Video: 00:02:00 ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The Soyuz-Fregat launcher will also deliver the Italian space agency’s Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellite, and three CubeSats – including ESA’s OPS-SAT – into space today. Cheops is ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. […]
Europe will power the NASA spacecraft that take astronauts to a new international outpost and forward to the Moon, following decisions made by ESA Member States at Space19+ in Seville, Spain . To source
Image: Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite revealed that an explosion in a natural gas well in Ohio in February 2018 released more than 50 000 tons of methane into the atmosphere. The blowout leaked more of this potent greenhouse gas in 20 days than the majority of many European nations do in a year […]
As the holiday season approaches, people in the northern hemisphere will gather indoors to stay warm. In keeping with the season, astronomers have studied two groups of galaxies that are rushing together and producing their own warmth. To source
Image: Someone decked the skies with boughs of sprites. The red jellyfish in the sky is a unique red sprite high above a storm across the southern plains of the United States. Taken in the early hours of 21 October by outdoor photographer Paul Smith, red sprites, along with blue jets and elves, are elusive […]
Video: 00:01:45 What would you do with a powerful computer based in space? At just 30 cm in height, OPS-SAT is a tiny CubeSat designed to serve as a large-scale software laboratory in orbit – containing one of the most powerful flight computers ever flown – to test innovative control software from teams all over […]
Spare a thought this Christmas for researchers hunkered down on their Polarstern icebreaker, adrift in the frozen Arctic Ocean. Subjected to temperatures as low as –45°C and the perpetual darkness of the polar winter, they are willing participants in MOSAiC – the world’s largest and longest polar research expedition. Despite the darkness, however, the researchers […]
Image: This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 1175, a galaxy with an intriguing and distinctive shape. Galaxies come in a range of shapes and sizes. Spiral galaxies are characterised by a bright core and vast, pinwheeling arms of gas, dust and stars – NGC 1175 is such a galaxy, and also […]
Image: The fairing of the Soyuz launcher that will lift ESA’s Cheops mission into space, along with the primary passenger, the Italian space agency’s Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellite, and three CubeSats: ESA’s OPS-SAT and the French space agency’s CNES’s EYE-SAT and ANGELS satellites. Launch is scheduled for 17 December from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French […]
Cheops: Characterising exoplanets To source
Tune in to ESA Web TV from 08:30 GMT (09:30 CET) Tuesday 17 December to watch ESA’s exoplanet mission soar into space on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. To source
This coming Tuesday, ESA is launching the most powerful flight computer ever flown in space – inside a satellite smaller than a shoebox. The OPS-SAT nanosatellite will be the world’s first orbiting software laboratory, available to test novel methods of operating missions in actual space conditions. To source
As France’s top rugby players scrum, run and tackle they are being tracked by more than just TV cameras and the watching eyes of the crowd. Satnav-based tracking devices between their shoulder blades are keeping tabs on their position and performance – and helping to safeguard their health. To source