Archive | Science

On 19 June 2022, Jupiter’s intriguing moon Europa will pass in front of a distant star, making that star appear to disappear for at least a minute. This event will be easy to see with any size of telescope from certain parts of Africa. To source

One solar stormy day in November 2018, 13 spacecraft including ESA’s Cluster mission  were in the right place at the right time to spot a process that has never been seen in its entirety before. Their observations explain how vortices at the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere can cause auroral beads to dot the sky a hundred […]

Video: 00:02:54 Spacecraft are not so different to humans – whilst the Sun can be a great source of vital energy, both people and machines must also be protected from its harmful effects. In this video, engineers at Thales Alenia Space in Turin are attaching a combined sunshield and solar panel module to the main […]

Image: ESA has selected 9 new Fellows to pursue their own independent research in 2022. The Research Fellowships in Space Science represent one of the highlights of the ESA Science programme. Early career postdoctoral scientists are offered the unique opportunity to carry out advanced research related to the space science areas covered by ESA Science […]

Image: Click here to download the gif. The James Webb Space Telescope is aligned across all four of its science instruments, as seen in a previous engineering image showing the observatory’s full field of view. Now, we take a closer look at that same image, focusing on Webb’s coldest instrument: the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. […]

ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) passed an important review that marks the mission as feasible for final technology development and design before adoption. To source

Video: 00:03:53 This video shows the payload module for the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile) undergoing a series of different environmental tests at both Airbus Madrid, Spain, and the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.  These milestones include integration of the Soft X-ray Imager and ultraviolet instruments on […]

Image: Celebrating Hubble’s 32nd birthday with a galaxy grouping To source

Image: Hubble confirms largest comet nucleus ever seen To source

Image: Hubble finds a planet forming in an unconventional way To source

Image: Smile payload module travels to China To source

Video: 00:01:00 Spectroscopy is a tool that astronomers use to better understand the physics of objects in space. The spectrographs on board the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb ) provide scientists with the data needed to analyse the materials that make up stars, nebulae, galaxies and the atmospheres of planets. Light that enters the telescope […]

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows part of possibly the largest single source of dust on Mars: a wind-sculpted feature known as the Medusae Fossae Formation, or MFF. To source