News archive

News archive

A Viking galaxy found by Hipparcos shows how the Milky Way grew
A dozen ancient stars, scattered all over the sky, are survivors from asmall galaxy that invaded the Milky Way like a shipload of Vikings. TheEuropean Space Agency's Hipparcos satellite, which measured the motionsof many thousands of stars, enabled astronomers from Leiden in the Netherlands and Garching in Germany to make this astonishing discovery.It provides clear evidence in favour of the theory that great assembliesof stars, like the Milky Way Galaxy where we live, grew by theamalgamation of smaller galaxies.
Published: 4 November 1999
INFO 15-1999: ISO sees the golden age of galaxy formation
The Milky Way is a fairly quiet galaxy now, but some thousands of millions years ago it was quite a different story. ESA's infrared space observatory, ISO, has taken pictures of the 'golden age' of galaxy formation, the epoch when galaxies were taking the shape we see now, and has unveiled more than a thousand very active young galaxies in which non-stop star-formation machines are at work. The results, being presented at a workshop at Ringberg Castle in Germany (8-12 November 1999), show that the ancestors of today's galaxies were much more active than hitherto thought, with many more stars being born.
Published: 4 November 1999
Now showing: live from the Sun ... to your computer
A new computer screen saver made available by the European Space Agencynow allows computer users to watch spectacular, almost real-time imagesof our Sun.
Published: 4 November 1999
Now showing: live from the Sun ... to your computer
A new computer screen saver made available by the European Space Agencynow allows computer users to watch spectacular, almost real-time imagesof our Sun.
Published: 4 November 1999
PR 43-1999: Reaching out to youth. And the winners are.....
In recent weeks ESA has been actively promoting a series of activities addressing the younger generation, in a concerted effort to stimulate their interest in space and involve as many young Europeans as possible in the Agency's activities. To celebrate the launch of ESA's XMM X-ray telescope in December, for instance, two competitions for European schools were announced in September: "Draw me a Telescope" and "What's new, Mr Galileo ?"
Published: 29 October 1999
Returns to Mercury - EGS April 2000
A special session dedicated to the planet Mercury and its scientific exploration will be held at the European Geophysical Society General Assembly, 25-29 April 2000, Nice, France.
Published: 29 October 1999
Cluster II team visits the Baikonour catacombs
For the last four decades, thousands of rockets have taken off from thelaunch pads atBaikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, but few Westerners have had theopportunityto see the facilities at close quarters. During a recent visit to the oncesecretcosmodrome, members of the Cluster II project management team andrepresentativesof industry were given a VIP tour of the Soyuz launch complex. (*) Nextsummer, thissite will be a scene of frenetic activity as the four Cluster II satellitesare carried intoorbit in dual Soyuz launches.
Published: 27 October 1999
Beagle 2 leaps technical hurdle
The Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, is technically ready to go to the nextstage. That is the conclusion of two reviews held in Stevenage, UK lastweek. The reviews' recommendations will go before ESA's Science ProgrammeCommittee (SPC) for endorsement on 10 November.
Published: 26 October 1999
Mars Express Project Scientist goes East and West
Mars Express is the outcome of more than ten years of planning by ESA and the European space science community, Agustin Chicarro, Mars Express Project Scientist told the 30th Symposium on Comparative Planetology in Moscow last week.
Published: 20 October 1999
The "Rotten Egg" nebula - a planetary nebula in the making
The object shown in these ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope images is a remarkable example of a star going through death throes just as it dramatically transforms itself from a normal red giant star into a planetary nebula. This process happens so quickly that it is quite rare to observe such objects, even though astronomers believe that most stars like the Sun will eventually go through such a phase.
Published: 19 October 1999
The next flexi-missions for ESA Science - key briefing on 28 October
ESA's Director of Science has invited proposals for the next flexi-missions of the ESA Science Programme. The briefing for the F2/F3 proposers takes place on 28 October 1999 at ESTEC, in the Copernicus conference room, from 10:00 to 13:00 hours.Each proposer can beaccompanied by a maximum of two co-proposers.
Published: 18 October 1999
From one moon to another with Cassini/Huygens
It is exactly two years since ESA's Huygens Probe set off on its remarkable journey towards Saturn's mysterious moon Titan, aboard NASA's Cassini Orbiter. Since its launch on 15 October 1997, Cassini/Huygens has now travelled 1.863 billion kilometres, and is en route for the final gravity-assist manoeuvre around Jupiter in December 2000.
Published: 15 October 1999
Signature of the Launcher Adaptation Contract for Integral
The contract for the Proton Launcher Adaptation for Integral was signed today at the ESA Permanent Mission in Moscow. This followed the successful completion of a lengthy approval process for the Arrangement between ESA and Russia on Cooperation on the Integral Project.
Published: 14 October 1999
Rosetta rises to meet the challenge
Thousands of scientists, students, industrialists and representatives ofspace agencies flocked to the RAI Congress Centre in Amsterdam this week to attend the 50th International Astronautical Congress. As ever, one of themain areas of interest for the visitors was an update on global unmannedspace exploration.
Published: 8 October 1999
Cluster II collaboration with Chinese discussed
The Cluster II mission to explore near-Earth space has attracted a greatdeal ofinterest from scientists in all parts of the world, not least the Chinese.Apart fromdirect participation in the exciting ESA mission, Chinese researchers arehoping to flytheir own 'mini-Cluster' mission, known as Double Star.Last month a team from ESA, which included Project Manager John Ellwood,ProjectScientist Philippe Escoubet and three scientific principal investigators,spent nine daysin Beijing discussing possible collaboration in Double Star with theirChinesecounterparts from the Centre for Space Science and Applied Research.
Published: 7 October 1999
Mars Express to benefit from 'strong heritage and proven technologies'
The low cost of Mars Express will have "no impact on the mission's success", Philippe Moulinier, Manager of the Division for New Generation Programmes at Matra Marconi Space, Toulouse, told a session of the 50th International Astronautical Congress in Amsterdam on Monday. Moulinier has overall responsibility for the Mars Express contract at MMS, the prime contractor. He was presenting information in support of a talk given by Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager at ESTEC.*
Published: 6 October 1999
Starry bulges yield secrets to galaxy growth
The Hubble Space Telescope is uncovering important new clues to a galaxy's birth and growth by peering into its heart - a bulge of millions of stars that resemble a bulbous centre yolk in the middle of a disk of egg white. Hubble astronomers are trying to solve the mystery of which came first: the stellar disk or the central bulge? Two complementary surveys by independent teams of astronomers using Hubble show that the hubs of some galaxies formed early in the Universe, while others formed more slowly, across a long stretch of time.
Published: 6 October 1999
Final Mars Express science working team meeting before building starts
The scientists who are building instruments for Mars Express met in ESTEC last week for the final science working team meeting before the spacecraft and instrument designs are frozen at the end of the year. Over the next few weeks, each instrument and the spacecraft itself will undergo a "preliminary design review" (PDR), which marks the end of the design phase (Phase B) before construction (Phase C) begins early next year. The meeting was an opportunity for the science team to discuss progress on resolving the few remaining hardware design issues and to move on to the difficult task of planning the mission and science operations in detail.
Published: 5 October 1999
SOHO's new software works perfectly - scientists and engineers overjoyed
Much to the elation of scientists, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is back in top gear with its newly installed software running flawlessly. "Everything is just perfect," said Bernhard Fleck, SOHO ProjectScientist. "These engineers have been absolutely fantastic. They puttogether a completely new flight software in less than a year undertremendous pressure. They have been great and this is a tremendousachievement."
Published: 5 October 1999
Mars Express team leaders launch on to conference circuit
Rudi Schmidt and Agustin Chicarro, Project Manager and Project Scientist for Mars Express, have a busy month ahead explaining the mission's philosophy and goals at the season's most prominent conferences. Mars Express - ESA's approach to the implementation of a small mission will be the subject of Schmidt's talk to the International Astronautical Federation's (IAF) 50th Anniversary Congress* in Amsterdam next week. Chicarro will outline the mission's scientific goals at the 30th Symposium on Comparative Planetology* in Moscow, also next week, and at the Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS)* in Padova, Italy the following week.
Published: 1 October 1999
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