This Halloween weekend, enjoy our selection of spooky space sights, sounds and stories, from eery distant nebulae to the chilling sounds of Bepicolombo’s Earth flyby and even a near miss between two spacecraft that narrowly escaped collision. To source
Over the past four days, ‘Be a Star in ESA’s Universe’ welcomed experts from cybersecurity, space law and life support systems to talk about careers in the space sector and answer your questions. Catch up on what you missed with the online replays from this week and make a date to join us for the […]
Video: 00:03:45 In this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme, all 1200 islands that make up the Republic of Maldives are featured in a spectacular image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission. See also Republic of Maldives to download the image. To source
Image: All 1200 islands that make up the Republic of Maldives are featured in this spectacular image captured by Copernicus Sentinel-3. To source
Video: 00:06:00 This November the newest member of the EU’s Copernicus programme, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, will take to the heavens from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite is named after NASA’s former Director of Earth Observation and is a radar altimetry mission to monitor sea-level rise, wave-height and windspeed. The mission is a […]
Vega-C and Ariane 6 are being developed by ESA to assure Europe’s independent access to space. The maiden flight for Vega-C is planned to take place in June 2021, that for Ariane 6 for the second quarter of 2022. To source
The Sun has entered its 25th solar cycle and is about to wake up. For the last few years our star has been pretty sleepy, with few sunspots, bright flares or massive ejections of magnetised plasma emanating from its surface. This quiet period is known as the solar minimum, but things are starting to heat […]
Mars is covered in intriguing scars – some of the most prominent being impact craters. A particularly unusual example is shown in this new image from ESA’s Mars Express : an ancient triplet comprising not one but three overlapping craters. To source
After years of detective work, the second touchdown site of Rosetta’s Philae lander has been located on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in a site that resembles the shape of a skull. Philae left its imprint in billions-of-years-old ice, revealing that the comet’s icy interior is softer than cappuccino froth. To source
Image: Testing lunar 4G operations To source
ESA Director General Jan Wörner and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to take Europe to the Moon. To source
When humans return to the Moon they’ll have formidable challenge lying in wait: lunar dust. The talcum-like lunar regolith is considered the biggest operational problem facing Moon colonists. Within a few days of dust exposure, Apollo spacesuits suffered obscured visors, clogged mechanisms and eroded suit layers. So an ESA team is looking into novel material […]
Image: A human endothelial cell that was flown to the International Space Station and returned to Earth for analysis is helping researchers keep astronauts healthy in space. Endothelial cells line our blood vessels and help contract and expand the vessels as needed and so are instrumental in maintaining pressure and a healthy body. The Endothelial […]