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| INTEGRAL challenges physics beyond Einstein |
| ESA's INTEGRAL gamma-ray observatory has provided results that will dramatically affect the search for physics beyond Einstein. It has shown that any underlying quantum 'graininess' of space must be at much smaller scales than previously predicted. |
| Date: 30 Jun 2011 |
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| Taking ExoMars for a ride |
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| Date: 28 Jun 2011 |
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| Neutron star caught feasting on clump of stellar matter |
| With a stroke of luck, astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory have observed a neutron star in a peculiar X-ray binary system undergoing an extremely rare, intense flare. This outburst of X-rays, which lasted about four hours, was due to a sudden increase in the rate at which the neutron star was accreting matter from its companion, a blue supergiant star. By monitoring this phenomenon in unprecedented detail, the data provide the first, substantive evidence to explain such luminosity variations in this type of binary system; the flare appears to be due to the ingestion of a massive clump of matter by the neutron star. |
| Date: 28 Jun 2011 |
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| Cassini samples the icy spray of Enceladus' water plumes |
| The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission has directly sampled the water plumes jetting into space from Saturn's moon Enceladus. The findings from these fly-throughs are the strongest evidence yet for the existence of large-scale saltwater reservoirs beneath the moon's icy crust. |
| Date: 22 Jun 2011 |
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| Pandora's Cluster - A galactic crash investigation [heic1111] |
| A team of scientists has studied the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster. They have pieced together the cluster's complex and violent history using telescopes in space and on the ground, including the Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's Very Large Telescope. Abell 2744 seems to be the result of a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate galaxy clusters and this complex collision has produced strange effects that have never been seen together before. |
| Date: 22 Jun 2011 |
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| Spectacular Hubble View of Centaurus A [heic1110] |
| The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a close-up view of the galaxy Centaurus A. Hubble's out-of-this-world location and world-class Wide Field Camera 3 instrument reveal a dramatic picture of a dynamic galaxy in flux. |
| Date: 16 Jun 2011 |
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| CoRoT's new detections highlight diversity of exoplanets |
| Ten new exoplanets have been discovered by the European satellite, CoRoT. Confirmed via meticulous, ground-based observations, these exoplanets exhibit a wide variety of masses, densities, orbital parameters and other properties, highlighting the broad diversity of planets around stars other than our Sun. The inventory includes seven hot Jupiters, a planet smaller than Saturn and a system of two Neptune-like objects orbiting the same star. The results have been announced today, 14 June 2011, at the Second CoRoT Symposium held this week in Marseille, France. |
| Date: 14 Jun 2011 |
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| Herschel Announcement of Opportunity for Open Time (OT2) observations |
| The second (and final) in-flight Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for Open Time (OT2) observations with the Herschel Space Observatory has been issued. The OT2 call solicits proposals from the worldwide astronomical community. The deadline for proposal submissions is: 15 September 2011 at 12:00 UT. |
| Date: 10 Jun 2011 |
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| Entry, descent and surface science for 2016 Mars mission |
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| Date: 10 Jun 2011 |
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| Testing ExoMars technology in Martian gravity |
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| Date: 07 Jun 2011 |
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| Michael Perryman awarded prestigious Tycho Brahe Prize |
| Professor Michael Perryman, the scientific leader of ESA's Hipparcos mission, and a founding father of its successor mission, Gaia, has been awarded the 2011 Tycho Brahe Prize from the European Astronomical Society. The prize recognises the extraordinary work accomplished by Perryman in shepherding the field of astrometry to its successful leap into space-based observations and demonstrating the importance of measuring stellar positions for a plethora of astronomical applications. |
| Date: 06 Jun 2011 |
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