News room

18 December 2018

Press, Research

Almost three quarters of terrestrial microbes hide in deep rock

Hundreds of international researchers who are members of the Deep Carbon Observatory, including Bénédicte Ménez and Emmanuelle Gérard from the Institu...

15 December 2018

General public, Observatories, Press, Research

InSight's instrument drop-off area has been reproduced on Earth

Shortly after landing on November 26th, the InSight probe began to map in detail the few square metres of south-facing terrain just in front of the ro...

10 December 2018

Press, Research

Highly hydrated magmas stored in a mush at great depths, the source of Dominica's great pumice eruptions

In the past, the island of Dominica has experienced ignimbritic pumiceous eruptions involving large volumes of magma (4-5 km3 DRE). A study of more th...

10 December 2018

General public, Press, Research

Titan's surface seen in infrared by the Cassini probe

Titan, Saturn's largest satellite, was flown over 127 times by the Cassini probe between 2004 and 2017. An international team comprising researchers f...

06 December 2018

General public, Observatories, Press, Research

The HiRise super-camera locates InSight on the surface of Mars

The exact location of the InSight lander on the surface of the Red Planet has just been determined thanks to the HiRise super-camera on NASA's Mars Re...

01 December 2018

General public, Observatories, Press, Research

First sound recordings of Mars by the InSight probe

The short-period (SP) sensors on the SEIS seismometer and the ultrasensitive pressure sensor on InSight's APSS weather station have probably just retu...

26 November 2018

General public, Observatories, Press, Research

The IPGP logo is now on Mars!

The logos of the space laboratories, including the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris, that built the SEIS seismometer or produced its onboard sof...

16 November 2018

Observatories, Press

Landing of InSight probe

After years of research, months of fine-tuning, thousands of working hours, a journey of 485 million kilometers, and "7 minutes of terror", the InSigh...

14 November 2018

Observatories, Press, Research

Outgassing in the upper mantle: constraints on the source and evolution of volcanic CO2

By combining barometry and the composition of fluid inclusions trapped within lava crystals and recent enclaves in the Piton de la Fournaise, a new st...

07 November 2018

Press, Research

Potential precursors of the first building blocks of life observed in deep ocean rocks

The origin of life on Earth is an extremely complex field of research in which several hypotheses have been put forward. Some studies consider extrate...

30 October 2018

Observatories, Press, Research

Study of the unstable zones around the Dolomieu crater and assessment of the risks for visitors

In April 2007, the morphology of the summit of Piton de la Fournaise changed radically. Its main crater, the Dolomieu, previously filled to the rim wi...

29 October 2018

General public, Observatories, Press, Research

Piton de la Fournaise's ten-year eruptive cycles linked to the fertility of its mantle source

Piton de la Fournaise (Réunion Island) is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. However, it has alternating periods of intense activity (12 ...

14 October 2018

Awards and Distinctions, Institute Life, Press, Research

Albert Tarantola receives the 2018 Maurice Ewing Medal posthumously from SEG

The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) awarded Albert Tarantola the 2018 Maurice Ewing Medal, its highest accolade, at its 88th International ...

08 October 2018

General public, Press, Research

Moon formation at low temperature

As the closest and most visible celestial object to Earth, the Moon has always fascinated human beings. Yet questions remain about its origin. A team ...

25 September 2018

Press, Research

Cassini detects dust storms on Titan for the first time

Data from the international Cassini-Huygens mission, which explored Saturn and its moons between 2004 and 2017, have revealed what appear to be dust s...