Press Releases
November 2008
26 November 2008 - ESA
European Ministers inject new impetus to ensure space's role as a key asset in facing global challenges
The Ministers in charge of space activities in the European Space Agency's 18 Member States and Canada today concluded a successful two-day Council meeting in The Hague, agreeing to undertake new initiatives in several fields and endorsing the next phases of a set of ongoing programmes.
25 November 2008 - ESRF
The ESRF launches an ambitious Upgrade Programme
More than ten thousand scientists across Europe will profit from new investments in the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) approved today. Over the next seven years, unique new experimental facilities for research with X-rays will come into operation. This decision, taken by the ESRF Council, representing the 19 countries financing the ESRF, confirms Europe's vision to expand its global leadership in photon science.
25 November 2008 - ESO
Europe Unveils 20-Year Plan for Brilliant Future in Astronomy
Astronomy is enjoying a golden age of fundamental, exciting discoveries. Europe is at the forefront, thanks to 50 years of progress in cooperation. To remain ahead over the next two to three decades, Europe must prioritise and coordinate the investment of its financial and human resources even more closely. The ASTRONET network, backed by the entire European scientific community, supported by the European Commission, and coordinated by the CNRS, today presents its Roadmap for a brilliant future for European astronomy. ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope is ranked as one of two top-priority large ground-based projects.
24 November 2008 - EMBL
EMBL and PerkinElmer announce corporate partnership to support EMBL Advanced Training Centre
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences, a global leader in life science research, drug discovery and cellular science, today announced that they have entered into a corporate partnership in support of EMBL's Advanced Training Centre in Heidelberg, Germany.
21 November 2008 - ESA
New ISS crews: First European to become ISS Commander and next European long-term flight
ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is set to become the first European Commander of the International Space Station. De Winne, from Belgium, will fly to the Station in a Soyuz spacecraft in May 2009 with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, which will bring the total number of crew on the ISS up to six for the first time.
21 November 2008 - ESO
Beta Pictoris planet finally imaged?
A team of French astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have discovered an object located very close to the star Beta Pictoris, and which apparently lies inside its disc. With a projected distance from the star of only 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, this object is most likely the giant planet suspected from the peculiar shape of the disc and the previously observed infall of comets onto the star. It would then be the first image of a planet that is as close to its host star as Saturn is to the Sun.
20 November 2008 - EMBL
Uncovering secrets of life in the ocean
Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] and the Max Planck Institute [MPI] for Developmental Biology now explain the remarkable ability of marine zooplankton to swim towards light.
18 November 2008 - ESO
Astronomers detect matter torn apart by black hole
Astronomers have used two different telescopes simultaneously to study the violent flares from the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way. They have detected outbursts from this region, known as Sagittarius A*, which reveal material being stretched out as it orbits in the intense gravity close to the central black hole.
18 November 2008 - ESA
Ministers meet to define the role of Space in delivering global objectives
Ministers in charge of space activities within the now 18 ESA Member States and Canada will meet in The Hague (the Netherlands) on 25 and 26 November to implement the European Space Policy, setting out the start of future programmes and taking decisions on the next phases of on-going programmes.
11 November 2008 - ESO
APEX reveals glowing stellar nurseries
Illustrating the power of submillimetre-wavelength astronomy, an APEX image reveals how an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps that are the birthplaces of new stars. Submillimetre light is the key to revealing some of the coldest material in the Universe, such as these cold, dense clouds.
6 November 2008 - ESA
Universal Declaration of Human Rights flies into space
60 years after its adoption by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris on 10 December 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is ready to take a journey into space: destination the International Space Station, and more specifically, ESA's Columbus laboratory.