News archive

News archive

Pushing the Hubble Space Telescope to the limit of its technical ability, an international collaboration of astronomers have found what is likely to be the most distant and ancient galaxy ever seen.
Published: 26 January 2011
Teaming up with other telescopes monitoring the Crab Nebula, ESA's INTEGRAL observatory has made a significant contribution to demonstrating that this source, previously believed to be a standard candle, might not be so reliable, after all. The small, but measurable dimming of what was until now considered to be one of the brightest and, most...
Published: 12 January 2011
Thanks to its broad spectral coverage and very high sensitivity, Planck is peering deep into the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and discovering new components and physical mechanisms taking place therein.
Published: 11 January 2011
The Planck Collaboration presents the first science results to emerge from the mission, covering compact and diffuse foreground emission sources, at a conference this week.
Published: 11 January 2011
The first all-sky survey of galaxy clusters detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect is amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France. The survey, which has benefited from a fruitful collaboration with ESA's XMM-Newton observatory, probes a wide range of cluster masses and other properties, which is unprecedented for a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich sample. Along with the first results enabled by the survey, the Early Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Cluster sample is being publicly released, providing the community with a robust data set for further studies and follow-up observations of galaxy clusters.
Published: 11 January 2011
While targeting the Cosmic Microwave Background, Planck has also captured another important diffuse radiation, the Cosmic Infrared Background, which consists of the light emitted by all galaxies since their formation. This signal, detected by Planck at submillimetre wavelengths, exhibits a high degree of structure and enables astronomers to investigate the still unclear link between star-forming galaxies and the underlying distribution of dark matter, up to the earliest phases of the formation of cosmic structure. This result is amongst the highlights presented by the Planck Collaboration at a conference held from 10 to 14 January 2011 in Paris, France.
Published: 11 January 2011
With its power to detect cosmic material at unprecedentedly low temperatures, Planck has completed the first unbiased, all-sky survey of compact cold and dusty objects in the Milky Way and, at the same time, the first all-sky survey of cool dust in other galaxies.
Published: 11 January 2011
A strange, glowing green cloud of gas that has mystified astronomers since its discovery in 2007 has been studied by Hubble. The cloud of gas is lit up by the bright light of a nearby quasar, and shows signs of ongoing star formation.
Published: 10 January 2011
Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in the most detailed image of M31 ever taken at far-infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows X-rays from dying stars.
Published: 5 January 2011
A recent study concludes that galactic mergers do not usually whet the appetite of the black holes that power these active galactic nuclei.
Published: 5 January 2011
Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in the most detailed image of M31 ever taken at far-infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows X-rays from dying stars.
Published: 5 January 2011
The Space Telescope European Co-ordinating Facility, a unique collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory, will close on 31 December 2010 after 26 years. ESA's continuing partnership with NASA on the Hubble mission ensures that European astronomers will continue to have access to observing time.
Published: 17 December 2010
Hubble has spotted a festive bauble of gas in our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Formed in the aftermath of a supernova explosion that took place four centuries ago, this sphere of gas has been snapped in a series of observations made between 2006 and 2010.
Published: 14 December 2010
Astronomers have exploited the radioactive decay of an isotope of aluminium to estimate the age of stars in the nearby Scorpius-Centaurus association, the closest group of young and massive stars to the Sun.
Published: 26 November 2010
Another milestone in the development of ESA's Gaia spacecraft has been passed with the successful conclusion of two parallel test programmes during October, which demonstrated that the focal plane assembly is structurally and functionally fit for flight.
Published: 23 November 2010
Observing the X-ray-bright gas in the halo of the Milky Way, ESA's XMM-Newton has gathered new data which favour a process involving fountains of hot gas in our Galaxy.
Published: 19 November 2010
Astronomers using early data from one of the largest projects to be undertaken with Herschel have demonstrated that virtually all bright sub-millimetre galaxies in the distant Universe are subject to gravitational lensing.
Published: 4 November 2010
Using Hubble to obtain the most accurate measurements yet of star motions at the heart of Omega Centauri, a globular cluster in the Milky Way, astronomers have now calculated how these stars will move over the next 10 000 years
Published: 26 October 2010
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.
Published: 14 October 2010
The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), a major instrument due to fly aboard the James Webb Space Telescope, is getting its first taste of space in the test facilities at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the United Kingdom.
Published: 30 September 2010
8-Nov-2024 08:26 UT

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