On Mars 12 2025, at 13:51 (Belgian local time), the ESA Hera mission for planetary defence made a close flyby of the planet Mars and its moons Deimos and Phobos. Scientists took the opportunity to study Deimos, photograph Mars and Phobos and calibrate Hera instruments. Scientists from Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) take part in the data analysis of the [...]
Recent restrictions on science and scholarship brought by the new US administration executive orders have prompted the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) to respond with a statement calling for their members, partners and like-minded organisations to take a stand to safeguard academic freedom and the autonomy of scientific institutions. The Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) endorses [...]
Brussels, 17 February 2025 – A recent five-year study has uncovered new insights into the properties of Yellow Hypergiants, a heavy star class known for their dramatic outbursts. Scientists focused on Rho Cassiopeiae (Rho Cas), HR 8752, and HR 5171A, revealing that Rho Cas exhibits cyclical outbursts every 10 to 40 years, with large fluctuations of its surface temperature. Alex [...]
Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Let’s put those in the research fields of the Royal Observatory of Belgium in the spotlight. [...]
Previous studies posited that the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs was caused by large volumes of sulfur released from rocks within the Chicxulub crater following the asteroid impact. A new paper published in the journal Nature Communications questions this scenario. The authors, including Cem Berk Senel and Özgür Karatekin of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, used groundbreaking empirical [...]
Over a period of 10 years and a half (which is 2 times the mission’s nominal duration), Gaia has provided more than a million of gigabytes of data for some 2 billion objects in the sky. At this stage, it has already had a significant impact on our knowledge of the structure, composition and dynamics of the Milky Way. [...]
In 2024, 141 earthquakes were located by the Royal Observatory of Belgium in or near Belgium.
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How many earthquakes were experienced in your municipality?
In 2024, the Seismology and Gravimetry section of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) published a new paper presenting an overview of a century of felt earthquakes in Belgium. Compiling the seismic impact on Belgium was rendered possible by reviewing all testimonies of the Belgian population to the ROB on how they experienced [...]
On Saturday 14 December 2024, Jérémy Rekier of the Royal Observatory of Belgium was awarded the Mailly Prize by the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. His colleague Sébastien Le Maistre, from the same institute, won the prize in the 2024 annual competition of the Class of Sciences. [...]
Earthquakes in Europe and Minor Asia from 284 to 1550
In 2024, the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) published a new book in historical seismology, written by Pierre Alexandre and Dominique Alexandre-Lamotte. In this work 2,489 critical sources and a catalogue containing 1,507 earthquakes that took place in the Middle Age and Renaissance are presented. The book is free to download. [...]