Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale

Nano-diamonds remain an enigmatic component of cosmic dust. A significant fraction of the pre-solar nano-diamonds extracted from primitive meteorites were associated with distant exploding stars (supernovae). While they have been found in many Solar System bodies, they have been detected in only two proto-planetery disks and one evolved star, and they have never been observed in the interstellar medium. Newly-derived nano-diamond optical constants generated with the THEMIS dust model developed at IAS explain why it is hard to observe nano-diamonds in space.

On February 16, the EUI/FSI telescope on Solar Orbiter has observed an impressively large prominence eruption, and traced it up to 6 solar radii, as it was as large as the Sun itself. This type of event can have consequences on technological applications (loss of satellites, degradation of the GPS signal, etc.)

The PARADISE Scientific Interest Group (Platforms for Applied Research and Development Activities in Ground and on board Instrumentation) will join the very closed club of National Research Infrastructures in spring 2022 during the roadmap update process initiated in early 2021. IAS is a founding member of the GIS and has been leading it since its creation in 2017.