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| The Gaia torus is complete |
| At the end of June the Gaia mission passed a significant milestone when the 17 individual segments of the torus, a key structural element of the spacecraft, were brazed into one coherent structure at the BOOSTEC premises at Bazet near Tarbes, France. The successful results of this process were concluded after a Mandatory Inspection Point of the torus on Monday 20 July 2009. |
| Date: 28 Jul 2009 |
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| Hubble captures rare Jupiter collision [heic0909] |
| The checkout and calibration of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been interrupted to aim the recently refurbished observatory at a new expanding spot on the giant planet Jupiter. The spot, caused by the impact of a comet or an asteroid, is changing from day to day in the planet's cloud tops. |
| Date: 24 Jul 2009 |
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| Thermal testing of Gaia's Deployable Sunshield Assembly begins |
| On 11 July the qualification model of the Gaia Deployable Sunshield Assembly (DSA) was installed inside the Large Space Simulator (LSS) at the ESTEC test facilities in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Over the coming days the DSA will undergo a thermal vacuum and thermal balance test in simulated space conditions. The LSS is the only facility in Europe large enough to perform this test. |
| Date: 22 Jul 2009 |
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| Experience a virtual journey to the lunar Peak of Eternal Light |
| The first public showing of 'The Peak of Eternal Light', a new movie created using images taken by ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter, took place on 20 July 2009 at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), Linz, Austria. This movie was shown as part of a special event to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, during this International Year of Astronomy. |
| Date: 22 Jul 2009 |
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| Galactic positron annihilation: not a signal of dark matter? |
| INTEGRAL's all-sky map of the 511 keV line emission has been used to conclude that dark matter is not the origin of galactic positron annihilation, contrary to what had been assumed in past years. In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters Richard Lingenfelter and colleagues argue that no exotic sources are required to explain the spatial and spectral features observed by INTEGRAL. |
| Date: 22 Jul 2009 |
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| Follow the 2009 total solar eclipse with live webcasts and with SOHO |
| The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st Century will take place on 22 July. Totality will be visible from mainland Asia, Japan's Ryukyu Islands and across the Pacific Ocean. This total eclipse will provide a unique and lengthy opportunity for observations of the solar corona from the ground. Many of these observations are relying on simultaneous data to be taken by the ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft which will be monitoring the entire Sun throughout the eclipse. |
| Date: 21 Jul 2009 |
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| A new view of the Apollo 11 landing site from SMART-1 |
| History was made at 03:56 CEST on 21 July 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar module and placed his left foot on the surface of the Moon. During this International Year of Astronomy the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of this inspirational event. The landing site of the Apollo 11 mission is just one of the many images of our closest neighbour taken by the SMART-1 spacecraft as it orbited the Moon between 2004 and 2006. |
| Date: 20 Jul 2009 |
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| Cluster shows how solar wind is heated |
| Using data from the Cluster mission scientists have discovered a mechanism that can account for the heating of the solar wind. Cluster data were used to successfully discriminate between a number of theoretical models and, for the time periods analyzed, a remarkable agreement was found with one model in particular. This result may be applicable in other astrophysical contexts such as the heating of the solar corona. This discovery was highlighted in the 12 June 2009 issue of Physical Review Letters. |
| Date: 16 Jul 2009 |
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| Mars Advanced School in China |
| From 20 - 24 July an ESA-sponsored Mars Advanced School will be held in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China. About 40 graduate and postdoctoral students, as well as researchers, from mainland China and Taiwan, will attend this intensive, five-day course, with expert teaching staff from Europe and China. |
| Date: 15 Jul 2009 |
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| Herschel's 'first light' promises superb science |
| The first images and spectra obtained with the three Herschel instruments (HIFI, PACS and SPIRE) demonstrate their excellent condition and provide a foretaste of the exciting science that is to come. |
| Date: 10 Jul 2009 |
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| ESA’s ‘Touching the Edge of the Universe’ – UK premier |
| On 12 July the English-language premier of 'Touching the Edge of the Universe', a planetarium show developed by ESA and partners, will take place at the UK's first purpose-built planetarium in the Thinktank Science Museum, Birmingham, UK. Two of ESA's major astronomical spacecraft, Herschel and Planck, take the starring role in this new show premiered during the International Year of Astronomy 2009. |
| Date: 09 Jul 2009 |
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| ESA and NASA establish a joint Mars exploration initiative |
| On 29 and 30 June the ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David Southwood met NASA's Associate Administrator for Science, Ed Weiler, in Plymouth, UK, to establish a way for a progressive programme for exploration of the Red Planet. The outcome of the bilateral meeting was an agreement to create a Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) that will provide a framework for the two agencies to define and implement their scientific, programmatic and technological goals at Mars. |
| Date: 08 Jul 2009 |
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| ESA materials bring Herschel and Planck into the classroom |
| To mark the dual launch of two major astronomical spacecraft, Herschel and Planck, ESA has participated in the production of a series of education materials related to these missions. Originally published in collaboration with the respected German astronomy publication Sterne und Weltrum, all materials are now available in English as well as German and are available to download for free from the ESA Education website. |
| Date: 08 Jul 2009 |
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| ESA and NASA establish a joint Mars exploration initiative |
| On 29 and 30 June the ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David Southwood met NASA's Associate Administrator for Science, Ed Weiler, in Plymouth, UK, to establish a way for a progressive programme for exploration of the Red Planet. The outcome of the bilateral meeting was an agreement to create a Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) that will provide a framework for the two agencies to define and implement their scientific, programmatic and technological goals at Mars.
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| Date: 08 Jul 2009 |
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| Planck instruments reach their coldest temperature |
| The extremely low operational temperature of just a tenth of a degree above absolute zero (0.1 K) has been reached on the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument (HFI). This makes the HFI detectors the coldest known objects in outer space. The achievement, seven weeks after launch, marks a key milestone for the Planck mission. The spacecraft's active cooling system has now reached its final operational conditions and the two instruments onboard Planck (HFI and the Low Frequency Instrument, LFI) are now both at their cryogenic operational temperatures. |
| Date: 03 Jul 2009 |
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