ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has provided crucial data to answer the decades-long question of where the energy comes from to heat and accelerate the solar wind. Working in tandem with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe , Solar Orbiter reveals that the energy needed to help power this outflow is coming from large fluctuations in the Sun’s […]
Tag Archives | science
Juice’s navigation camera gets first taste of space
During this week’s lunar-Earth flyby, the Navigation Camera (NavCam) of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice ) was tested out in space for the first time. To source
Mermaid on salty Mars
Image: Mermaid on salty Mars To source
XMM-Newton shows million-degree gas in Abell 2390
Image: XMM-Newton and Euclid image of galaxy cluster Abell 2390 To source
Juice’s lunar-Earth flyby: all you need to know
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
Happy launch anniversary, Euclid!
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 […]
Webb finds surprising ingredients around young star
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 […]
Euclid celebrates first science with sparkling new images
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 […]
The eye of the crater
Image: The eye of the crater To source
Research Fellows in space science 2024
Image: Research Fellows in space science 2024 To source
Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
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
Dead star lights up nearby galaxy
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 […]
Sailing among the stars – Gaia's role in discovering distant worlds
Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if there are other planets out there beyond our Solar System? To source