European Space Agency
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200
2,844 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 1.7k views
Throughout its 16-year working life, the second European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2, returned a wealth of information that revolutionised our perspective of our planet and understanding of climate change. As well as leaving a remarkable legacy of data that still continue to advance science, this outstanding mission set the stage for many of today’s satellites and ESA’s position at the forefront of Earth observation. In 2011, ESA retired ERS-2 and began the process of deorbiting – and now it’s time for this pioneering satellite to reenter the atmosphere naturally and start to burn up. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 351 views
Image: This false-colour image acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows the city of Dubai and its surroundings in the United Arab Emirates. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 2.1k views
Video: 00:01:18 Teams from ESA, France’s space agency CNES and ArianeGroup successfully completed the disconnection and retraction of the Ariane 6 cryogenic systems on 30 January 2024. These operations mark the start of dismantling the Ariane 6 test model to make way for its first launch. The combined test phase for Ariane 6 using propellants is now over and the European rocket is on track for its inaugural launch. The test model that is on the launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, stands 62 m high. It is exactly the same as the ‘production model’ Ariane 6 rockets that will soon be launched, except that its boosters are not tested as part of …
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 1.7k views
Black holes are like temperamental toddlers. They spill food all the time, but ESA’s XMM-Newton has caught a black hole in the act of ‘flipping over the table’ during an otherwise civilised meal. This act prevents the galaxy surrounding the black hole from forming new stars, giving us insight into how black holes and galaxies co-evolve. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 6.2k views
Video: 00:00:36 Join ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world" and and pan around to enjoy the view. The ESA - European Space Agency-built Cupola is the favourite place of many astronauts on the International Space Station. It serves not only as a unique photo spot, but also for observing robotic activities, arriving spacecraft and spacewalks. Marcus was launched to the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft as part of Axiom Mission 3 on 18 January 2024. His two-week mission on board is known as Muninn. Follow Marcus’s journey on the Muninn website, check our launch ki…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 737 views
Dedicated to delivering a wealth of new information on exactly how clouds and aerosols affect Earth’s climate, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has had the chance to show off prior to engineers embarking upon the careful task of packing it up for its journey to the launch site in the US. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 394 views
Image: Human vs. hover-machine View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 541 views
Metal 3D printing will soon take place in orbit for the first time. A pioneering European-made metal 3D printer is on its way to the International Space Station on the Cygnus NG-20 resupply mission which launched yesterday. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 338 views
A new treasure trove of images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope showcases near- and mid-infrared portraits of 19 face-on spiral galaxies. This new set of exquisite images show stars, gas, and dust on the smallest scales ever observed beyond our own galaxy. Teams of researchers are studying these images to uncover the origins of these intricate structures. The research community’s collective analysis will ultimately inform theorists’ simulations, and advance our understanding of star formation and the evolution of spiral galaxies. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 2.8k views
Galileo, already the world’s most precise satellite navigation system, now meets international standards to guide civil aviation from take-off to landing, complementing Europe’s EGNOS for the most critical operations. Galileo was not designed to comply with these strict safety requirements, so how did engineers at ESA achieve this feat? This is a tale of engineering excellence. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 387 views
The first commercial flights of a programme that uses Iris satellite technology to help modernise air traffic management and reduce carbon emissions have taken place. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 257 views
Week in images: 22-26 January 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 284 views
Video: 00:01:25 Join ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world". The ESA - European Space Agency-built Cupola is the favourite place of many astronauts on the International Space Station. It serves not only as a unique photo spot, but also for observing robotic activities of the Canadian Space Agency's robotic arm Canadarm2, arriving spacecraft and spacewalks. Marcus was launched to the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft as part of Axiom Mission 3 on 18 January 2024. His two-week mission on board is known as Muninn. Follow Marcus’s journey on the Muninn website, che…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 374 views
Image: Space: 1977 View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 316 views
Image: Record-breaking Arctic cold weather has swept through much of the United States in the last few weeks. The eastern part of the country was particularly affected with thick snow blanketing most of the region, as this Copernicus Sentinel-3 image shows. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 354 views
View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 419 views
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed the smallest exoplanet where water vapour has been detected in its atmosphere. At only approximately twice Earth’s diameter, the planet GJ 9827d could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres elsewhere in our galaxy. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 430 views
Video: 00:00:20 In November 2023, the A23a mega iceberg set sail after being grounded on the ocean floor for well over 40 years. Now, driven by winds and currents, A23a is heading away from Antarctic waters as seen in this new animation. The iceberg calved from West Antarctica in 1986 but quickly grounded itself in the Weddell Sea where it remained for over four decades. At around 4000 sq km in area, more than four times the size of New York City, and just over 280 m thick, the berg currently holds the title for world’s largest iceberg. The animation uses sea-ice concentration data and shows the iceberg’s movements between 1 November 2023 to 23 January 2024. Simil…
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 358 views
ESA’s next mission to Venus was officially ‘adopted’ today by the Agency’s Science Programme Committee. EnVision will study Venus from its inner core to its outer atmosphere, giving important new insight into the planet's history, geological activity and climate. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 345 views
Today, ESA’s Science Programme Committee approved the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, the first scientific endeavour to detect and study gravitational waves from space. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 378 views
View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 322 views
ESA has teamed up with Xbox and the epic space game Starfield for a spacesuit design competition that is out of this world. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 348 views
Image: Return to the labyrinth View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 388 views
A groundbreaking study that combines satellite data and Artificial Intelligence has thrown new light on the number of vessels at sea. Astonishingly, the study reveals that around 75% of the world's industrial fishing vessels have previously been ‘dark’ to public tracking systems. View the full article
Last reply by European Space Agency, -
- 0 replies
- 297 views
Image: This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. This nebula, known as N79, is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionised, captured here by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). N79 is a massive star-forming complex spanning roughly 1630 light-years in the generally unexplored southwest region of the LMC. N79 is typically regarded as a younger version of 30 Doradus (also known as the Tarantula Nebula), another of Webb’s recent targets. Research suggests that N79 has a star formation efficiency exceeding that of 30 Doradus by a factor of two…
Last reply by European Space Agency,