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
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Image: Image comparing views of Sun with two Solar Orbiter instruments View the full article
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Thanks to their ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, forests have long been recognised as a key tool in the fight against climate change – but not all forests are equal. New research based on data from ESA’s SMOS satellite mission has found that, surprisingly, young trees are champions at carbon capture. View the full article
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Measurements from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite show that this year’s ozone hole over Antarctica is one of the biggest on record. The hole, which is what scientists call an ‘ozone depleting area,’ reached a size of 26 million sq km on 16 September 2023. This is roughly three times the size of Brazil. View the full article
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A briefcase-sized CubeSat being flown on Europe’s next Vega launcher this week will gather 340 km wide views of Earth’s vegetation growth, employing a spectral imager originally designed for ESA’s decade-in-flight Proba-V. View the full article
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A new collaboration between ESA and Swiss watchmaker Swatch allows space fans to design their own space-themed watch using stunning images from space telescopes. View the full article
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Estonia’s next satellite will fly aboard Europe’s Vega VV23 launcher later this week. While largely designed and built by undergraduate students, the shoebox-sized ESTCube-2 has ambitious goals in mind, including surveys of Estonian vegetation and the first successful in-orbit demonstration of ‘plasma brake’ technology. Deployment of a charged microtether will slow the CubeSat’s orbit, proving the prospect of helping to keep space clear of dangerous debris in the future. View the full article
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Video: 00:42:00 Media briefing on the findings of the Independent Enquiry Commission tasked with analysing the results of the static-firing test of the Vega-C Zefiro 40 motor, which took place on 28 June 2023. The press briefing was held on 2 October 2023 with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher presenting the results of the investigation, with ESA Inspector General and chair of the Independent Enquiry Commission Giovanni Colangelo; Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo, Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël, and ESA’s Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen. During the briefing, ESA and its partners presented the findings of the enquiry commission, together with an upd…
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New images of the Orion Nebula from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have been included in ESA’s ESASky application, which has a user-friendly interface to visualise and download astronomical data. View the full article
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ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will venture outside the International Space Station to look for install a new camera and prepare an experiment for a future upgrade on his first spacewalk on 12 October, starting at 16:00 CEST (15:00 BST). View the full article
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Week in images: 25-29 September 2023 Discover our week through the lens View the full article
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Image: Part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field with its white glaciers and aquamarine lakes is featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 10 January 2023. View the full article
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The Biofilms study continues its cosmic quest to combat bacterial contamination. With three experiments aboard the International Space Station, it's on a mission to improve antimicrobial technology, benefitting astronauts and people on Earth alike. View the full article
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Image: Hera takes wing View the full article
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Spain’s trio of ANSER CubeSats, due to fly on Europe’s next Vega launcher, will fly like a flock of birds in orbit – in more ways than one. Keeping in formation by following their leader, the three shoebox-sized satellite will image Iberian waters as if they are a single standard-sized mission. And they will unfurl wing-like flaps to maintain their relative positions, surfing on the scanty airflow at the top of Earth’s atmosphere. View the full article
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Video: 00:03:20 ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen became commander of the International Space Station (ISS) on September 26, 2023, in a traditional ceremony in which the departing commander, Sergey Prokopyev, handed over the symbolic key of the Space Station. Mogensen is the sixth European to take on the role of ISS commander. Mogensen will serve as commander for the rest of his Huginn mission until early 2024. During his command, he will be responsible for overseeing the crew's activities and ensuring the safety and operation of the Space Station. View the full article
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Video: 00:05:46 ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen has begun his Huginn mission, turning the International Space Station into his home and workplace. After piloting on Crew Dragon Endurance as the first non-US pilot, Andreas has started performing European experiments and technology demonstrations with many more to come throughout the mission. View the full article
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Fungi in space have been a plot point in Star Trek: Discovery, but they are also a very real problem for astronauts and space stations. United Nations co-sponsored testing by a team from Macau in China subjected fungi to hypergravity with ESA’s fast-spinning centrifuge. View the full article
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ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will become the commander of the International Space Station, the sixth European to take the role. Tune in to ESA WebTV channel 2 tomorrow, 26 September at 15:40 CEST (14:40 BST) to watch the ceremony when Andreas becomes the commander. View the full article
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Image: This summer, Europe experienced a relentless heatwave, fuelling wildfires in several countries. This Copernicus Sentinel-1 image shows the burn scars left by fires on the Greek island of Rhodes. View the full article
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Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of a handful of worlds in our Solar System that could potentially harbour conditions suitable for life. Previous research has shown that beneath its water-ice crust lies a salty ocean of liquid water with a rocky seafloor. However, planetary scientists had not confirmed whether or not that ocean contained the chemicals needed for life, particularly carbon. View the full article
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Keeping European citizens safe from cyberattacks that can lead to the disruption of essential supplies – such as power, water and the flow of crucial information – is vital in today’s increasingly digital world. ESA and the European Commission have today signed an agreement to use space to help keep information secure. View the full article
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More than 15 000 visitors are getting ready to pass through ESA's gateways during ESA Open Days 2023. This Europe-wide series of events promises to connect space enthusiasts, bringing space closer to them than ever before. Unforgettable days of discoveries, inspiration, and scientific divulgation await thousands of European citizens, who are eagerly gearing up for a fantastic journey through the wonders of space. View the full article
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Image: Is it a spacecraft? An asteroid? Well, both. This small central speck is the first image of a spacecraft on its way home, carrying with it a sample from an asteroid hundreds-of-millions, if-not-billions-of-years old. The spacecraft is NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the asteroid is Bennu. On Sunday 24 September, the mission will drop its rocky sample off to fall through Earth’s atmosphere and land safely back home, before it continues on to study the once rather scary asteroid Apophis. Spotted on 16 September by ESA’s Optical Ground Station (OGS) telescope in Tenerife, OSIRIS-REx was 4.66 million km from Earth. This image is a combination of 90 individual images, each 36-sec…
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Video: 00:00:56 Did you know, the Northern lights or Aurora Borealis are created when the mythical Finnish ‘Firefox’ runs so quickly across the snow that its tail causes sparks to fly into the night sky? At least, that’s one of the stories that has been told in Finland about this beautiful phenomenon. Another that we love comes from the Sámi people of Finnish Lapland (among others), who describe them as plumes of water ejected by whales. What do they look like, to you? Today’s scientific explanation for the origin of the Aurora wasn’t thought up until the 20th Century, by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland. Charged particles, electrons and protons, are con…
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