On Saturday 16 December 2023, the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium awarded two of its prizes to Dr Orkun Temel and Dr Thibault Merle, two scientists working at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. [...]
On December 19, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of the ESA Gaia satellite.
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The European Geosciences Union (EGU) announced on 16 November 2023 the recipients of its 2024 awards and medals. Véronique Dehant, of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, stood out among her peers as the recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal. This accolade recognizes her outstanding contributions to Earth, planetary, and space sciences. [...]
On Wednesday 8 November 1983, 40 years ago, a medium-sized earthquake shook the city of Liège. This earthquake occurred in the middle of the night at 1:49 am local time (0:49 UTC) and had its epicenter in the commune of Saint-Nicolas, a densely populated municipality west of the city of Liège. This is the last earthquake with significant damage in [...]
The ESA Gaia mission website recently published an image of a planetary nebula, supplemented with three years of data gathered by the satellite. Inside this object, twinkles a blue dot with a very regular pulse of light. This is the mother binary star system of the planetary nebula. Truly a hefty cosmic clock in our galaxy! [...]
Fine dust from pulverized rock generated by the Chicxulub impact likely played a dominant role in global climate cooling and the disruption of photosynthesis following the event. This is suggested by a new study published in Nature Geoscience, in which researchers Cem Berk Cenel, Özgür Karatekin and Orkun Temel of the Royal Observatory of Belgium contributed. [...]
Brussels, 26 October 2023 – The analysis, by a team of scientists involved in the InSight mission, of seismic data recorded on Mars after a meteorite impact that occurred in September 2021 drastically changes our view of the internal structure and evolution of the Red Planet. Based on these results and previous geophysical data, a study published on October 26 [...]
Christine Verbeke, who until recently worked at the space weather prediction centre of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB), is competing in the final of the Flemish PhD Cup.
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Brussels, 10 October 2023 – Today the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Gaia collaboration teams are publishing new data in the form of five Focused Product Releases. The results are very promising, making of this delivery a first teaser of what will be the fourth version of the Gaia catalogue (Gaia DR4), expected by the end of 2025.
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This year marks the 550th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik). To mark the occasion, the Polish Institute Brussels renovated the bust of this famous Polish astronomer in July 2023. [...]