.

On 19 March 2025, the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission released its first batch of survey data, including a preview of its deep fields. Here, hundreds of thousands of galaxies in different shapes and sizes take centre stage and show a glimpse of their large-scale organisation in the cosmic web. These have been observed and analysed by scientists of the Euclid Consortium, demonstrating the unprecedented power of this telescope designed to provide the most precise map of our Universe over time. The scientific results are described in a series of 27 scientific publications together with 7 technical papers that describe how this data has been processed that have been published today in arXiv.

An international team, led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in which the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) participate, has detected a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of GJ 3998, a nearby red dwarf located 59 light-years away. The new planet, named GJ 3998 d, is the third planet found in the system. 

The ALMAGAL survey has been observing and analysing a complete sample of more than 1000 star-forming regions, three to four times more than all previous censuses put together, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) interferometer.

Tony Mroczkowski, currently an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) who will join ICE-CSIC in 2025 as a tenured scientist, obtained funding thanks to the ATRAE programme granted by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in Spain through the State Research Agency (AEI).

The Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) opens registration on March 1st for its 8th Summer School that will take place in Barcelona from 7-18 July 2025. The theme for this edition will be Observational Cosmology, exploring the standard cosmological model and beyond in the era of massive galaxy surveys (Euclid, LSST, DESI, etc).

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s (DESI) early data uncover the largest samples ever of intermediate-mass black holes and dwarf galaxies hosting an active black hole, more than tripling the existing census of both. These large statistical samples will allow for more in-depth studies of the dynamics between dwarf galaxy evolution and black hole growth, and open up vast discovery potential surrounding the evolution of the Universe’s earliest black holes.

Lobster-eye satellite Einstein Probe captured an X-ray flash from a very elusive celestial pair. The discovery, led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), opens a new way to explore how massive stars interact and evolve, confirming the unique power of the mission to uncover fleeting X-ray sources in the sky. The finding has been published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) celebrates its 25th anniversary with the 3-day commemorative conference “Institute of Space Sciences: 25 Years of Discovery and Innovation", that will take place on 3-5 February 2025 at the Residència d’Investigadors in Barcelona, Spain.

On 15 March 2024, Einstein Probe’s Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) detected a burst of low-energy X-rays. Astronomers call such X-rays ‘soft’ even though they are still far more energetic than visible or ultraviolet light. The burst lasted for more than 17 minutes and fluctuated in brightness before fading away again. Such an event is known as a fast X-ray transient (FXRT) and this particular transient was given the designation EP240315a.

A team of CSIC researchers presents the new X-ray observatory that promises to revolutionise the cosmos observation: the NewAthena mission, an observatory that will use multi-messenger astrophysics with two advanced instruments: a detector capable of mapping large sky areas in search of X-ray sources and an integral field unit, which will provide key data on the composition of cosmic objects.

On 7 January 2025, the European Commission established the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), furthering its mission to become the world’s largest and most powerful observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. The creation of the CTAO ERIC will enable the Observatory’s construction to advance rapidly and provide a framework for distributing its data worldwide, significantly accelerating its progress toward scientific discovery.

A new study led by the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Astronomy (IATE), with the participation of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), reveals the presence of a helical magnetic field within the HH 80-81 protostellar jet. This finding mirrors similar structures observed in jets emanating from supermassive black holes and offers compelling evidence supporting a universal mechanism for the collimation of astrophysical jets, regardless of their origin.  It has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.