Using ESA’s Herschel space observatory, astronomers, including Peter van Hoof, Griet Van de Steene and Martin Groenewegen, have discovered that the molecule OH+, vital for creating water exists in planetary nebulae, the burning embers of dying Sun-like stars.
Their results are the subject of an ESA press release. [...]
Two strong solar flares appeared on 10 June. The consequences for Belgium are limited for the time being.
More information can be found here. [...]
The ESA website shows the first spectra as observed by the Gaia satellite.
Astronomers of the ROB are involved in the reduction and calibration of these spectra. [...]
ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer has revealed the largest yellow star — and one of the ten largest stars found so far. This hypergiant has been found to measure more than 1300 times the diameter of the Sun, and to be part of a double star system, with the second component so close that it is in contact with the [...]
If comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) survives its close pass to the Sun after November 28, it could become a very bright object in the morning skies in the beginning of december.
ISON is named for the Russia-based International Scientific Optical Network, in which the comet’s discoverers, Artyom Novichonok and Vitali Nevski, were participating when they observed the comet for the first [...]
More than 350 scientists, satellite and network operators worldwide gather in Antwerp to discuss the theme Space Weather during the tenth edition of the “European Space Weather Week” (ESWW). During this international congress, they address the question how vulnerable and at the same time how resilient the society is during severe space weather. Research into the causes of solar storms, [...]
On Wednesday, 3 April 2013, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence (STCE) will present a new European Space Weather facility to the media.
The centre is being developed as part of ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Programme. [...]
Elodie Gloesener, PhD student on the IAP (Interuniversity Attraction Pole) TOPERS Planet (Planets: Tracing the Transfer, Origin, Preservation, and Evolution of their ReservoirS), won the Odissea prize for her work in the frame of a Master in Space Sciences at the University of Liège on methane and clathrates of Mars (Promotor Veronique Dehant & Ozgur Karatekin). She studied the temperature [...]
Attilio Rivoldini, planetary scientist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, won a competition of the Class of Sciences of the Belgian Royal Academy. His work was sent as an answer to a request for “an original contribution, experimental or theoretical on the physics of planets and moons of the solar system”. [...]
A team of scientists including Dr. Alex Lobel of the ROB, reported they have finalized a thirty years long investigation of a hypergiant star. In that period the surface temperature of this gigantic and extremely bright star quickly rose from five to eight thousand degrees. With this discovery a crucial ‘missing link’ in the evolution of hypergiant stars has been [...]