WiseNight 2025 Festival at the Planetarium
On 26 September 2025, come to the free WiseNight festival at the Planetarium of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. [...]
19
Sep 25
News
10
Sep 25
Webb reveals new details of the Butterfly Nebula
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details in the core of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. From the dense, dusty torus that surrounds the star hidden at the centre of the nebula to its outflowing jets, the Webb observations reveal many new discoveries that paint a never-before-seen portrait of a dynamic and structured planetary nebula. Those new [...]
01
Jul 25
Proba-3: top experts on coronagraphy meet at the Royal Observatory of Belgium
The 11th Science Working Team meeting of the ESA Proba-3 mission recently took place at Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB). The world’s top experts on coronagraphy, the technique to observe the solar corona by blocking the light of the solar disk, like during a total eclipse, met there for three days. Our colleague Andrei Zhukov, the principal investigator of the [...]
27
Jun 25
Tiny Solar Bursts Show Pulses Like Big Flares
New findings from the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft reveal that even the tiniest bursts of activity from the Sun may behave like their larger counterparts.
The Sun constantly produces tiny flashes of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission in its outer atmosphere, known as the corona. These flashes, called EUV brightenings, are small, short-lived bursts of energy that appear all over [...]
20
Jun 25
Soapbox Science 2025: female scientists take the floor at the heart of Brussels
On Saturday 28 June 2025, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., twelve female researchers from all over Belgium will be sharing their passion and knowledge in a fun and accessible way at the Carrefour de l’Europe/Europakruispunt. [...]
17
Jun 25
First artificial eclipse image of Proba-3
This is the image of the duo-satellite Proba-3 making solar eclipses, just released by the European Space Agency, ESA. [...]
12
Jun 25
First view of the solar poles with EUI
Thanks to a push from planet Venus earlier this year, the orbit of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft was tilted. A century ago mankind raced to explore the poles of the Earth, now Solar Orbiter made its way to the poles of the Sun. For the very first time the solar poles have been imaged! [...]
14
May 25
5 years of EUI magic
May 12, 2020 – The 3 telescopes of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard Solar Orbiter opened their doors to capture images of the Sun.
May 12, 2025 – Almost 1 million images of the Sun have been made and put in the EUI data treasure chest to be used for groundbreaking research. [...]
17
Apr 25
Solar Orbiter Workshop at the Observatory
On 8, 9 and 10 April 2025, the Royal Observatory of Belgium welcomed 85 leading solar physicists, in person and online, to participate in an international workshop on the future of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission.
Through presentations and group discussions, the science of three instruments (EUI, Metis and SPICE) was reviewed in detail. A special session was held on the [...]
27
Mar 25
Follow the Solar Eclipse of March 29, 2025
A partial solar eclipse will take place on Saturday, 29 March 2025 and will be visible in Belgium. Instruments of the Royal Observatory of Belgium will observe it. If the weather permits it, there will also be an observation event at the Planetarium. [...]