Latest News
On July 1, Euclid was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral by a Space-X Falcon 9 rocket! The acquisition of the first signals also went according to plan.
The Euclid mission will map the universe, observing thousands of galaxies over the next 6 years, and thus lift the veil on dark matter and dark energy.
The commissioning phase now begins for the next 3 months, providing an opportunity to test the in-flight calibration lamp (calibration unit) developed at the IAS.
An international research team including researchers from IRAP, ISMO and IAS (CNRS and University Paris-Saclay), LERMA, and IPAG, used the data collected by the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope, NASA/ESA/CSA) to detect for the first time the methyl cation (CH₃⁺). This detection has been obtained in the protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star in the Orion Molecular Cloud region, approximately 1300 light years from Earth. This detection is the result of a fruitful collaboration between astrophysicists, astrochemists and spectroscopists, including an essential contribution from laboratory spectroscopists.
Friday June 2nd was the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first ESA probe towards another planet, Mars. A celebration was held at the ESA control center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Several colleagues from IAS were there representing the laboratory and the OMEGA team.
An international research team involving the IAS has just revealed the chemical composition of a disk of matter rotating around a young star, where new planets are forming. The results of this study, led by Benoît Tabone, a CNRS researcher at the IAS, were obtained in the framework of the guaranteed time programme of the MIRI instrument developed by a consortium of laboratories in Europe and the United States.
The launch of the JUICE mission was carried out perfectly thanks to the penultimate Ariane 5, Friday April 14, 2023 at 2:14 p.m. Paris time. The first crucial hours of the mission, which included the first communication signals with the spacecraft, first TC and deployment of the solar panels took place nominally. Direction Jupiter and its icy moons!
