European Space Agency

Video: 00:05:36 Five-minute behind-the-scenes documentary covering the story behind the application of the Galileo tribute plaque to ESA’s Juice spacecraft. View the full article

Week in images: 30 January - 03 February 2023 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

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Image: Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, is featured in this image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

Image: Exploring a turbulent tarantula View the full article

Euclid: exploring the dark Universe Euclid: exploring the dark Universe View the full article

ESA’s geology training course PANGAEA has come of age with the publication of a paper that describes the quest for designing the best possible geology training for the next astronauts to walk on the surface of the Moon. View the full article

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The 2023 Young Graduate Trainee positions are now open for applications! Opportunities are available in engineering, science, IT and business services. Find out more and apply now. View the full article

Image: Setting sail for safer space View the full article

Mars displays fascinating geology everywhere you look – and nowhere is this more true than in the fractured, wrinkled ground seen in this image from ESA’s Mars Express. View the full article

Image: A crowded field of galaxies throngs this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars crowned with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. The large spiral galaxy at the base of this image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. Named LEDA 2046648, it is situated a little over a billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hercules. One of Webb’s principle science goals is to observe distant — and hence ancient — galaxies to understand the details of their formation, evolution, and composition. Webb’s keen infrared vision helps the telescope peer back in time, as the light from older, more distant galaxies is redshifted towards infrared wavelengths. Comparing these galactic fossils to modern galaxies will help astronomers understand how galaxies grew to form the structures we see in the universe today. Webb will also probe the chemical composition of thousands of galaxies to shed light on how heavy elements were formed and built up as galaxies evolved. To take full advantage of Webb’s potential for galaxy archeology, astronomers and engineers must first calibrate the telescope’s instruments and systems. Each of Webb’s instruments contains a labyrinthine array of mirrors and other optical elements that redirect and focus starlight gathered by Webb’s main mirror. This particular observation was part of the commissioning campaign for Webb’s Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). As well as performing science in its own right, NIRISS supports parallel observations with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). NIRCam captured this galaxy-studded image while NIRISS was observing the white dwarf WD1657+343, a well-studied star. This allows astronomers to interpret and compare data from the two different instruments, and to characterise the performance of NIRISS. [Image description: Many stars and galaxies lie on a dark background, in a variety of colours but mostly shades of orange. Some galaxies are large enough to make out spiral arms. Along the bottom of the frame is a large, detailed spiral galaxy seen at an oblique angle, with another galaxy about one-quarter the size just beneath it. Both have a brightly glowing core, and areas of star formation which light up their spiral arms.] View the full article

Video: 00:04:25 An iceberg around the size of Greater London broke off Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf due to a natural process called ‘calving’. The iceberg, measuring 1550 sq km, detached from the 150 m-thick ice shelf a decade after scientists first spotted massive cracks in the shelf. For more information on the newly-birthed A81 iceberg, click here. View the full article

We’ve just made it easier to use the ESA brand to create merchandise or materials for events. If you are interested in producing and selling merchandising that shows the ESA logo, the ESA flags patch or ESA’s mission patches, there is now a simple way to request the use of ESA emblems. View the full article

Image: Tempestuous young stars in Orion View the full article

Video: 00:00:23 Using radar images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, the animation shows the A81 iceberg breaking away from the Brunt Ice Shelf on 25 January 2023. The new berg is estimated to be around 1550 sq km, which is around the size of Greater London, and is approximately 150 m thick. It calved when the crack known as Chasm-1 split northwards severing the west part of the ice shelf. The white square indicated the final breakpoint near the McDonald Ice Rumples. Routine monitoring from satellites offers unparalleled views of events happening in remote regions. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission carries radar, which can return images regardless of day or night and this allows us year-round viewing, which is especially important through the long, dark, austral winter months. Read the full story: Giant iceberg breaks away from Antarctic ice shelf View the full article

An ambitious new development phase of ESA’s 5G/6G Hub has begun. View the full article

Video: 00:01:07 The mission to return martian samples back to Earth will see a European 2.5 metre-long robotic arm pick up tubes filled with precious soil from Mars and transfer them to a rocket for an historic interplanetary delivery. The sophisticated robot, known as the Sample Transfer Arm or STA, will play a crucial role in the success of the Mars Sample Return campaign. The Sample Transfer Arm is conceived to be autonomous, highly reliable and robust. The robot can perform a large range of movements with seven degrees of freedom, assisted by two cameras and a myriad of sensors. It features a gripper – akin to a hand – that can capture and handle the sample tubes at different angles. The robotic arm will land on Mars to retrieve the sample tubes NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently collecting from the surface. Able to “see”, “feel” and take autonomous decisions, its high level of dexterity allows the arm to extract the tubes from the rover, pick them up from the martian ground, insert them into a container and close the lid before lifting-off from Mars. ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) will rendezvous with the container filled with martian samples and bring the material back to Earth. The joint endeavour between NASA and ESA aims to bring back martian samples to the best labs in our planet by 2033. Follow the latest news about Mars Sample Return on Twitter and read all about it on the blog To Mars and Back. More about the Sample Transfer Arm View the full article

Satellite imagery confirms an enormous iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally calved from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. The new berg, estimated to be around 1550 sq km and around 150 m thick, calved when the crack known as Chasm-1 fully extended northwards severing the west part of the ice shelf. This crack was first revealed to be extending in early 2012 after having been dormant for some decades. After several years of desperately clinging on, image data from the Copernicus Sentinel missions visually confirm the calving event. View the full article

We’re marking 20 years of the European Centre for Space Records in ESA ESRIN, Frascati, one of the physical homes of the ESA Archives, by giving access to our digital holdings in a new web portal. View the full article

Galileo’s capabilities have grown with the addition of a new High Accuracy Service, freely available worldwide to anyone with a suitably equipped receiver. Delivering horizontal accuracy down to 20 cm and vertical accuracy of 40 cm, the High Accuracy Service is enabled through an additional level of real-time positioning corrections, delivered through a new data stream within the existing Galileo signal. View the full article

ESA has formed a formidable partnership with the EU to secure the future of Europe in space, developing Earth observation, navigation, secure connectivity and space entrepreneurship, people attending the 15th European space conference held on 24 and 25 January in Brussels will hear. View the full article

Image: Juice launch (artist’s impression) View the full article

The discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of a molecular cloud measured to date has been announced by an international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This result allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets, while opening a new window on the origin of more complex molecules that are the first step in the creation of the building blocks of life. View the full article

Video: 00:00:30 This video features a new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), showcasing the low-mass star forming region Chameleon I. An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of a molecular cloud measured to date by studying this region. This result allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets, while opening a new window on the origin of more complex molecules that are the first step in the creation of the building blocks of life. This research forms part of the Ice Age project, one of Webb's 13 Early Release Science programs, which has studied a dust ridge in the centre of the Chameleon I molecular cloud. Music: Stellardrone – Twilight View the full article