Successful test campaign for the GRASS instrument
The GRASS (GRAvimeter for Small Solar system bodies) instrument developed within the ESA Hera mission has recently undergone a successful environmental test campaign.
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May 23
News
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May 23
Véronique Dehant Elected by the National Academy of Sciences
On May 2, 2023, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States of America announced the election of its new members. Dr Véronique Dehant, researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, was elected as an international member. [...]
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Apr 23
The core-transiting seismic waves unveil the properties of the Martian core
Seismology has been used as a means of exploring the Earth’s interior for over a century. With the recent detection of Mars quakes by the seismometer of the InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission, scientists can now probe the Martian deep interior. [...]
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Apr 23
Official launch of the EPOS Data Portal for Solid Earth Sciences
The platform “EPOS Data Portal”, the first and only pan-European research infrastructure for Solid Earth Sciences, is being presented at the EGU General Assembly 2023 (April 25, 2023). The EPOS Data Portal will allow scientists, students and stakeholders to access multidisciplinary scientific data and products, promoting open science research to better understand Earth system dynamics. The Royal Observatory of Belgium [...]
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Apr 23
Exhibition ‘Seas and Oceans’: a collaboration between artists and scientists
From April 21 to June 25, 2023, the ‘Seas and Oceans’ exhibition will be held at Talk C.E.C., located in the former Demeuldre buildings in Brussels (Ixelles). Several researchers of the Royal Observatory of Belgium have collaborated with artists to create immersive works linking art and science. [...]
05
Apr 23
JUICE: Exploring the Icy Moons of Jupiter
On 13 April 2023 at 14:15 Belgian time, the ESA spacecraft JUICE will take off on board an Ariane 5 launcher from ESA’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana. After an 8-year-long journey, JUICE, an acronym for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, will investigate Jupiter and its icy moons, with a special focus on Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system. [...]
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Mar 23
Belgian and Indian astronomers celebrated their successful collaboration during their third workshop
After almost 9 years of existence, the Belgo-Indian Network for Astronomy and astrophysics (BINA) celebrated a new milestone with the inauguration of the ILMT (International Liquid Mirror Telescope), located at the Devasthal Observatory in the north of India on 21 March 2023. This event was followed by the third BINA workshop on 22–24 March 2023, in Bhimtal, India. Several scientists [...]
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Mar 23
New type of oscillations discovered on the Sun
The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) telescope aboard the satellite Solar Orbiter was able to observe magnetic loops that shake back and forth very quickly. These vibrations are very small, but are ubiquitous and ever-present. Scientists suspect that it is these movements that heat the environment around the Sun to millions of degrees Celsius. By comparison, the solar surface is only [...]
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Mar 23
The Royal Observatory of Belgium commits to gender equality in science
Although their numbers are increasing, women are still under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and their potential is not sufficiently recognised and taken into account. At the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ORB-KSB), initiatives to promote women in science have been carried out by several collaborators in recent years. In addition, the ORB-KSB has very recently started working on [...]
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Jan 23
A study on the rotation of the Earth’s solid core confuses the media. Scientists of the Royal Observatory of Belgium clarify it
An article in Nature Geoscience on the rotation of the Earth’s core (more precisely its solid inner core) was recently published. However, the media have been misled by the press release of the science journal into thinking that the inner core stopped rotating or was even rotating in the opposite direction to that of the Earth surface, which is not [...]