News archive

News archive

2003 missions will go to Mars with Christmas spirit
In two year's time, the planet Mars will receive a Christmas present from planet Earth - a flotilla of spacecraft. Gifts from different nations, the spacecraft will share communications channels to solve a problem which will intensify as Mars exploration gathers pace: how to relay the data gathered by so many missions back to Earth.
Published: 20 December 2001
European scientists invited to participate in MICROSCOPE
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the French space agency, CNES, solicit proposals from European scientists to participate in the MICROSCOPE mission. Responses to the Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for science contributions to this collaborative CNES/ESA mission to test the Equivalence Principle are due by 22 February 2002.
Published: 20 December 2001
Ulysses gets a new partner in the hunt for the source of gamma-ray bursts
After a lonely nine months, Ulysses has a new partner in gamma-ray burst detection. On 21 November, the ESA/NASA spacecraft in orbit high above the Sun's poles, and Mars Odyssey, NASA's spacecraft recently arrived at the Red Planet, detected their first gamma-ray burst together.
Published: 17 December 2001
Students follow in the footsteps of scientists - ESA/ESO astronomy exercises provide a taste of real astronomy [heic0117]
The "ESA/ESO Astronomy Exercise Series", published today, allows students to gain exciting hands-on experience in astronomy by making realistic calculations with data obtained by the world's best telescopes. The students measure and calculate the distances and ages of astronomical objects, among the most basic problems in modern astrophysics, using observations made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's Very Large Telescope.
Published: 13 December 2001
Wish upon a shooting star - the Geminids meteor shower peaks tonight
Meteor watchers in Europe may be compensated for missing last month's splendid Leonid meteor storm when the annual Geminids shower peaks in the early hours of Friday morning. Up to 100 shooting stars per hour may be visible if observing conditions are good.
Published: 12 December 2001
Cluster quartet probes the secrets of the black aurora
Anyone living near the Arctic Circle will be familiar with aurorae, the legendary red and green curtains that illuminate the long winter nights. Much less familiar is the mysterious 'black aurora', a strange electrical phenomenon that produces dark, empty regions within the visible Northern and Southern Lights.
Published: 10 December 2001
New twists to the inside story of the Sun
At a conference in San Francisco last night, scientists using the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft to probe the solar interior reported surprising new details about what goes on beneath the dark sunspots that blemish the Sun's bright face. What was previously thought to be a single broad tube of hot, strongly magnetized gas, rising towards the surface beneath a spot, turns out on closer examination to be many smaller magnetic structures that rise quickly from deep within the Sun.
Published: 10 December 2001
Rosetta reunion as Lander is delivered and mated
The Rosetta Lander, designed to be the first spacecraft in the history of space exploration to make a soft-landing on the icy nucleus of a comet, has now joined its 'mother craft' at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.Over the coming months, the two elements of the most ambitious mission ever to explore a comet will undergo a complex test programme to prepare them for their eight-year trek to the depths of the Solar System.
Published: 5 December 2001
Exploring the digital Universe with Europe's Astrophysical Virtual Observatory [heic0115]
A new European initiative called the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO) is being launched to provide astronomers with a breathtaking potential for new discoveries. It will enable them to seamlessly combine the data from both ground- and space-based telescopes which are making observations of the Universe across the whole range of wavelengths - from high-energy gamma rays through the ultraviolet and visible to the infrared and radio.
Published: 4 December 2001
First image and spectrum of a Dark Matter object [heic0116]
Astronomers have observed a Dark Matter objectdirectly for the first time. Images and spectra of a MACHO microlens -a nearby dwarf star that gravitationally focuses light from a star inanother galaxy - were taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope andthe European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The result isa strong confirmation of the theory that a large fraction of DarkMatter exists as small, faint stars in galaxies such as our Milky Way.
Published: 4 December 2001
First X-ray view of Venus!
X-ray emission has been detected from far-flung galaxies and exotic stellar objects in the Universe. But it is also observed from celestial objects much closer to home - even within our Solar System.
Published: 29 November 2001
Astronomy helps advanced medical diagnosis techniques
While developing devices to capture X-rays from objects in space, scientists at the European Space Agency have designed a camera that could become a powerful new weapon in the fight against cancer.
Published: 27 November 2001
Huygens passes communications test with flying colours
After five days of extensive tests, engineers and scientists on both sides of the Atlantic are confident that ESA's Huygens Probe will be able to fulfil its exciting mission to explore Saturn's giant satellite, Titan. The tests, which took place 16 - 21 November, were required to check out the all-important communications link between Huygens and NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Published: 26 November 2001
Mapping the ingredients of an exploded star
Probably the most detailed analysis of the composition and dynamics of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia-A has been presented at the symposium 'New Visions of the X-ray Universe in the XMM-Newton and Chandra era' which is taking place this week at the European Space Agencys Technology and Research Centre, ESTEC, Noordwijk in the Netherlands.
Published: 26 November 2001
ESA hosts major international X-ray symposium
In the two years since ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra space telescopes opened their eyes to the X-ray Universe, the world's X-ray astronomers have been busy analysing and interpreting the data from both observatories. This week the XMM-Newton and Chandra scientific communities are meeting in the Netherlands for perhaps the most important symposium since the two observatories were launched in 1999.
Published: 22 November 2001
ESA receives IBIS gamma-ray imager after successful calibration
After six years of sometimes painfully difficult development, the construction of the world's largest and most sensitive gamma-ray imaging camera has finished. Following calibration tests in Milan, the fully assembled IBIS telescope has now been transported from Italy to ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands to be integrated on the INTEGRAL spacecraft.
Published: 20 November 2001
ESA scientists listen to the Leonids
Although leaden skies over northern Europe last weekend were a disappointment to most avid meteor watchers, scientists at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands are happily recounting their successful Leonid observations. The reason for their delight is that, despite the cloud blanket that obscured the familiar glowing meteor trails, they were able to detect numerous radio echoes from the famous swarm of shooting stars.
Published: 19 November 2001
SOHO's latest surprise: gas near the Sun heading the wrong way
Mysterious clouds of gas falling towards the Sun have been spotted with the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft. They go against the fast-moving streams of gas that pour out continuously into space, in the solar wind. In today's issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, the scientists who found them suggest that the inflows are due to frequent local adjustments to the Sun's magnetic field. The discovery promises a better understanding of the sources of the solar magnetism that envelops the Earth, quarrels with our own planet's field, and to some extent protects us from cosmic rays coming from the stars.
Published: 19 November 2001
Leonids over the Caribbean: an on-the-spot report
Every year the Earth ploughs through the trail of tiny dust particles left in space by Comet Temple-Tuttle. These dusty motes collide with the Earth's atmosphere where they meet a fiery fate - to burn up as meteors in the upper layers.
Published: 18 November 2001
Rosetta orbiter rolls into the Netherlands
A little more than one year from now, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will be speeding through space at many thousands of kilometres per hour. In comparison, the orbiter's stately journey across Europe this week was fairly unspectacular, but the implications for the Rosetta programme are immense.
Published: 18 November 2001
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