On the night of 5-6 December, a very special package landed in the South Australian desert region of Woomera. It contained samples of dust brought back from asteroid Ryugu, after a long journey by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. These tiny grains of material should...
The TARANIS satellite is scheduled to launch from Kourou (French Guiana) in November in order to study the luminous phenomena that occur above thunderstorms. The objective of the French mission, which will for the first time carry out an exhaustive, long-term...
This year’s CNRS Gold Medal has been awarded to Françoise Combes. Her work as an astrophysicist has enabled her to identify molecules in the far reaches of the Universe and unveil the secrets of galaxies and dark matter, making her one of the leading...
Virgo and LIGO have just announced the detection of gravitational waves produced by the oldest and most massive source ever observed. The discovery reveals the existence of a class of black holes that had never before been detected, and could explain how...
The Mars 2020 mission is scheduled to launch at the end of July. Its goal is to land the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet and collect samples in the hope of finding signs of past life.
The Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter for nearly four years, shedding light on the dynamics and internal structure of the gas giant. CNRS News takes a look at the first results from...
The internationally renowned astrophysicist Patrick Michel has recently been appointed head of the Hera space mission, which will analyse the effects of the collision of the Double Asteroid...
The LSST, or Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is about to conduct a 10-year survey of the sky. It will deliver a 500 petabyte set of images and data products that will address some of the most...