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Solar and Planetary Systems

The activities of the team are focused on three major investigations: study of the processes of evolution of the planetary bodies of the Solar System, study of exoplanets, and study of the initial conditions of the Solar System. More specifically, we attempt to study:

- evolution processes by observations of differentiated bodies (terrestrial and giant planets, satellites). These activities are performed through space instruments mounted on orbital or in situ platforms;
- the extra-solar planets by a theoretical but also observational approach through the COROT, PLATO and ARIEL missions;
- the initial conditions for the formation of the Solar System through the study of primitive matter: cometary grains, meteorites, observations of primitive bodies and the interplanetary environment.

Our approach consists in coupling the observation acquired by space instruments, extensive data reduction, numerical modeling and laboratory measurements. These multiple approaches are based on as strong and major instrumental developments with the constant concern to combine both scientific and technological challenges.

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Dernières news

10 years 10 months ago

After a ten-year-long interplanetary journey, Rosetta finally approaches its final destination, the nucleus of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, on which the Philae module will land in November. The CIVA imaging system, designed to obtain a stereoscopic panoramic view of the surface of the comet after the landing of Philae, has just been turned on successfully, after years of hibernation, at a distance of more than 600 million km from the Sun.

 

 

10 years 11 months ago

From source to sink: Meteorites from Mars have been known since the 1970’s, but researchers in Oslo, In Lyon, and at IAS have for the first time been able to identify the source crater for shergottites, the largest group of martian meteorites. The source region on Mars was probably impacted about 3 million years ago by a medium-size body, and the meteorites ended their space journey at the Earth’s surface a few thousand years ago.

 

11 years 3 weeks ago
After a 31 months hibernation phase, the ROSETTA spacecraft has woken up as scheduled on January 20th. After this critical milestone, the spacecraft will progressively get closer to the comet, then it will get into orbit (end of June) so as to map it and to select a landing site for the Philae lander, which will reach the surface of the nucleus in November. IAS has contributed to 3 experiments on board the orbiter and the lander.

 

11 years 2 months ago
Mars is a volcanic world, covered nearly entirely in basaltic rocks. While the planet's geological history remains elusive for lack of in-situ samples or probes of its internal structure, its uniform surface composition was thought to result from an unremarkable magmatic history. However, this is questioned by a recent study lead by ESO and IAS, which has revealed a new rock type on Mars.
 
 
11 years 7 months ago
Meeting in Paris on 18-19 June, ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) gave the go-ahead to continue funding science operations for 10 remarkably productive science missions (including SOHO and Mars Express), all of them working beyond their planned lifetimes and all of them nevertheless continuing to deliver exceptional science.
 
 
 

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