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Angola in Southern Africa was the first country on Earth to see the solar eclipse of June 21, 2001. In spite of difficulties due to the guerrilla warfare then raging in Angola, scientists from the CNRS Institut d'astrophysique chose that country to take their observations, on account of the greatest likelihood of good weather, the longer duration of the phenomenon, and the optimal height of the sun above the horizon. Eclipses enable us to observe the solar corona, which is otherwise entirely…

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Darkness at noon
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André Brack, a researcher in the CNRS molecular biophysics laboratory, is studying the conditions for the emergence of life by the use of comet dust from the planet Mars. He is also working on the design of equipment which will be sent to Mars in 2005 to search for fossilized life below the planet's surface.

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Seeds of life
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In 1995 a planet was discovered outside the solar system by Michel Mayor, an astronomer at the Geneva Observatory. At the Haute Provence Observatory Michel Mayor describes his work methods. Fluctuations in the speed of the stars, measured by spectrography, led to the proof of the existence of a giant gaseous planet in the orbit of the star 51 Pegasi. Astronomers continue to scrutinize the universe, searching the spectral rays for the chemical elements associated with life.

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Beyond the stars

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