Unprecedently deep images constraint the luminosity of a peculiar neutron star, the sixth known to date

Thierry Corbard, of the Côte d'Azur Observatory (France), When will we understand the Sun's core? To understand the Sun's core we need to identify gravity modes that have not yet been fully detected. Although we can guess at the nature of these g modes, more observations and instruments are needed to improve the signal to noise ratio. Once detected, we can use the fact that these modes are sensitive to dynamic structures in the Sun's core to make some predictions about  its temperature and rate of rotation. We are also likely to gain some insight into neutrino physics. Jørgen Christensen

When we look at the Sun we cannot penetrate beyond its outer surface, the photosphere, which emits the photons that make up the radiation we can see. So how can we find out what is inside it?

When scientists realised that observing and analysing oscillations in the Sun could provide information about its interior, it was only a matter of time before Helioseismology was put to work on other stars

One hundred and fifty experts in Solar and Stellar Seismology from over twenty countries will converge on Lanzarote from the 1st to the 5th February for the 4th HELAS International Conference, organised by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)

ESA's Herschel Space Observatory was launched on 14 May 2009. After a short commissioning and performance verification period, the science demonstration observations started in September 2009. Herschel is now carrying out routine science observations. The three instruments (SPIRE, PACS and HIFI) are working extremely well. The IAC is part of the SPIRE and PACS instrument consortia and has contributed flying hardware and software. The first results of the many Herschel Key Projects were presented at the ESLAB 2010 symposium in ESTEC (May 2010) and have been published in July 2010 in a special