In April, the researchers involved in the French-Chinese SVOM space mission presented an update on its initial findings. These provided a number of interesting insights into events that took place in the very earliest days of the Universe. CNRS News takes a...
The Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis is set to launch in 2028. It forms the cornerstone of a planetary defence programme designed to protect our planet from the risk of collision with near-Earth objects.
One hundred years after the death of the French astronomer and populariser of science Camille Flammarion, the CNRS physicist Jean-Philippe Uzan follows in the footsteps of his predecessor’s celebrated book Popular Astronomy, providing us with an accessible...
On 14 September, 2015, the international LIGO/Virgo collaboration detected the very first gravitational wave signal, a tiny distortion of spacetime predicted by Einstein, in this case produced by the merger of two black holes. The CNRS astrophysicist Marie-...
The astrophysicist Jean-Luc Atteia explains why the exceptional gamma-ray burst detected in early October could dramatically change what we know about supernovae and black holes.
Polar auroras are fascinating events that are regularly visible on Earth. Yet do they occur on other planets, such as Mars for example? And if so, how can they be observed? In this report,...
It's off to the Moon. 29 August was to mark the beginning of the Artemis space programme. These lunar exploration missions should lead to the return of a human crew to the Moon by 2027. The goal...