SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research develops instruments for spacecraft and conducts research in astronomy and earth science. SRON is the main institute for Dutch contributions to the scientific payload of missions in the mandatory ESA Science Programme. As national expertise institute of The Netherlands, SRON gives counsel to the Dutch government and coordinates - from a science standpoint - national contributions to international space missions.
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To study how stars and planets are born we have to look at star cradles hidden in cool clouds of dust. Far-infrared telescopes are able to pierce through those clouds. Conventionally, niobium nitride bolometers are used as ...
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2023
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126
Astronomy has a blind spot in the area of far-infrared radiation compared to most other wavelengths. A far-infrared space telescope can only utilize its full sensitivity with an actively cooled mirror at temperatures below ...
Astronomy
Sep 6, 2022
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484
Methane is almost thirty times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2. Researchers from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research therefore scan the entire globe for large methane leaks. A landfill in Buenos Aires ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 10, 2022
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192
Over the past few weeks, a group of engineers from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Airbus Netherlands and NASA has been working on installing the Dutch aerosol instrument SPEXone on NASA's PACE satellite. PACE ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 23, 2022
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9
An international team of astronomers, led by Yamila Miguel (SRON/Leiden Observatory), has found that Jupiter's gaseous envelope doesn't have a homogeneous distribution. The inner part has more metals than the outer parts, ...
Astronomy
Jun 8, 2022
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4037
The ESA is working on a new exoplanet hunter mission called Plato, to be launched in 2026. Astronomers expect to discover Earth-sized planets within the habitable zone thanks to Plato's ability to spot smaller planets in ...
Astronomy
Jun 1, 2022
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14
Mercury harbors water ice in the shadows of the steepest craters around its poles. But it is unclear how those water molecules ended up on Mercury. Now a new simulation shows that incoming minor bodies such as asteroids, ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 19, 2022
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172
Unlike our Milky Way, some galaxies have an active black hole in their center driving powerful outflows of gas. But we know very little about their impact and origin. ESA's future X-ray mission Athena will change this. In ...
Astronomy
Mar 28, 2022
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410
Astronomers have a model of how galaxy cluster collisions go through different stages, taking on various shapes. A blunt body shape turns into a sharp cone, which turns into a tongue-like shape. The first and last have been ...
Astronomy
Dec 7, 2021
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306
A group of Dutch scientists has used space instrument TROPOMI to calculate methane emissions from six Australian coal mines. Together, these account for 7 percent of the national coal production, but turn out to emit around ...
Environment
Nov 29, 2021
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54
