Observations from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft are shedding light on the mysterious make-up of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, revealing a mix of compounds thought to be essential precursors to life – including salts of ammonium and a particular type of hydrocarbons. To source
Tag Archives | image
The dynamic behaviour of a black hole corona
Image: These illustrations show the surroundings of a black hole feeding on ambient gas as mapped using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. As the material falls into the black hole, it spirals around to form a flattened disc, as shown here, heating up as it does so. At the very centre of the disc, close to […]
The Sun in 2019
Image: The changing activity of our Sun as seen by ESA’s Proba-2 satellite in 2019. The satellite is continuously monitoring the Sun – one image was selected to represent each day of the year in this montage of 365 Suns. The images were taken by the satellite’s SWAP camera, which works at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths to […]
Discover our new Solar Orbiter range
Discover our new Solar Orbiter range To source
Hubble Views Galaxy From Famous Catalog
This bright, somewhat blob-like object — seen in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — is a galaxy named NGC 1803. It is about 200 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of Pictor (the Painter’s Easel), and it was discovered in 1834 by astronomer John Herschel. To source
ESA opens oxygen plant – making air out of moondust
ESA’s technical heart has begun to produce oxygen out of simulated moondust. To source
Japanese archipelago
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission takes us over the Japanese archipelago – a string of islands that extends about 3000 km into the western Pacific Ocean. While the archipelago is made up of over 6000 islands, this image focuses on Japan’s four main islands. Running from north to south, Hokkaido is visible in the top […]
Earth from Space: Japanese archipelago
Video: 00:00:00 In this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission takes us over Japan’s four main islands. See also Japanese archipelago to download the image. To source
First Spacebus Neo satellite launched
Ariane 5’s first launch of 2020 has delivered two telecom satellites, Konnect and GSAT-30, into their planned transfer orbits. Arianespace announced liftoff at 21:05 GMT (22:05 CET, 18:05 local time) this evening from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. To source
Ariane 5 liftoff
Image: On 16 January 2020, Ariane 5 flight VA251 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Konnect and GSAT-30, into their planned orbits. To source
Cuatro Cienegas Basin, Mexico
In the northern Mexican state of Cohuilla lies the Cuatro Cienegas Basin. To source
Animated view of the Milky Way’s hot halo and its elements – artist’s impression
Image: This animated artist’s impression shows the Milky Way (the small galaxy depicted at the centre of the frame) and its halo (the extended gaseous region). It illustrates the halo in three different shades – emerald, yellow and green. These all mix together throughout the halo, and each represents gas of a different temperature. Dots […]
XMM-Newton discovers scorching gas in Milky Way’s halo
ESA’s XMM-Newton has discovered that gas lurking within the Milky Way’s halo reaches far hotter temperatures than previously thought and has a different chemical make-up than predicted, challenging our understanding of our galactic home. To source