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Discovery and extent of CO₂ and CO ices across the trans-Neptunian region

4 weeks 1 day ago

A large observing program of the James Webb Space Telescope has recently provided the first comprehensive view of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), the small primitive bodies of the outer solar system, orbiting beyond Neptune, from which some comets originate. Observations of 59 objects obtained with the NIRSpec instrument have been analyzed by an international research team involving the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale. The infrared spectra reveal the first-ever detections of CO₂ and CO ices on small bodies in the outer solar system.

BISOU moving into Phase A

1 month 12 hours ago

On May 28, CNES has officially confirmed the balloon-borne project BISOU for Phase A. The study will be carried out over the next two years and marks a transformational step towards an ambitious space-borne CMB spectrometer in the ESA Voyage 2050 program.

 

James Webb finds plethora of carbon molecules in disks around very low-mass stars

1 month 1 week ago

An international research team involving scientists from IAS and other laboratories has just revealed the chemical composition of a disk of matter rotating around a young star, where new planets are forming. The results reveal the largest number of carbon-containing molecules observed to date in such a disk, and have implications for the potential composition of planets that could form around this star. These results, published in the journal Science, were obtained as part of the MIRI instrument's guaranteed time program, developed by a consortium of laboratories in Europe and the USA and involving the IAS.

First tests of LiteBIRD MHFT prototype detectors at the IAS

1 month 1 week ago

As part of its programme, carried out over several years, to study the effects of cosmic rays effects on highly sensitivity cryogenic detectors, the IAS has developed the DRACuLA (Detector irRAdiation Cryogenic faciLity for Astrophysics) system for measuring the response of this type of detector to the impact of particles such as protons or alpha particles.

MicrOmega is ready to analyze Bennu samples

1 month 3 weeks ago

Since December 2020, the near-infrared hyperspectral microscope MicrOmega, developed by IAS, took part in the analyzes of the samples returned from the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission. Thanks to test campaigns, with IAS participation, this high-performance instrument is now ready to analyze samples from the Bennu asteroid, brought back by OSIRIS-REx.

Euclid unveils its first scientific results

1 month 4 weeks ago

The first scientific results from Euclid, the European space cosmology mission, were unveiled on Thursday May 23, 2024: 15 scientific papers, including 5 general ones about the space mission, its instruments and processing, and 10 on the first astrophysical observations. These first observations and articles confirm Euclid's performances, and mark the start of the “Euclid era” for cosmology. The nominal mission will last 6 years, with partial data delivery within 1 year, and the first data delivery within 2 years.

The Horsehead Nebula revealed by JWST

2 months 4 weeks ago

The Horsehead Nebula has been discovered in the visible range as a dark cloud appearing in extinction at the edge of a giant molecular complex in Orion. It is a photo-dominated region (PDR) illuminated by a massive star. It is of great interest to astrophysicists, as it is the ideal object for understanding the interactions between UV radiation emitted by stars and interstellar matter, the way radiation propagates inside dense clouds, and the impact of radiation on matter (photo-evaporation, ionization, dissociation, fragmentation, heating, etc.).

Start of the integration phase of the flight model cameras on the PLATO Optical Bench at Oberpfaffenhofen site of OHB System

4 months 2 weeks ago

How many earth-like planets orbit the habitable zone of solar-like stars? How planets form and evolve in their planetary systems? What about the interaction with their stars? These are among the questions the ESA PLATO mission is called to answer, through exquisite measurements of exoPLAnet Transits and Oscillations of stars (you now know the origin of the PLATO acronym). The “transit” measurements yield information on the size of the planets, while the “stellar oscillations” give us the mass and age of the stars, which in turn are fundamental to assess the mass and age of the hosted planets. The exquisite quality of all such measurements is secured by 26 ultra large field-of-view cameras that make the eyes of the PLATO mission.

The James Webb Space Telescope witnesses an Earth oceans’ worth of water destroyed every month

5 months 1 day ago

An international team, involving scientists from IAS, IRAP, ISMO and LERMA, has shed light on the destruction and reformation of a large quantity of water in the planet-forming disk “d203-506” located at the heart of the Orion Nebula. This discovery was made possible by an original multidisciplinary approach that combines observations from the JWST space telescope and quantum physics calculations. The study, carried out as a part of the PDRs4All¹ Early Release Science (ERS) program and led by Marion Zannese, a PhD student at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, has been published in Nature Astronomy.

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