In 2019, 45 earthquakes and 14 induced earthquakes were located by the Royal Observatory of Belgium in or near Belgium. One earthquake, one induced event and one quarry blast were felt in Belgium. The largest event occurred on 23 June 2019 in Dessel (Belgium, ML=2.1). No damages have been reported this year in Belgium. [...]
Nervia and Eburonia are the new official names of the star HD49674 and its exoplanet. This was decided by the 1300 participants in the Belgian vote, whose purpose was to determine the winning proposal among the four pre-selected name pairs. [...]
Sébastien Le Maistre, researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, will receive the Georges Vanderlinden Prize from the Royal Academy of Belgium (Science Class). This distinction, which will be awarded to him on Saturday December 14, rewards his years of research in data processing for Martian missions. [...]
Brussels/Antwerp, 7 November 2019 – The Belgian instrument LaRa (Lander Radioscience) is accepted for integration on the Kazachok platform of the ExoMars 2020 mission. [...]
On November 2, the ESA satellite PROBA2 will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. Not too bad for this small Belgian spacecraft that was initially intended for a two-year mission! [...]
Solar scientists from the Royal Observatory of Belgium launched the citizen science project Val-u-Sun. This project, open to everyone, allows citizens to help research by counting sunspots from their archive. [...]
Brussels, 18 October 2019 – Ever closer to the Sun! The instrument EUI (Extreme Ultraviolet Imager) is integrated into the Solar Orbiter satellite to be launched towards the Sun in February 2020. Today, Solar Orbiter can be seen for the last time before being shipped to Cape Canaveral, the launch site. [...]
A special report from international experts was released on October 10, 2019, to explain the challenges of space weather and to provide a set of recommendations against radiation hazards in space. David Berghmans, of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, is a co-author of the report. [...]
On Friday October 11, 2019, the European Research Council (ERC) announced the award of new grants to European researchers (ERC Synergy Grants). Among the laureates is Dr. Véronique Dehant, researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium for the project GRACEFUL: GRavimetry, mAgnetism and CorE Flow. [...]
An international team of professional and amateur astronomers, which includes Alex Lobel, astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, has determined in detail how the temperature of four yellow hypergiants increases from 4000 degrees to 8000 degrees and back again in a few decades. They publish their findings in the professional journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. [...]