Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale

On the 3rd of December, the Japanese space agency has launched the Hayabusa 2 probe towards a primitive asteroid, named 1999JU3, that it will reach in 2018. This mission aims at analyzing this object in three complementary ways: in remote-sensing, with cameras and spectrometers; in-situ, with instruments on landers; and by laboratory analysis of samples that will be collected on the asteroid and returned to Earth in 2021.

Beginning the 1st December at an international conference in Ferrara (Italy), the Planck collaboration, which involves the CNRS, the CEA, the CNES and several French universities among other institutes, reveals the results of four years of observation by the ESA Planck satellite of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest light in the universe. For the first time, the CMB is accurately measured on the whole sky in both its intensity and polarisation.

After a fascinating sequence, with a descent phase perfectly as planned and an impact at a few tens of metres from the selected site followed by two rebounds, Philae finally stopped in a hollow surrounded by cliffs, in an acrobatic position. It is the first panorama taken by the CIVA cameras developed under IAS responsibility which has demonstrated this, confirming the first major success of the mission: Philae has landed and has operated on the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko!