13 June 2022 – Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) announces the most detailed Milky Way survey to date. The third data release of the Gaia satellite provides a wealth of information on the stars and other celestial objects that make up our Milky Way. Belgian astronomers, including scientists from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, contributed to the Europe-wide consortium [...]
A new book on the Sun has just been published in French, and its author, Frédéric Clette, is a researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Inspired by his career and his experience in popularising science, he presents us, in this book intended for a wide readership, a global panorama of the Sun, its multiple influences on our planet and [...]
On March 26, 2022, the Solar Orbiter satellite came closer to the Sun than ever before. A particularly exciting moment. The images of this closest approach -the perihelion-, taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on board will revolutionize solar physics!
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Two Belgian researchers, including Thomas Lecocq from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, are participating in an international collaboration on the eruption of the Hunga volcano (Tonga archipelago) of 15 January 2022, the largest explosion since Krakatau in 1883. This study has just been published on Thursday 12 May 2022 in the journal Science.
On 15 January 2022, the Hunga[1] volcano (Tonga [...]
Measuring gravity and seismic vibrations of the ground makes it possible to observe extreme events such as the catastrophic floods that hit East Belgium in July 2021. A team of researchers led by Michel Van Camp of the Royal Observatory of Belgium has demonstrated, with gravity and seismic data from the Membach station, the importance of these measurements for understanding [...]
On April 13, 2022 at 3:20 am, we commemorated the 30th anniversary of the 1992 Roermond (NL) earthquake. [...]
On 7 March, 2022, the high-resolution telescope of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft made a mosaic image of the solar disk. Over a period of more than 4 hours, the satellite aimed at different positions each time capturing a small square of the Sun at very high resolution. These images were then stitched together like [...]
This light artwork brings you closer to the sun than ever before!
Marvel at the beauty of our closest star with this lifelike representation of the sun. A 3D projection with state-of-the-art telescope images on a gigantic hanging 6-meter diameter balloon shows 10 weeks of the life of our Sun. Smoke and sound effects complete the unique experience. This spectacular piece [...]
The Management Committee of Belspo (Belgian Science Policy Office), composed of ten federal scientific institutions (RMI, RBISA, ROB, KBR, State Archives, RBINS, RMCA, RIAP, RMAH and RMFAB) Belnet and the central administration, joins the numerous expressions of support from the Belgian and international scientific community regarding the armed conflict in Ukraine.
We wish to express collectively our full and complete solidarity [...]
On February 15, 2022, an immense cloud escaped from the Sun. The space telescope EUI onboard the Solar Orbiter satellite could capture the solar cloud while it was hurled into space. EUI followed the solar cloud over a distance of 3,5 million kms. Never before could a single telescope image the journey of a solar cloud from the early start [...]