Singular waves to heat the solar corona
Superoscillations, a surprising wave effect recently discovered in physics, could be one of the mechanisms responsible for dissipating waves in the solar corona and thus for coronal heating. Researchers at […]
PS2E
Physics of the Sun, Stars and Exoplanets
First light for SPIRou, the exoplanet hunter
SPIRou, the new spectropolarimeter and planet hunter developed for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), has successfully collected its first starlight. Ten years after its conception and after four months of intensive […]
Solar tornadoes are not tornadoes!
Against all appearances, the “solar tornadoes” do not turn. This is the conclusion of the work carried out by a team of European researchers including an IRAP astronomer (CNRS & […]
Voyage to the centre of a white dwarf
A stellar heart that defies predictions: this is what reveals the first mapping of the interior of a white dwarf star by an international team led by Noemi Giammichele, a […]
Adoption of the PLATO mission by ESA
The PLATO (Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) planetary mission proposal aims to discover rocky planets around nearby stars similar to our Sun. Selected by ESA in 2014, the mission […]
61 Cyg A : First observation of a magnetic cycle of solar type
Astronomers have long wandered whether the characteristics of the Sun make it a particular object, or just a typical star among many others. After nine years of intensive observations, a […]
A newborn giant planet flying close to its sun
For the last 20 years, the giant planets known as hot Jupiters have presented astronomers with a puzzle. How did they get into orbits 100 times closer to their host […]
Diffusion of the magnetic field by families of granules on the surface of the sun
The sun by its proximity is a unique laboratory whose physical conditions are difficult to reproduce on Earth. The thermodynamic, radiative, magnetic parameters lay within unusual amplitude ranges. The interactions […]
Young Sun-like Star Shows a Magnetic Field Was Critical for Life on the Early Earth
Nearly four billion years ago, life arose on Earth. Life appeared because our planet had a rocky surface, liquid water, and a blanketing atmosphere. But life thrived thanks to another […]