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| New ESA bloggers join the Cosmic Diary |
| The Cosmic Diary is one of eleven cornerstone projects that are taking place around the world during the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Each cornerstone project is centred on a specific theme and the Cosmic Diary is all about what it is like to be an astronomer. Two brand new ESA Cosmic Diaries have just been launched. |
| Date: 26 Feb 2009 |
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| Procedure for equipment purchases |
| The procedure for procurement of equipment through the PRODEX office is now more extensively explained. |
| Date: 26 Feb 2009 |
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| NASA and ESA prioritize outer planet missions |
| At a meeting in Washington last week, NASA and European Space Agency officials decided to first pursue a mission to study Jupiter and its four largest moons, and plan for another mission to visit Saturn's largest moon Titan, and Enceladus. |
| Date: 18 Feb 2009 |
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| 2000 publications: another milestone for XMM-Newton |
| The XMM-Newton mission passes another milestone this month with the publication of its 2000th scientific paper in peer-reviewed scientific journals. This is another indication that the mission continues to be one of the world's foremost astronomical observatories. |
| Date: 17 Feb 2009 |
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| Gaia video processing unit test model delivered |
| The Gaia video processing unit (VPU) development activity has recently been finalized with the delivery of the engineering model (EM) from Astrium UK to Astrium France. The unit is responsible for the real-time processing and commanding of star data transmitted by the focal plane assembly. |
| Date: 13 Feb 2009 |
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| ESA internal study report on ESA contributions to Laplace/EJSM available |
| Following the release of the Laplace/EJSM mission Joint Summary Report describing the complete mission goals and giving an overview of its implementation, the teams are now also making available the detailed assessment reports of the mission elements. |
| Date: 12 Feb 2009 |
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| ESA internal study report on ESA contributions to Tandem/TSSM available |
| Following the release of the TandEM/TSSM mission Joint Summary Report describing the complete mission goals and giving an overview of its implementation, the teams are now also making available the detailed assessment reports of the mission elements. |
| Date: 12 Feb 2009 |
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| ESA extends missions studying Mars, Venus and Earth's magnetosphere |
ESA's Science Programme Committee has extended the operations of ESA's Mars Express, Venus Express and Cluster missions until 31 December 2009. The decision to extend the three successful missions was taken on 4 February this year.
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| Date: 09 Feb 2009 |
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| Herschel and Planck get green light for launch campaign |
| ESA's Herschel and Planck missions have successfully completed their test campaigns in Europe and will be soon transported to Europe's spaceport at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guyana. |
| Date: 09 Feb 2009 |
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| Titan Fly-by - 7 February 2009 |
| Saturday 7 February the Cassini spacecraft returns to Saturn's largest moon for the mission's fifty-first targeted encounter with Titan. The closest approach to Titan occurs at 08:50:51 UTC at an altitude of 960 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 33.7°S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 102. |
| Date: 05 Feb 2009 |
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| Exceptionally deep view of strange galaxy [heic0901] |
| A spectacular new image of an unusual spiral galaxy in the Coma Galaxy Cluster has been created from data taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It reveals fine details of the galaxy, NGC 4921, as well as an extraordinary rich background of more remote galaxies stretching back to the early Universe. |
| Date: 05 Feb 2009 |
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| CoRoT team announces detection of smallest exoplanet to date |
| An exoplanet barely larger than the Earth has been discovered by the CoRoT satellite. This was announced on 3 February at a press conference during the First CoRoT International Symposium held in Paris. |
| Date: 03 Feb 2009 |
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| You can choose Hubble's next discovery – vote before 1 March |
| To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy you are invited to participate in the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's next astronomical discovery. Cast your vote online (before 1 March 2009) to choose your favourite from six candidate objects that will be observed with this telescope for the very first time. |
| Date: 02 Feb 2009 |
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