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| Titan Flyby - 28 May 2008 |
| Wednesday, 28 May, Cassini returns to Titan for the mission's forty-fifth targeted encounter with Saturn's largest moon: Titan-44. The closest approach occurs at 08:24:32 UTC, at an altitude of 1400 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 12.4° N and the encounter occurs on orbit number 69. |
| Date: 27 May 2008 |
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| Call for White Papers for Exo-Planet Roadmap Advisory Team |
ESA has convened an expert body, the Exo-Planet Roadmap Advisory Team, with a mandate to recommend to the agency a roadmap leading to the long term goal of detecting biomarkers in Earth-like exo-planets in the habitable zone, and imaging such planets. The EPR-AT will consult with the broad scientific community in order to solicit input for their report to ESA. The Call for White Papers, issued today, is the first step in this consultation process.
The deadline for receipt of the White Papers has passed. |
| Date: 26 May 2008 |
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| Call for Payload Study Consortia for Cosmic Vision M-class Missions |
| ESA has issued a "Call for Declarations of Interest in Science Instrumentation" for the M-class Cosmic Vision mission, Euclid. Prospective Principal Investigators are invited to submit proposals outlining the composition of nationally funded consortia to carry out assessment level studies. Responses are due by 16:00 CEST on 11 July 2008.
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| Date: 23 May 2008 |
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| New exoplanets detected by COROT |
| The COROT team has detected two new exoplanets and a new type of object. These discoveries were announced this week at the IAU Symposium on Transiting Planets. |
| Date: 22 May 2008 |
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| Venus Express provides first detection of hydroxyl in atmosphere of Venus |
| The VIRTIS instrument on Venus Express has made the first detection of hydroxyl in the atmosphere of Venus. This provides new insight into the dynamics of the upper atmosphere and the climate system of the planet. The results are published in the May 2008 issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics. |
| Date: 15 May 2008 |
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| Ulysses team honoured at SpaceOps 2008 |
| The Ulysses Mission Operations Team has received the 2008 International SpaceOps Award for Outstanding Achievement. |
| Date: 13 May 2008 |
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| AKARI (ASTRO-F) Post-Helium Phase Announcement of Opportunity |
| Dear Colleague,
I am pleased to invite you to respond to the "Announcement of Opportunity" to submit proposals for observations to be performed with AKARI in its Post-Helium phase. |
| Date: 13 May 2008 |
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| The Antennae Galaxies found to be closer to us [heic0812] |
| New research on the Antennae Galaxies using the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows that this proto-typical pair of interacting galaxies is in fact much closer to us than previously thought - at 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years. |
| Date: 09 May 2008 |
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| Titan Flyby - 12 May 2008 |
| Monday 12 May, Cassini returns to Titan for the mission's forty-fourth targeted encounter: Titan-43. The closest approach occurs at 10:01:58 UT, at an altitude of 1000 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 17.1° N and the encounter occurs on orbit number 67. |
| Date: 09 May 2008 |
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| NASA's WMAP poses for ESA's Gaia |
| Sebastien Bouquillon (SYRTE/Obs. de Paris), Ricky Smart (INAF/OATo, Torino) and Alexandre Andrei (Observatorio Nacional, Rio de Janeiro) have used the 2.2m telescope of the European Southern Observatory at La Silla, Chile, to take several photographs of NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite in its orbit, which is about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Perhaps surprisingly, they did so as part of the preparations for ESA's Gaia mission, which scientifically is totally unrelated to WMAP. |
| Date: 08 May 2008 |
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| Call for Payload Study Consortia for Cosmic Vision M-class Missions: Cross-Scale, Marco Polo, Plato, and Euclid |
The deadline for this call has now passed.
On 5 May ESA issued a "Call for Declarations of Interest in Science Instrumentation" for the M-class Cosmic Vision mission studies Cross-Scale, Marco Polo, and Plato. A similar call for the M-class mission study Euclid followed on May 23. Prospective Principal Investigators are invited to submit proposals outlining the composition of nationally funded consortia to carry out assessment level studies.
Responses to the calls for Cross-Scale, Marco-Polo, and Plato are due by 16:00 CET on 30 June 2008. The responses to the call for Euclid are due by 16:00 CET on 11 July 2008. |
| Date: 05 May 2008 |
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