Archive | Science

ESA’s Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo spacecraft made a historic Venus flyby earlier this week, passing by the planet within 33 hours of each other and capturing unique imagery and data during the encounter. To source

Video: 00:00:00 On 9 August 2021, the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft passed within 7995 km of the surface of planet Venus during a gravity assist flyby. The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager, SoloHI, captured this gleaming view of the planet in the days leading up to the approach. The images show Venus approaching from the left while […]

Image: Flying by Venus To source

Video: 00:05:08 The ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) team has been working very hard to prepare the spacecraft for the first test in the one-year long environmental test campaign. This is the so-called Thermal Balance Thermal Vacuum (TBTV) test. Juice is in the Large Space Simulator (LSS), a unique facility in Europe (run by […]

The international James Webb Space Telescope has passed the final mission analysis review for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. To source

Create a space-themed Halloween party concept on Pinterest to celebrate the launch of the international Webb mission, and be in with a chance of attending ESA’s own VIP launch event! To source

Image: New observations made with ESA’s X-ray XMM Newton telescope have revealed an “orphan cloud” – an isolated cloud in a galaxy cluster that is the first discovery of its kind. A lot goes on in a galaxy cluster. There can be anything from tens to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The galaxies […]

Video: 00:03:38 An instrument destined for Jupiter orbit undergoes eight days of cryogenic radio-frequency testing using a new test facility at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands. The Submillimetre Wave Instrument of ESA’s Juice mission will survey the churning atmosphere of Jupiter and the scanty atmospheres of its Galilean moons. Testing took place in […]

Video: 00:00:59 The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) moved into the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC end May, in a two-day operation. During a month-long test campaign the spacecraft will be subject to extreme temperature cycles under vacuum to replicate the heating and cooling that the spacecraft will experience on its way to Jupiter. The […]

Image: Moons of the giant planets To source

Image: New physical probes of the early Universe To source

ESA’s large-class science missions for the timeframe 2035-2050 will focus on moons of the giant Solar System planets, temperate exoplanets or the galactic ecosystem, and new physical probes of the early Universe. To source

EnVision will be ESA’s next Venus orbiter, providing a holistic view of the planet from its inner core to upper atmosphere to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. To source