Perseverance: 3 years of Martian adventures
3 years ago, on February 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero crater on Mars. The mission teams – more than 500 scientists and engineers worldwide – are […]
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New clues to mysterious radio signals from deep space
Thanks to two NASA X-ray telescopes, an international team of scientists involving the Toulouse-based Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP/OMP – CNES/CNRS/UT3) has been able to observe a […]
DORN instrument heads for the Moon
The DORN (Detection of Outgassing RadoN) instrument, dedicated to measuring radon on the Moon’s surface, was developed at IRAP-OMP. It will be on board China’s Chang’E6 lunar mission, scheduled for […]
Final months for the Cluster mission, after 24 years of success in space
After 24 years of space operations, during which they have greatly advanced our understanding of the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind, the first […]
Electromagnetic mapping of auroral emissions from Jupiter’s moons updated by Juno
Jupiter’s intense magnetic field gives rise to the largest magnetosphere in the solar system. Within it, the movement of ions and electrons is governed by the magnetic field. A precise […]
The future of scientific meetings
Professional travel to events such as conferences and meetings represents a significant part of the carbon footprint of astronomical research, as can be seen, for example, in IRAP’s greenhouse gas […]
Go-ahead for EnVision mission
ESA’s Science Program Committee (SPC) has just approved the start of development of the EnVision mission, dedicated to the study of Venus as part of the Cosmic Vision program’s M5 […]
Discovery of an extrasolar system including a cool sub-Neptune
Since the first discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun in 1995, over 5000 exoplanets have been detected. However, small, light planets orbiting far from their […]
Watch out for changing stellar magnetic fields
The 11-year solar activity cycle is a well-known phenomenon, during which the intensity of the Sun’s magnetic field varies and its polarities reverse. Over the past 30 years, astronomers have […]