A new research study presents a method to obtain images that trace the Hα (H-alpha) emission of nearby galaxies in an automated and precise way. These maps show the areas where new stars are forming and visualize their distribution across galaxies, revealing differences by location and galaxy mass. This automated method will enable the detailed study of thousands of galaxies in the local universe.

CEFCA astrophysicists link internationally significant projects, such as Gaia, a census of 2 billion stars in the Milky Way, and the Vera Rubin telescope in the Chilean desert, with research based on data from the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory. Their latest advances are being presented at the European Astronomical Society forum, which is being held until Friday in Cork (Ireland) and brings together 1,500 researchers from 60 countries.

An algorithm developed by researcher Andrés del Pino now applies Bayesian neural networks to data from the J-PLUS project. The aim is to robustly classify the astronomical objects detected by the survey and thus differentiate stars, quasars and galaxies. The research has been published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

An article, led by CEFCA researcher Carlos López San Juan, focuses on those that are used for exoplanetary geology: white dwarfs with metals from the accretion of material from their planetary system. The research raises the contribution of the J-PLUS survey, developed from the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ), which now allows us to determine how the detection of these stars varies as they cool. The work has been published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The Point Spread Function (PSF) quantifies the distribution of light scattered by the combined effects of the atmosphere, telescope, and instrument. Most research to date has focused on the central few arcseconds of the PSF. However, extending this analysis to several arcminutes would enable the removal of scattered light produced by dominant stars, which often obscure astrophysical sources. This issue was highlighted by a team of CEFCA researchers at the latest meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society. The extent to which light can be scattered from an astronomical source is illustrated by the "blue sky" effect. In optical observations, the PSF provides a quantitative measure of this scattering. While most surveys consider only the core region of the PSF (a few arcseconds), this narrow focus limits the ability to remove scattered light from bright sources. Such light dominates the image and interferes with the observation of fainter astrophysical features.

The J-PLUS survey, carried out from the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre, provides new data on 6,000 white dwarfs of the Milky Way

During the meeting, J-PLUS DR2, with almost twenty million objects, will be released to the international community

CEFCA, responsible for the construction and operation of the telescope and the instrumentation with which the survey is carried out, also leads the scientific production

The J-PLUS First Data Release amounts 1022 square degrees and includes scientific information of more than thirteen million of celestial objects, from asteroids to distant galaxies, including Milky Way stars.

CEFCA announces worldwide open access to the Early Data Release (EDR) of the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey. This EDR consists of 18 J-PLUS pointings at different locations of the sky, observed in the twelve J-PLUS photometric optical bands, overall amounting to 36deg2. We provide access to the J-PLUS catalogues with photometric data in all the twelve bands for more than 400.000 astronomical objects, together with the actual FITS images and proper masks to avoid bright stars and other undesired areas.

After an intense period of fine tuning and optimization tasks developed by the OAJ/CEFCA Team, systematic observations with T80Cam@JAST80 have started. The telescope–camera system is in optimal performance, reaching normally seeing-limited images. So far, a best gaussian FWHM of 0.63”(+/-0.09”) over the 2deg² focal plane of T80Cam has been recorded.

The twelve filters of the J-PLUS survey have been integrated into T80Cam, the scientific camera which is installed in the JAST80 telescope of the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre.