|
|
| Asteroid named after ESA astronomer, as a reward for his discoveries |
| If you want an asteroid named after you, make a valuable scientific contribution to the study of these rocky mini-planets of the Solar System. That is what 32 year old ESA astronomer Thomas Müller did, and now the International Astronomical Union has rewarded him by giving the name 'Thomasmüller' to asteroid number 8793. |
| Date: 17 Feb 1999 |
|
|
| ISO leads our eyes to young and small star |
| Why are some stars 'born' with only 10% of the mass of our Sun while at the other extreme, some may have 50 times as much material. |
| Date: 02 Dec 1998 |
|
|
| ISO unveils a violent early universe |
| In astronomy, looking far into space means also looking back in time. This is what ISO has been doing during its so-called 'deep surveys':
observation programmes to detect the faintest and farthest objects ever seen at infrared wavelengths.
|
| Date: 28 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| ISO establishes that half of all young stars have protoplanetary discs |
| Most young stars are surrounded by discs of dust and gas which in a few
million years will probably condense to form planets. This is one of the
results presented today during the international ISO meeting being held in
Paris this week, "The Universe as seen by ISO". |
| Date: 23 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| 'Chained' star-formation in the Trifid nebula |
| The bright massive central star in the spectacular Trifid nebula is
creating a second generation of young stars, in a 'chain reaction' process
that is taking place in less than a hundred thousand years. The occurrence
of such a process had been theoretically postulated, but now for the first
time, the European Space Agency's ISO infrared space telescope is seeing it
in unprecedented detail. |
| Date: 21 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| Benzene in Saturn and the origin of water in giant planets |
| The European Space Agency's ISO infrared telescope has detected for the first time the presence of the molecule benzene in Saturn's atmosphere, an unexpected result that poses now the new problem of having to explain how this molecule has been produced. This is one of the new findings presented today at the international meeting "The Universe as seen by ISO" that is being held this week in Paris and is attended by 400 astronomers. |
| Date: 20 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| Organic matterial surrounding a star |
| A huge ring of organic matter surrounding a young star has been observed by the European Space Agency's ISO space telescope. This is a kind of
structure never detected before. With this finding ISO shows again a clear example of how the stars and their environment work as nature's chemical factories: not only is water being produced there - as ISO demonstrated -, but complex organic molecules are also present; these molecules are, essentially, the basic building blocks of all living organisms. |
| Date: 15 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| ISO detects first-known infrared-bright gravitational arcs |
| The European Space Agency's ISO space telescope has detected the first
known infrared-bright gravitational arcs, which are the distorted and
magnified images of very faraway objects. The gravitational arcs seen by
ISO are revealing some of the farthest objects ever detected in the
infrared, and scientists believe they may be distant young galaxies in
collision. They number more than thirty, and their distance falls close
to the place and time of the Big Bang.
|
| Date: 15 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| ISO unveils the hidden rings of Andromeda |
| The Andromeda galaxy, one of the closest and best-known companions of our
own galaxy, has been hiding from the astronomers' eyes one of its
secrets: although it has always been considered as a typical spiral galaxy, it has now been shown to be a spectacular ringed galaxy. This is one of the observations made by
the European Space Agency's ISO infrared telescope, whose results are being
presented at a meeting in Paris 20-23 October, attended by about 400
astronomers from all over the world.
|
| Date: 15 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 33-1998: The Universe as seen by ISO |
| The latest results from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) are being presented at an International meeting in Paris, 20-23 October. Nearly 400 hundred infrared astronomers will attend the conference. |
| Date: 15 Oct 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 24-1998: ISO sees the pattern in the cosmic wallpaper |
| The European Infrared Space Telescope (ISO) finds a new population of
galaxies, the first objects known to contribute to the background glow
of the universe.
The discovery will help to solve the mystery of galaxy formation. |
| Date: 24 Jul 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 17-1998: ESA switches ISO off |
| The European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was switched off on 18 May at 12:00 UT, thereby bringing to a close the highly-successful in-orbit operations of the ISO mission. |
| Date: 18 May 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 12-1998: ISO finds a very steamy cloud in interstellar space |
| Although ISO observations finished on 8 April, new results continue to pour as astronomers process their ISO data. A team of American astronomers has discovered a large concentration of water vapour in a cloud of interstellar gas close
to the Orion Nebula.
|
| Date: 10 Apr 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 11-1998: ISO completes its observations of the Universe by infrared light |
| ESA's Infrared Space Observatory, ISO, has ended its observational phase, long after the expiry date of the end of May 1997 foreseen in the specifications for the mission. Instead of the required 18 months, the astronomers have been able to use ISO for more than 28 months, and as a result have gathered a wealth of additional information about the Universe. Altogether ISO has made over 26 000 observations of cosmic objects. |
| Date: 09 Apr 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 09-1998: New water and remote galaxies complete ISO's observations |
| Water vapour detected on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and infrared galaxies identified at
immense distances are among the latest results from ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). At a press briefing in London on 7 April, ESA's director of science, Roger Bonnet, said "ISO is one of the most successful
space observatories, and in the infrared it has had no rival." Its discoveries will change
our views on the Universe.
|
| Date: 07 Apr 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 05-1998: European astronomers discover planet formation around dying star |
| Astronomers at the universities of Amsterdam, Louvain, Groningen and Utrecht have found proof that planets can form around old, dying stars. In the vicinity of the Red Rectangle, an old binary star in the Monoceros constellation, they have detected a ring of matter constituting the first stage of planet formation. Their results will be published in Nature on 26 February. It had previously been assumed that planets can form only round new-born stars. |
| Date: 26 Feb 1998 |
|
|
| INFO 37-1997: ISO proves that intergalactic space is dusty |
| ESA's Infrared Space Observatory ISO has detected dust for the first time in apparently empty space between the galaxies. German and Finnish astronomers made the discovery in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, where more than 500 galaxies swarm together in the Coma Cluster. The intergalactic dust is concentrated towards the centre of the cluster. |
| Date: 06 Nov 1997 |
|
|
| INFO 25-1997: ISO Results Presented at International Astronomical Union |
| On 25 August, results from ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) are being presented to the world's astronomers, who have gathered in Kyoto, Japan for the XXIIIrd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union. A full day is being used for a special session containing 18 separate presentations which illustrate the breadth of ISO's influence in astronomy, ranging from deep surveys and cosmology through extragalactic and galactic studies to our own solar system. |
| Date: 14 Aug 1997 |
|
|
| PR 26-1997: Astronomers discover Fluoride Molecules in Interstellar Space |
| A team of astronomers from the United States and Germany has discovered trace amounts of hydrogen fluoride gas in the near vacuum of interstellar space, using the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory satellite, ISO, which was launched in November 1995. |
| Date: 12 Aug 1997 |
|
|
| INFO 21-1997: ISO celebrates its prolonged life with a video of Jupiter |
| The Infrared Space Observatory ISO ought to be running out of fuel by now, 20 months after its launch on 17 November 1995, yet the astronomers and controllers at Villafranca in Spain are busier than ever. Thanks to meticulous engineering and some good fortune, the satellite's working life has stretched from a specified minimum of 18 months to more than 28 months. ESA's unique space telescope for exploring the cool and cloudy Universe by infrared rays should, according to present calculations, remain operational until April 1998. |
| Date: 22 Jul 1997 |
|
|
