Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale

MAJIS detects activity from the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

1 month 3 weeks ago

In November 2025, the ESA/Juice mission observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, a rare visitor from another stellar system. On this occasion, the MAJIS instrument detected emissions of water vapor and carbon dioxide, revealing strong cometary activity shortly after its closest approach to the Sun. These observations reflect the sublimation of ices buried beneath the surface, released due to solar heating. The outgassing rate, estimated at about 2 tonnes per second, indicates a particularly active process.

A scientific breakthrough reveals why generative AI learns so effectively

5 months 2 weeks ago

A study conducted by Tony Bonnaire (IAS, CNRS & Université Paris-Saclay) together with Raphaël Urfin and Giulio Biroli (ENS Paris, CNRS & PSL) and Marc Mézard (Bocconi University) sheds new light on a central question in generative AI research: how diffusion models — the key technology behind modern generative AI — manage to generalize efficiently before memorizing the data on which they are trained.

The asteroids Ryugu and Bennu exhibit the characteristics of the same class of primordial objects

6 months 3 days ago

By analysing samples returned from the carbonaceous asteroids Ryugu and Bennu, an international team led by scientists at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS – Univ. Paris-Saclay / CNRS) has identified a class of primordial objects that may have contributed to the formation and early evolution of the Solar System.

ALMA Reveals Lives of Planet-Forming Disks

7 months 1 week ago

The AGE-PRO collaboration, bringing together astronomers from Europe, America, and Asia, has unveiled news constraints on the evolution of dust and gas in protoplanetary disks thanks to an ambitious ALMA program targeting 30 sources. Through combined analyses of dust thermal emission and gas spectral lines, it appears that the gas reservoir available to form giant planets evolves more slowly than the dust reservoir.

Solar Orbiter gets world-first views of the Sun’s poles

11 months 4 days ago

Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. This unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.

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MAJIS detects activity from the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

A scientific breakthrough reveals why generative AI learns so effectively

The asteroids Ryugu and Bennu exhibit the characteristics of the same class of primordial objects

ALMA Reveals Lives of Planet-Forming Disks

Solar Orbiter gets world-first views of the Sun’s poles

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