InSight’s launch: Belgium involvement in a new Martian mission

30 April 2018 – On 5 May 2018, a delegation of scientists from the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) will attend to the launch of InSight, a NASA mission to Mars. [...]

Belgian astronomers help to compile the most detailed 3D map of our Galaxy ever made

On 25 April 2018, the European Space Agency (ESA) announces the largest and most accurate 3-dimensional map of our Milky Way galaxy ever made. Using the Gaia satellite, the position and motion of more than a billion stars was mapped by a consortium of European astronomers, including scientists from the Royal Observatory of Belgium. This map will be a treasure [...]

How good should we expect seismic hazard maps to be?

A team of researchers from the Observatory, in collaboration with the Northwestern University (USA), just published a new study about the theoretical performance of seismic hazard maps in « Scientific Reports ». This study illustrates the difficulty of evaluating the quality of these maps, particularly in stable zones where earthquakes are rare. [...]

An unexpected treasure: 1700 handwritten pages of information on XIXth century earthquakes

1700 handwritten pages of information on XIXth century earthquakes, this is the unexpected treasure discovered by scientists of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and the Cologne University in the record-office of Duisburg (Germany).

The original documents covering the German, Belgian and Dutch border region include letters and most astonishingly formal macroseismic questionnaires of the Prussian authorities that have not been used [...]

Fourteenth European Space Weather Week (ESWW14)

From November 27 to December 1, the 14th European Space Weather Week (ESWW) will be held at Oostende (Kursaal) in Belgium.
The ESWW is one of the main international conferences when it comes to space weather. Already for the 12th time, its organisation is in the hands of the Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence (STCE). Once again, more than 400 scientists, engineers, [...]

A Belgian-French-German team identifies a new application of a seismic method for monitoring underground water resources

Their innovation: using seismic noise generated by oceans and which travel around the world to study tiny changes in seismic wave’s velocity in aquifers. Decrease (or increase) of water resources stored in the underground is coupled with an increase (or decrease) of seismic wave velocities in the geological layers. [...]

50th anniversary of the atomic second

On 13 October 2017, atom-based time measurement will have replaced astronomic-based time measurement for exactly 50 years.
 [...]

World record in the underground laboratory of Membach: A sphere of mass 4 grams has been levitating for 8081 days

On Monday 18th of September 2017, the superconducting gravimeter of the Seismology-Gravimetry service installed at the Royal Observatory of Belgium’s facility in Membach (close to Eupen, eastern Belgium), broke two records: firstly, the gravimeter has been measuring gravitational variations for the longest recorded period at a single location, and secondly, recorded the longest period that an artifact has been levitating [...]

Science & culture at the Palais Royal 2017 – Exhibition “HEAVEN!”

As each year, the Royal Palace in Brussels opens its doors to the public in summer. This year, the visitors will be able to discover the exposition “HEAVEN!”

Royal Palace – Place des Palais/Paleizenplein – 1000 Brussels

Open from 22/07/2016 to 03/09/2016, from 10.30am to 4.30pm (last entrance).
Closed on Mondays
Free admission
Security checks are carried out at the entrance. It is highly recommended [...]

Asteroid discovered by Eric W. Elst of the ROB receives the name Jancuypers

On 30 June 2017, our colleague Dr. Jan Cuypers, who left us on 28 February 2017, was immortalized with the planetoid (23689) Jancuypers.

The announcement was done by the Minor Planet Center and has the following description: “Jan Cuypers (1956–2017) was an astronomer working at the Royal Observatory at Uccle. Involved in several public and astronomical duties at the observatory, he [...]