{nomultithumb} {lang en} This morning Japan launched a new X-ray telescope. With the help of Dutch hardware the ASTRO-H-mission will study high-energy phenomena such as matter sucked in by black holes, turbulency in clusters of milky ways, schockwaves caused by supernova explosions and large-scale structures in the universe. ASTRO-H will also investigate dark matter and …
Category: News items
Renewed webpage Near Asteroids
The international webpage Near Earth Asteroids, a Chronology of Milestones, 1800 – 2200, has a new location. The renewed page is now on line at the site of ESA’s NEO Coordination Centre. The large (100 km) main-belt asteroid (21) Lutetia imaged by the European Rosetta Mission during its close flyby on July 2012 (ESA/OSIRIS Team) …
ASTRO-H launch event on Wednesday
The ASTRO-H launch has been rescheduled by the Japanese space agency JAXA to take place on Wednesday, 17th of February at 9:45 European Time. After the cancellation last Friday, SRON will again organize an event with talks on the importance of the mission and a livestream to witness the launch at SRON. Astro-H JAXA1 Invited …
Einsteins gravitational waves observed for the first time
Wetenschappers hebben voor het eerst rimpelingen in de ruimtetijd, zogeheten zwaartekrachtsgolven, waargenomen. Deze zwaartekrachtsgolven arriveerden op aarde afkomstig van een extreem heftige gebeurtenis in het heelal. Deze eerste meting van zwaartekrachtsgolven bevestigt een belangrijke voorspelling van Albert Einsteins algemene relativiteitstheorie uit 1915 en opent een nieuw venster op de kosmos. Deze figuur, gemaakt met een …
Launch ASTRO-H postponed
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration?Agency (JAXA) have decided to postpone the launch of ASTRO-H from the Tanegashima Space Center, which was originally scheduled for today. Clouds including a freezing layer that exceed the restrictions for suitable weather are forecast to be generated at around the scheduled launch time. In addition, strong …
Dutch instrument measures aerosols from NASA spy plane
Begin februari maakte het Nederlandse instrument SPEX-airborne zijn eerste twee testvluchten met een voormalig spionagevliegtuig van NASA. Snel daarna, op 5 februari, volgde de eerste echte wetenschappelijke vlucht waarbij kleine deeltjes in de aardatmosfeer in kaart werden gebracht. Inmiddels heeft SPEX-airborne al meer dan vijf vluchturen met goed gevolg doorstaan. SPEX-airborne meet het zonlicht dat …
“A Second Earth” revealed in NEMO
Woensdagmiddag 27 januari 2016 is ‘De tweede aarde’ officieel in gebruik genomen in Science Center NEMO. SRON sponsort deze opstelling, die deel uitmaakt van de tentoonstelling ‘Op zoek naar leven’. ‘De tweede aarde’ richt zich specifiek op de leefbare zone rond een ster. Bezoekers kunnen bij de opstelling zelf de positie van een planeet veranderen …
STO-2 loses race against time at Antarctica
{lang en} The balloon mission STO-2 has not been launched from the South Pole. The balloon, which is equiped with Dutch detectors, was scheduled this January to make a circular flight over Antarctica and to observe the universe at an altitude of 40 km. But due to bad weather the balloon could not be launched …
LISA Pathfinder en route to gravitational wave demonstration
{lang en} ESA’s LISA Pathfinder lifted off earlier today on a Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its way to demonstrate technology for observing gravitational waves from space. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime, predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, published on 2 …
In search of the biggest bangs after the Big Bang
On 2 December 2015 the European Space Agency ESA will launch the satellite LISA Pathfinder, an important technology demonstration mission for measuring the gravitational waves in space predicted by Einstein. With gravitational waves scientists expect to be able to make new discoveries about objects such as compact binary stars and merging supermassive black holes, which …
