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| Hubble finds a new contender for galaxy distance record [heic1103] |
| Pushing the Hubble Space Telescope to the limit of its technical ability, an international collaboration of astronomers have found what is likely to be the most distant and ancient galaxy ever seen, whose light has taken 13.2 billion years to reach us (a redshift of around 10). |
| Date: 26 Jan 2011 |
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| Europa Jupiter System Mission: Presentations from fourth instrument workshop now available |
| The fourth instrument workshop for the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), a candidate L-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision science plan, was held on 26-29 July 2010 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, California, USA. |
| Date: 24 Jan 2011 |
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| ISSI Call for Proposals 2011 for International Teams in Space Science (incl. Geosciences) |
Announcement
The International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland, invites proposals for establishing International Teams to conduct on its premises research activities in Space Sciences, based on the interdisciplinary analysis and evaluation of data from spacecraft and possible integration with ground data and theoretical models. For the purpose of this Call, Space Sciences include the Solar and Heliospheric Physics, Solar-Terrestrial Sciences, Space Plasma and Magnetospheric Physics, Planetary Sciences, Astrobiology, Cosmology, Astrophysics, Fundamental Physics, and Earth Sciences. |
| Date: 18 Jan 2011 |
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| ESA's Mercury mapper feels the heat |
| Key components of the ESA-led Mercury mapper BepiColombo have been tested in a specially upgraded European space simulator. ESA's Large Space Simulator is now the most powerful in the world and the only facility capable of reproducing Mercury's hellish environment for a full-scale spacecraft. |
| Date: 18 Jan 2011 |
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| The Crab Nebula: standard candle no more? |
| Teaming up with other telescopes monitoring the Crab Nebula, ESA's INTEGRAL observatory has made a significant contribution to demonstrating that this source, previously believed to be a standard candle, might not be so reliable, after all. The small, but measurable dimming of what was until now considered to be one of the brightest and, most importantly, the steadiest source in the high-energy sky calls for a re-examination of how X-ray and gamma-ray observations are calibrated. |
| Date: 12 Jan 2011 |
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| Planck sees new, mysterious components in Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds |
| Thanks to its broad spectral coverage and very high sensitivity, Planck is peering deep into the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and discovering new components and physical mechanisms taking place therein. The results emerging from Planck's first all-sky survey include strong evidence for the presence of extremely rapidly spinning dust grains, an excess emission explained in terms of a previously poorly quantified 'dark gas' and the characterisation of an excess emission arising from the interstellar medium that permeates the Small Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy orbiting our own Milky Way. These are amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. |
| Date: 11 Jan 2011 |
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| Planck's first science results and the release of an extensive compact source catalogue |
| The Planck Collaboration presents the first science results to emerge from the mission, covering compact and diffuse foreground emission sources, at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. These results are accompanied by the release of the first Planck product to be publicly distributed: the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, a highly robust compilation of compact sources detected in each of the telescope's nine channels. Eagerly awaited by the scientific community, the catalogue contents span a wide variety of astronomical sources, and also includes a sample of galaxy clusters detected through the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and a list of cold molecular cloud cores distributed throughout the Milky Way. |
| Date: 11 Jan 2011 |
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| Planck's successful hunt probes galaxy clusters on very broad mass range |
| The first all-sky survey of galaxy clusters detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect is amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. The survey, which has benefited from a fruitful collaboration with ESA's XMM-Newton observatory, probes a wide range of cluster masses and other properties, which is unprecedented for a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich sample. Along with the first results enabled by the survey, the Early Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Cluster sample is being publicly released, providing the community with a robust data set for further studies and follow-up observations of galaxy clusters. |
| Date: 11 Jan 2011 |
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| Planck sees traces of early structure formation in the cosmic infrared background |
| While targeting the Cosmic Microwave Background, Planck has also captured another important diffuse radiation, the Cosmic Infrared Background, which consists of the light emitted by all galaxies since their formation. This signal, detected by Planck at submillimetre wavelengths, exhibits a high degree of structure and enables astronomers to investigate the still unclear link between star-forming galaxies and the underlying distribution of dark matter, up to the earliest phases of the formation of cosmic structure. This result is amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. |
| Date: 11 Jan 2011 |
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| Planck traces the coldest objects in the nearby Universe |
| With its power to detect cosmic material at unprecedentedly low temperatures, Planck has completed the first unbiased, all-sky survey of compact cold and dusty objects in the Milky Way and, at the same time, the first all-sky survey of cool dust in other galaxies. These extensive data sets allow astronomers to shed new light on the earliest phases of star formation. The public release of the Planck Early Cold Core Catalogue will offer the community a large number of new, cold galactic targets to be studied with other telescopes, including ESA's Herschel Space Observatory. These are amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. |
| Date: 11 Jan 2011 |
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| Hubble Zooms in on a Space Oddity [heic1102] |
| A strange, glowing green cloud of gas that has mystified astronomers since its discovery in 2007 has been studied by Hubble. The cloud of gas is lit up by the bright light of a nearby quasar, and shows signs of ongoing star formation. |
| Date: 10 Jan 2011 |
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| ESA spacecraft model magnetic boundaries |
| European scientists have used observations from ESA's Cluster and Venus Express spacecraft to improve models of the interaction of Earth and Venus with the solar wind, the perpetual stream of electrically charged particles emitted by the Sun. This has implications for understanding the effects of charged particles on orbiting spacecraft. |
| Date: 07 Jan 2011 |
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| Sun, Moon and Earth line up for PROBA-2 |
| ESA's PROBA-2 microsatellite experienced a conjunction of the spheres on Tuesday, as the Sun, Moon and Earth all lined up in front of it. |
| Date: 06 Jan 2011 |
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| Andromeda's once and future stars |
| Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. |
| Date: 05 Jan 2011 |
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| Identity parade clears cosmic collisions of the suspicion of promoting black hole growth [heic1101] |
| What happens when galaxies crash together? For years, these cosmic collisions have been blamed for triggering violent outbursts at the hearts of galaxies. Now, a remarkable piece of detective work has given a verdict: galactic mergers do not usually whet the appetite of the black holes that power these active galactic nuclei, meaning other, less dramatic phenomena are responsible. |
| Date: 05 Jan 2011 |
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| Andromeda's once and future stars |
| Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. |
| Date: 05 Jan 2011 |
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