February 11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day recognised by UNESCO. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 33.3% of scientists are women. This percentage is of the same order of magnitude as that of female researchers at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, which is between 30 and 35% women among its scientific staff. [...]
In 2023, 120 earthquakes and 3 induced earthquakes were located by the Royal Observatory of Belgium in or near Belgium. Six earthquakes were felt by the population near the Belgian territory (Germany). [...]
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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