The Institut de mecanique celeste et de calcul des ephemerides provides and publishes ephemerides of solar system bodies. It serves as the official and public source of ephemerides devoted to regulate calendars2.

It performs theoretical research activities in the fields of celestial mechanics, planetology and mathematics. It initiates and coordinates observing campaigns of rare and specific celestial events.
 

Destination Lutetia ... 10 July 2010

First high resolution picture of the asteroid Lutetia taken on July, 10 2010 by the camera OSIRIS loaded on the ESA spacecraft Rosetta. The asteroid was then at a distance of 80000 of kilometers in the constellation of Leo the Lion.

The full story ...

High resolution images are available on the ESA Rosetta Blog.


Image Crédit: ESA

 

L'astronomie au service de tous

Astronomy is the science of exploration and understanding of the universe but astronomy is present in a much more practical way in everyday life through services. This book describes the services provided by astronomers : he mentions the historical aspect of these services, describes their current state and also shows the work of advanced research conducted by astronomers to actively improve the apparently simple services rendered to the society.

Caution : This Website was created with the Ministère de l'Education Nationale, the CNRS and the CNES support. Any use of the data published on this website requires the IMCCE agreement..