The solar activity of January 23 was high, but not extreme.

See http://sidc.be/news/145/welcome.html

Fireball of December 24 = last stage of Soyuz

The fireball observed above Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany on December 24 around 17h30, was the re-entry of the third stage of the Soyuz rocket that transported the Dutch astronaut André Kuipers to the ISS.

PROBA 2 and comet 'Lovejoy'

The SWAP telescope onboard the Belgian-led satellite PROBA2 has obtained some of the best-ever photographs of a comet passing near the sun. Comet Lovejoy flew through the solar corona, just above the sun's surface, near midnight on December 16, 2011. This is only the second time ever that a comet has been observed in an extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) solar telescope.

More: http://sidc.be/news/143/welcome.html

Mars Science Laboratory

The launch of the Mars Science Laboratory was succesful and it is now on it's way to Mars.

Read the news and more info on msl.oma.be

An impact driven dynamo for the early Moon

The Royal Observatory of Belgium participates in an interdisciplinary study on the origin of the early magnetic field of the early Moon. Researchers from the field of fluid mechanics and lunar geophysics joined forces. They showed in their article in Nature that the early magnetic field was caused by movements of material after instantaneous changes of the rotation rate of the Moon due to large meteorite impacts.

More about this on the website of Nature (p.215)