News

12 February, 2026

Cheops discovers a late bloomer exoplanet

A team, featuring several researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, published in the prestigious journal Science, the discovery of an exoplanet that defies current planet formation theories Read more

23 December, 202526 January, 2026

Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço is paving the way for research that will open new windows onto the Universe

The MOONS spectrograph, now en route to the Paranal Observatory in Chile, will use newly developed tools recently created by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço Read more

21 October, 2025

NewAthena space telescope will reveal the primordial Universe

Using modern cosmological simulations, a team led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) has predicted that ESA’s future X-ray observatory will detect an unprecedented number of supermassive black holes at the edge of the Universe Read more

15 September, 202515 September, 2025

Black hole with off-the-chart growth discovered in the early Universe

Observed by a team, that includes several researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA), this black hole—containing a billion solar masses—has a growth rate 2.4 times above the expected limit for this type of object Read more

29 July, 202528 July, 2025

First scientific results from the NIRPS spectrograph

More than 140 experts contributed to the project of this new infrared spectrograph, including several Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) researchers Read more

Activities

Upcoming activities

11 February - 8 March

Imagem do dia das mulheres e raparigas na astronomia

International Day of Women and Girls in Astronomy 2026

The Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) and the Planetarium of Porto – Ciência Viva Science Centre (PP-CCV) join the celebrations of the International Day of Women and Girls in Astronomy with a series of videos featuring women researchers from different areas of Astrophysics, showcasing their work and the career options available in this scientific field.

Resources and Contents

O disco da Via Láctea fotografado no deserto do Atacama, no Chile

100 years ago, the Milky Way was displaced from the centre of the Universe

Precisely a century ago, the New York Times newspaper announced that the Andromeda nebula was after all another “island universe”, so big or even bigger than the Milky Way. The Universe had just increased tenfold. Read more

26 November, 202426 November, 2024

Representação artística do exoplaneta K2-18b, mais pequeno que Neptuno, um planeta recentemente observado pelo telescópio espacial James Webb

On breezes never before sailed

With more than five thousand planets already discovered in orbit of other stars, scientists are now launching a new era of surprising discoveries about the exotic atmospheres of these distant worlds. Article by Tomás Silva in National Geographic Portugal. Read more

14 November, 202426 November, 2024

Most detailed map of our galaxy in infrared

Thirteen years of observations led to the most detailed map of Milky Way. Nanda Kumar, an IA collaborator, talked to the podcast Palavra de Cientista about it. Read more

14 November, 2024

Conceção artística de um planeta nómada, ou errante, com a nebulosa NGC 1333 apresentada em fundo. Os planetas errantes, n

In search of the planets that are truly wanderers

They are worlds much like planets, but not towed to a star. Were they born in a cradle of stars, or are they planets thrown out from their orbits and left to their own fortune? Article by Koraljka Mužić in National Geographic Portugal. Read more

14 October, 202426 November, 2024

Cookie	Description
AddThis sharing	IA, in the Outreach area of the website, uses the Oracle AddThis tool set to: help the user share content from this website on other websites and social media platforms; enable IA to customise the contents and functionalities on this website to the interests of its users. In addition, Oracle may use these data for other means as specified in their privacy policy, which can be found here: http://www.addthis.com/privacy/privacy-policy
Google Analytics	IA, in the Outreach area of the website, uses the Goolge Analytics tool set to: enable IA to customise and improve the contents and functionalities on this website to the interests of its users. In addition, Google may associate the data generated through the Analytics tool set on this website to the user browsing experience with the same browser, computer or device in other websites that use this same tool set.
Language preference (Polylang)	IA, on the Outreach area of its website, uses the Polylang tool to: save the language preference of the users, so that they don't have to choose their preferred language every time they visit the website or move to a new page.

Outreach

The Universe at everyone's reach