Press Releases
May 2009
29 May 2009 - ESA
Space ministers highlight contribution of space to leading economic recovery through innovation
Ministers in charge of space activities representing the Member States of the European Space Agency and the European Union met in Brussels today for the Sixth Space Council*. Today’s Council was jointly chaired by Miroslava Kopicová, the Czech Republic’s Minister of Education, on behalf of the EU Competitiveness Council, and Mariastella Gelmini, Italian Minister for Education, University & Research and current Chair of the ESA Council at Ministerial Level.
28 May 2009 - EMBL
Sugarcoating fruit fly development
25 years after the first discovery of proteins, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have now gained insight into the role of one of these tags, a small sugar residue, that is found on many different proteins across species.
27 May 2009 - ESA
OasISS mission heading to ISS with ESA astronaut Frank De Winne
ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is heading to the International Space Station at the start of his six-month OasISS mission. Together with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, De Winne launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 12:34 CEST (10:34 UT) today.
25 May 2009 - ESO
Most Efficient Spectrograph to Shoot the Southern Skies
ESO’s Very Large Telescope — Europe’s flagship facility for ground-based astronomy — has been equipped with the first of its second generation instruments: X-shooter. It can record the entire spectrum of a celestial object in one shot — from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared — with high sensitivity. This unique new instrument will be particularly useful for the study of distant exploding objects called gamma-ray bursts.
20 May 2009 - ESO
Giant Galaxy Messier 87 finally sized up
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have succeeded in measuring the size of giant galaxy Messier 87 and were surprised to find that its outer parts have been stripped away by still unknown effects. The galaxy also appears to be on a collision course with another giant galaxy in this very dynamic cluster.
20 May 2009 - ESA
SA prepares for the next generation of human spaceflight and exploration by recruiting a new class of European astronauts
ESA today presented the six individuals who will become Europe's new astronauts. The new recruits will join the European Astronaut Corps and start their training to prepare for future missions to the International Space Station, and beyond.
14 May 2009 - ESA
ESA en route to the origins of the Universe
Two of the most ambitious missions ever attempted to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the Universe got off to a successful start this afternoon with the dual launch of ESA’s far infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
11 May 2009 - CERN
Austrian participation in CERN
This afternoon, a meeting took place in the Ministry of Science and Research in Vienna between Austrian Science Minister Johannes Hahn, CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer, and CERN External Relations Coordinator Felicitas Pauss. In a constructive working meeting, Minister Hahn explained the reasons for wishing to end Austrian membership of CERN at the end of 2010.
11 May 2009 - ESA
ESA presents the new European astronauts at its Paris Headquarters on 20 May
ESA began the search for new astronauts in 2008, calling for applications from talented European citizens who wished to join the European Astronaut Corps to conduct future missions to the International Space Station, and one day to the Moon and beyond.
7 May 2009 - ESA
ESA to launch two large observatories to look deep into space and time
Two of the most sophisticated astronomical spacecraft ever built –Herschel and Planck– will be launched by ESA this month towards deep space orbits around a special observation point beyond the Moon's orbit. From there, both spacecraft will begin a revolutionary observation campaign that will further our understanding of the history of the universe.
6 May 2009 - ESO
First two ALMA antennas successfully linked
Scientists and engineers working on the world's largest ground-based astronomical project, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have achieved another milestone — the successful linking of two ALMA astronomical antennas, synchronised with a precision of one millionth of a millionth of a second — to observe the planet Mars. ALMA is under construction by an international partnership in the Chilean Andes.
4 May 2009 - EMBL
Getting a grip on complexes
Most cellular processes are carried out by molecular machines that consist of many interacting proteins. Their abundance is often too low to extract them directly from cells and generating them with recombinant methods has been a daunting task. A new technology to produce multiprotein complexes, developed by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland, now makes the biologist's life easier.
1 May 2009 - EMBL
Recycler protein helps prevent disease
Recycling is important not only on a global scale, but also at the cellular level, since key molecules tend to be available in limited numbers. This means a cell needs to have efficient recycling mechanisms. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University, Germany, have now uncovered the first step in the recycling of a crucial molecular tag which ensures the instructions encoded in our genes are correctly carried out.