Archive | Science

Image: XMM-Newton and Euclid image of galaxy cluster Abell 2390 To source

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) will return to Earth on 19–20 August, with flight controllers guiding the spacecraft first past the Moon and then past Earth itself. This ‘braking’ manoeuvre will take Juice on a shortcut to Jupiter via Venus. To source

Video: 00:00:48 Several team members wish Euclid a happy first launch anniversary in their own language. ESA’s Euclid satellite launched on 1 July 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, and now resides in an orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. During its mission, Euclid will observe billions of galaxies out to ten billion light-years […]

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/Webb James Webb Space Telescope to study the disc around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disc (including the first extrasolar detection of ethane) and contribute to our evolving understanding of the diversity of […]

Video: 00:01:01 Today, ESA’s Euclid space mission releases five unprecedented new views of the Universe. The never-before-seen images demonstrate Euclid’s ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos and enable scientists to hunt for rogue planets, use lensed galaxies to study mysterious matter, and explore the evolution of the Universe. Read more about Euclid’s first […]

Image: The eye of the crater To source

Image: Research Fellows in space science 2024 To source

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. To source

While ESA’s Integral was observing the sky, it suddenly spotted a burst of gamma-rays coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA’s XMM-Newton searched for an afterglow from the explosion but found none. Astronomers realised that the burst must have been an extra-galactic flare from a magnetar, a young neutron star […]

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if there are other planets out there beyond our Solar System? To source

An ESA programme called Prodex has enabled Estonian researchers and industry to join an international mission to intercept and examine a comet entering the inner Solar System for the first time. To source

Image: Total solar eclipse 8 April 2024 To source

Video: 00:00:31 ESA’s Proba-2 captured two partial solar eclipses on 8 April 2024.  A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, totally or partially blocking the Sun from Earth’s point of view. On 8 April, lucky viewers across North America witnessed the Moon blocking out the Sun in its entirety […]