Véronique Dehant, winner of a FNRS Quinquennial Prize

On 14 September 2020, the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) awarded Véronique Dehant, researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the Dr. De Leeuw-Damry-Bourlart Prize in Fundamental Exact Sciences, one of the FNRS Quinquennial Prizes. These prizes reward researchers from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
Link (in French): https://www.frs-fnrs.be/fr/l-actualite-fnrs/1243-le-fnrs-recompense-l-excellence-de-la-recherche-et-decerne-ses-5-prix-quinquennaux-2020 [...]

December 2019 confirmed as starting point of the new solar activity cycle

The reference date and amplitudes of the minima and maxima of the 11-year solar cycle are established on the base of the sunspot number maintained and distributed by the SILSO World Data center since 1981 at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

Over past years, the rather weak cycle that had peaked in 2014 has been progressively declining, heralding the approach of [...]

25 years of continuous measurements of gravity in Membach

On August 4, 2020, the superconducting (or cryogenic) gravimeter has been measuring for 25 years the variations of gravity with the precision of one hundredth of a billionth (10-11) of g (g = 9.81 m/s²). [...]

COVID-19 pandemic causes seismic noise quiet period in 2020

Research published in the journal Science has shown that lockdown measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 led to a 50% reduction in seismic noise observed around the world in early to mid 2020. [...]

The exhibition Science & Culture at the Royal Palace 2020 goes virtual

The 2020 edition of Science & Culture at the Royal Palace will not take place in situ. The Federal Science Policy invites you to an original virtual tour, revisited and adapted to the particular circumstances. [...]

First images of the telescope EUI released

The first images made by the telescope EUI onboard the space mission Solar Orbiter are released. The EUI instrument, under Belgian lead, discovered campfires on the Sun.
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The telescope EUI onboard of the space mission Solar Orbiter put further steps towards ‘looking at the Sun’, despite COVID-19

The telescopes of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard Solar Orbiter opened their doors on May 12 2020 to photograph the Sun. This ‘First Light’ is a milestone, but also a critical step where many things can go wrong. The teams of scientists and operators are forced to work and communicate remotely.
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Asteroids did not bring oceans to Venus

Within an EoS (Excellence of Science) project, Véronique Dehant, researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, participated in a study on the formation and the evolution of the atmosphere of Venus under the influence of asteroid impacts. This study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, concluded that the asteroids that contributed to the end of the accretion of Venus, and [...]

14 April 2020 Read more...