Archive | News

Earth observation image of the week: the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Gulf of Taranto in Italy To source

In this week’s edition, we take a look at the Gulf of Taranto, located in the inner heel of southern Italy To source

A visualisation of the orbits of asteroids observed by ESA’s Gaia satellite, including four recent discoveries To source

ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence, being designed to survey the smallest asteroid ever explored, is really three spacecraft in one. The main mothership will carry two briefcase-sized CubeSats, which will touch down on the target body. A French team has been investigating what might happen at that initial instant of alien contact. To source

Europe is in the grip of a heatwave. While weather forecasts provide the temperature of the air, Copernicus Sentinel-3 shows how hot the land surface is To source

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image not only features the Woodbury fire and burn scars in Arizona, but also the red lines that act as a fire retardant To source

The thermal vacuum test campaign of the first Spacebus Neo satellite was completed on 25 June. Less than 100 metres from the Mediterranean Sea, the Konnect satellite has spent the past six weeks being exposed to the cold emptiness of space. To source

 The cracked, uneven, jumbled landscape seen in this image from ESA’s Mars Express forms an intriguing type of terrain that cannot be found on Earth: chaotic terrain. To source

Portugal is developing the infrastructure for a national spaceport on one of the islands of the Azores archipelago, Santa Maria, a European launch and landing location for small satellites. To source

For Asteroid Day, Queen guitarist Brian May tells the story of ESA’s Hera asteroid mission, Europe’s contribution to an audacious international planetary defence test To source

Technology image of the week: what looks like an exploding firework is actually a simulation of humankind’s future expansion across the stars, produced for an international competition To source

Human and robotic exploration image of the week: Aorounga impact crater in Chad imaged from space by ESA astronaut Tim Peake To source

ESA will be participating in this year’s Asteroid Day , the UN-endorsed global awareness campaign day on the small rocky bodies scattered across space, taking place on Sunday, 30 June. To source