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| New roadmap to guide ESA in search for exoplanets |
| The idea of other planets hidden in the vastness of space has long captured human imagination and there has been a recent explosion in the number of exoplanets discovered, with the total fast approaching 500. As the research community heads towards this milestone, ESA called on them for recommendations on how the Agency could build upon this success. The result is a recently published roadmap from the Exoplanet Roadmap Advisory Team (EPR-AT), which looks at the future of the field and how to reach their ultimate, long-term goal: finding an Earth-like planet with possible signatures of life. |
| Date: 28 Oct 2010 |
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| Hubble data used to look 10 000 years into the future [heic1017] |
| Astronomers are used to looking millions of years into the past. Now scientists have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to look thousands of years into the future. Looking at the heart of Omega Centauri, a globular cluster in the Milky Way, they have calculated how the stars there will move over the next 10 000 years. |
| Date: 26 Oct 2010 |
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| Picometre precision demonstrated by LISA Pathfinder tests |
| A European team working on the LISA Pathfinder mission has completed an extensive series of ground tests on the spacecraft's optical payload. The tests successfully achieved - for the first time on a spacecraft instrument - the incredible precision that will be required to confirm the existence of gravitational waves. |
| Date: 21 Oct 2010 |
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| Are most pulsars really magnetars in disguise? |
| Astronomers using XMM-Newton and other world-class X-ray telescopes have probed a curious source, which emits flares and bursts just like a magnetar but lacks the extremely high external magnetic field typical of these objects. The detection of this source, which could be powered by a strong, internal magnetic field hidden to observations, may mean that many 'ordinary' pulsars are dormant magnetars waiting to erupt. |
| Date: 14 Oct 2010 |
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| Hubble finds that a bizarre X-shaped intruder is linked to an unseen asteroid collision [heic1016] |
| An international team of astronomers has observed what happens after asteroids crash together. Using Hubble to study the aftermath of one such collision over five months, they watched a strange, comet-like debris trail slowly evolve as the collision site orbited the Sun. This research gives clues about how asteroids behave when they collide, and how the fall-out from these impacts contributes to the dust that pervades the Solar System. |
| Date: 13 Oct 2010 |
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| Hubble and Rosetta unmask nature of recent asteroid wreck |
| High-resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope and a rare view obtained, from a unique perspective, by the Rosetta spacecraft provide a comprehensive picture of P/2010 A2, a puzzling body in the asteroid main belt. Although similar in appearance to a comet, this object and its diffuse trail have been exposed as the remnant of an asteroid crash that happened only one and a half years ago. These observations, reported in the 14 October issue of Nature, provide the first direct evidence for a recent collision in the asteroid belt. |
| Date: 13 Oct 2010 |
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| SOHO sheds new light on solar flares |
| After detailed analysis of data from the SOHO and GOES spacecraft, a team of European scientists has been able to shed new light on the role of solar flares in the total output of radiation from our nearest star. Their surprising conclusion is that X-rays account for only about 1 per cent of the total energy emitted by these explosive events. |
| Date: 12 Oct 2010 |
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| Venus Express probes the planet's atmosphere by flying through it |
| ESA's Venus Express is exploring the density of the Venusian upper atmosphere by measuring how much the planet's atmosphere itself slows down or twists the pointing of the spacecraft. New density measurements, centred on the Northern Pole and obtained during these atmospheric drag experiments, show an unexpected inhomogeneous pattern in the atmosphere of our neighbouring planet. These latest results from the Venus Express Atmospheric Drag Experiment are being presented, this week, at the 42nd annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society held in Pasadena, California. |
| Date: 07 Oct 2010 |
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| Laurels for Cluster-Double Star teams |
| The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has decided to award The Laurels for Team Achievement Award to the Double Star/Cluster Team. The official ceremony took place in Prague, Czech Republic, on 26 September, in the margin of the International Astronautical Congress. |
| Date: 04 Oct 2010 |
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| 2nd ExoMars Industry Day 2010 |
The 2nd ExoMars Industry Day, held on 23 September 2010 at the ALTEC facilities in Italy, was attended by 170 participants, representing 80 companies from 14 countries, including the USA and Canada. |
| Date: 01 Oct 2010 |
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| Apply now for the ESA/GTTP teacher training workshop 2010 |
| The European Space Agency invites science teachers to apply for a place on the ESA/GTTP Teacher Training Workshop 2010 that will take place on 7 - 10 December 2010 at the NEMO Science Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A limited number of places are available for this hands-on workshop. The deadline for receipt of applications is 09:00 on 18 October 2010. |
| Date: 01 Oct 2010 |
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