Press Releases - October 2006
Archive
31 October 2006 - ESA
New Hubble Servicing Mission to upgrade instruments
After more than a decade of fascinating discoveries, the Hubble Space Telescope will soon be given the new beginning it deserves. Today, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has given the green light for a Shuttle mission to repair and upgrade the permanent space-based observatory.
31 October 2006 - CERN
Antiprotons Four Times More Effective than Protons for Cell Irradiation
A pioneering experiment at CERN with potential future application in cancer therapy has produced its first results. Started in 2003, ACE (Antiproton Cell Experiment) is the first investigation of the biological effects of antiprotons.
23 October 2006 - ESA
ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang gets ready for next Shuttle mission - Opening of media accreditation for NASA sites
With NASA's launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on flight STS-116 scheduled for the night of Thursday 7 to Friday 8 December at 01:38 GMT (02:38 CET) at the earliest, ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang of Sweden is set to become the first citizen of a Nordic country to fly to the International Space Station.
22 October 2006 - ESO
Extremely Large Telescope Project Selected in ESFRI Roadmap
In its first Roadmap, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) choose the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), for which ESO is presently developing a Reference Design, as one of the large scale projects to be conducted in astronomy, and the only one in optical astronomy. The aim of the ELT project is to build before the end of the next decade an optical/near-infrared telescope with a diameter in the 30-60m range.
20 October 2006 - ESRF
The ESRF's Upgrade Programme features in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap
On 19 October 2006 the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures presented the first ever European Roadmap for Research infrastructures. The document presents 35 large-scale research infrastructure projects, identified as being of key importance for the development of European science and innovation. One of these projects is the ESRF upgrade programme, planned for the next five to ten years.
19 October 2006 - ESA
Europe's new MetOp weather satellite reaches polar orbit
For 28 years, Europe has been operating its famous Meteosat weather satellites in geostationary orbit. Today, they were joined by the first of a brand new generation of meteorological satellites. MetOp is designed to provide a closer view of the atmosphere from low earth orbit, delivering data that will improve global weather prediction and enhance our understanding of climate change.
19 October 2006 - ESO
The Star, the Dwarf and the Planet
Astronomers have detected a new faint companion to the star HD 3651, already known to host a planet. This companion, a brown dwarf, is the faintest known companion of an exoplanet host star imaged directly and one of the faintest T dwarfs detected in the Solar neighbourhood so far. The detection yields important information on the conditions under which planets form.
19 October 2006 - CERN
New Experiment to Investigate the Effect of Galactic Cosmic Rays on Clouds and Climate
A novel experiment, known as CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets), begins taking its first data today with a prototype detector in a particle beam at CERN, the world's largest laboratory for particle physics. The goal of the experiment is to investigate the possible influence of galactic cosmic rays on Earth's clouds and climate. This represents the first time a high energy physics accelerator has been used for atmospheric and climate science.
16 October 2006 - ESA
European space loses leading figure
It is with great regret that we announce the death of Michel Bignier, which occurred on 12 October.
A leading figure in the space world, and a former Director General of CNES from 1972 to 1976, he was Director of ESA's Spacelab programme from 1976 to 1980, and then Director of Space Transport Systems at ESA until 1986.
6 October 2006 - EMBL
Giving European science a headstart through training
Today, the German Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan, breaks ground for the new training and conference centre for the life sciences that will be built on the EMBL campus in Heidelberg.
4 October 2006 - ESO
Increasing the Odds of the Sweep
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the extrasolar planet status of two of the 16 candidates discovered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. One of the two confirmed exoplanets has a mass a little below 10 Jupiter masses, while the other is less than 3.8 Jupiter masses.
2 October 2006 - ESO
Stellar Vampires Unmasked
Astronomers have found possible proofs of stellar vampirism in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, they found that some hot, bright, and apparently young stars in the cluster present less carbon and oxygen than the majority of their sisters. This indicates that these few stars likely formed by taking their material from another star.
2 October 2006 - CERN
Stephen Hawking Tours the Future of Particle Physics at CERN
Stephen Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Cambridge University and best-selling author of A Brief History of Time, has paid a week long visit to CERN in Geneva - the world's largest centre for particle physics.