Image: Heavy rainfall has triggered flooding in southern Iran, particularly in the Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan and Kerman provinces. The downpour has led to blocked roads and destroyed bridges, crops and houses – displacing thousands of people. This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission , shows the extent of the flooding in the Sistan […]
Astronomers using the combined powers of ESA’s Rosetta mission and the ground-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have traced the journey of phosphorus – one of life’s building blocks – from star-forming regions to comets. To source
Video: 01:31:40 Recording of the ESA Director General’s start-of-the-year press briefing, held at ESA headquarters in Paris, France, on 15 January 2020. This briefing, with DG Jan Wörner and ESA Directors, lays out plans for the new budget committed to by Member States at Space19+ and looks ahead to activities in 2020. To source
A device that uses electricity generated by plants as its power source has communicated via satellite – a world first. Such sensors could be used to connect everyday objects in remote locations, enabling them to send and receive data as part of the Internet of Things. To source
Image: What might look like jelly being stirred is actually water subjected to 20 times normal Earth gravity within ESA’s Large Diameter Centrifuge – as part of an experiment giving new insight into the behavior of wave turbulence. This research, led by Stéphane Dorbolo of University of Liège and Eric Falcon of CNRS and University […]
Fifteen years ago today, ESA’s Huygens probe made history when it descended to the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan and became the first probe to successfully land on another world in the outer Solar System. However, during its descent, the probe began spinning the wrong way – and recent tests now reveal why. To source
Image: ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is shown here as a long streak against a backdrop of stars as it orbits the Earth after its successful launch on 18 December 2019. The 6-minute long exposure was taken at 13:18 UTC on 11 January 2020 with the 1-m SAINT-EX robotic telescope , located at the National […]
Image: Another pair of eyes provides a sobering perspective on the fires ravaging Australia. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano took images such as this one on 12 January from his vantage point of the International Space Station. From satellite imagery tracing smoke and pollution , to images from the ground depicting apocalyptic red skies, there is […]
Video: 00:04:00 The first flight of the Artemis programme, which will see humans return to the Moon, is scheduled to begin soon. The lunar spacecraft consists of NASA’s Orion crew module and the European Service Module, or ESM. Developed by ESA and building on technology from its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the ESM will provide […]
Mission X: train like an astronaut is an international educational challenge, focusing on health, science, fitness and nutrition, which encourages pupils to train like an astronaut. To source
Follow the ESA Director General’s start-of-the-year press briefing at 08:30 GMT (09:30 CET) on 15 January 2020. To source
The first satellite developed under an initiative to help European industry deliver competitive satellites for the commercial telecommunications market has entered its final phase before launch. Konnect will provide broadband services for Europe and Africa, and was built by Thales Alenia Space for Eutelsat, its commercial operator, under an ESA Partnership Project. To source
ESA’s Mars Express has captured beautiful images of the icy cap sitting at Mars’ north pole, complete with bright swathes of ice, dark troughs and depressions, and signs of strong winds and stormy activity. To source