Physics and Astronomy

Exploring and using space is the biggest adventure facing mankind. Finding innovative ways for ESA to continue doing this is the role of the Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) at ESA’s European Space Technology Research Centre (ESTEC).

It is their job to look into the future and identify ideas which could enable missions that currently sound like science fiction.

From simple “what if?” ideas, the ACT evaluate what is and is not possible. For example, among many other proposals, they are

Observations challenge standing view of how and when galaxies formed

A rare glimpse back in time into the universe’s early evolution has revealed something startling: mature, fully formed galaxies where scientists expected to discover little more than infants.

“Up until now, we assumed that galaxies were just beginning to form between 8 and 11 billion years ago, but what we found suggests that that is not the case,” said Karl Glazebrook, associate professor of physics and

For many years astronomical images from the world’s telescopes were reserved for an elite of astronomers and technical people. Now anyone with a desktop computer running Adobe® Photoshop® software can try their hand at crafting astronomical images as beautiful as those from the Hubble Space Telescope. A free software plug-in, released today, makes a treasure trove of archival astronomical images and spectra from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Tele

The world’s largest scale model of the Solar System will be created in the UK thanks to an award of £28,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts), the organisation that invests in UK creativity and innovation. The project, run by Spaced Out UK, will be made with 18 UK schools and visitor attractions and bring together artists, scientist and designers in raising the profile of astronomy and creating an exciting new learning resource for the nation.

In all, th

In the future, our computers no longer crash as we try and download pictures that are too heavy in memory, our cars no longer pollute the atmosphere and cancer could be dealt with by a visit to the GP. Some of it, at least, will happen thanks to cutting edge research happening now at the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Here scientists are among a handful across the world helping to turn science fiction into a fact of the future through the science of nanotechnol

Finland has become the eleventh member state of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) [1].

The formal accession procedure was carried through as planned and has now been completed. Following the signing of the corresponding Agreement earlier this year (ESO PR 02/04), acceptance by the Finnish Parliament and ratification by the Finnish President of the Agreement as well as the ESO Convention and the associated protocols in June [2] and the deposit of the instruments of accession tod