There is never a dull day for participants of the CAVES campaign, ESA’s field training adventure that hones the communication, problem solving and teamwork skills an international crew will need to explore the tough, uncharted terrain of the Moon and Mars.

This week six astronauts turned ‘cavenauts’ from five space agencies headed underground in Slovenia, where they are currently living and working for the week. To keep the element of exploration, astronauts themselves do not know the exact location.

The goal is to run scientific experiments while managing the psychological toll of being in an extreme environment with a multinational crew.

Following a week’s training above ground, including lectures from experts and practical exercises, the team is now underground searching for signs of life that have adapted to the extreme conditions in the caves.

One of the team’s main scientific objectives is to follow the water, a vital resource on- and off- our planet.

Caves are usually formed by running water and ESA picked a cave where rivers flow underground for this training expedition. For the first time, the team will be on the lookout for microplastics. They will also test water chemistry and learn to find and interpret waterways in a cave system.

Trainees are also sampling and analysing microbes that have managed to survive in such inhospitable conditions. Geochemistry, meteorology and other environmental studies are on the list. Read more about the science happening beneath the surface.

If it sounds like a lot to ask of astronauts in a two-week period, fear not. The cavenauts are well prepared and supported.

The astronauts are also using an upgraded version of the Electronic Field Book. This all-in-one, easy-to-use application will allow them to deliver science and video logs while checking procedures and cue cards on a tablet.

Above ground, mission control will track their progress with a 3D map generated on the app as they explore the cave. Scientists can locate the astronauts’ scientific observations paired with pictures, and send their comments back to the cave.

The six cavenauts of this edition of CAVES are ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Jeanette Epps, Roscosmos’ cosmonaut Nikolai Chub, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Josh Kutryk and JAXA’s Takuya Onishi. Chub and Gerst are serving as co-commanders of the expedition.

Credits: ESA–A. Romeo

ESA’s Euclid mission is undergoing the final test before launch in July 2023.

Here it is standing in a special room in the Thales Alenia Space test facilities in Cannes, France, where it successfully underwent electromagnetic compatibility testing.

This kind of testing is routine for spacecraft. All electronics emit some form of electromagnetic waves that can cause interference with other devices. Think of the buzz that speakers give out right before an incoming call on a mobile phone. Spacecraft electronics can cause similar interference, but out in space such interference can have disastrous consequences, so all systems must be checked before launch.

The large test chamber at TAS, called the Compact Antenna Test Range, simulates the electromagnetic environment of deep space, being lined with cones that absorb radio signals and prevent reflections. To avoid TV or radio interference, the walls of the chamber form a steel ‘Faraday cage’, impenetrable to electromagnetic signals from the outside world.

In this radiation-free environment, the team studied the radio signals and electrical noise coming from the various systems on the spacecraft and checked whether they caused any electromagnetic interference with each other.

ESA's Euclid mission is designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. The space telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

Euclid is a fully European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA. The Euclid Consortium – consisting of more than 2000 scientists from 300 institutes in 13 European countries, the US, Canada and Japan – provided the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its Service Module, with Airbus Defence and Space chosen to develop the Payload Module, including the telescope. NASA provided the near-infrared detectors of the NISP instrument.

Credits: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut

ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite lifted off on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 22 August at 21:20 GMT (23:20 CEST). Using revolutionary laser technology, Aeolus will measure winds around the globe and play a key role in our quest to better understand the workings of our atmosphere. Importantly, this novel mission will also improve weather forecasting.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this image of Hurriacane Florence on 12 September 2018, 400 km high from the International Space Station. He commented:

"Ever stared down the gaping eye of a category 4 hurricane? It's chilling, even from space."

Alexander is on his second six-month Space Station mission. Follow him and the Horizons mission on social media on his website and on his blog.

Credits: ESA/NASA–A. Gerst

One of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s many scientific objectives is to study the planets within the Solar System — and in past years, our system’s outer planets have been observed several times as part of Hubble’s Outer Planet Atmosphere Legacy (OPAL) programme.

This programme has given us this new image of the planet Uranus, the seventh planet in the Solar System in order of increasing distance from the Sun. Past observations of Uranus using Hubble have led to many interesting insights about the cold ice giant; in 2006 the telescope managed to capture a shot in which the moon Ariel and its accompanying shadow were traversing the face of Uranus, and in 2011 Hubble was able to spot faint auroras in its atmosphere.

Observations made over the course of several years also allowed astronomers to study the planet’s faint ring system as its inclination changed with respect to Earth’s orbit. This new image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, adds to the legacy of images already taken and will provide scientists with even more new insights into our distant neighbour.

Credits: NASA, ESA, A.A. Simon (NASA Goddard), and M.H. Wong and A.I. Hsu (University of California, Berkeley); CC BY 4.0

Known for its wide swathes of rippling, textured, gently sloping dunes, Mars’ Terra Sabaea region is home to many fascinating geological features – including the prominent Moreux crater, the star of a new image from ESA’s Mars Express.

The crater is roughly three kilometres deep, and spans 135 kilometres from edge to edge. While the surrounding material is visible in hues of butterscotch and caramel, the crater’s walls are dark, resembling a smudged ring of charcoal, and dark brown-black dunes cover the crater floor. This darkness is thought to be a result of the dunes comprising sandy material rich in pyroxene and olivine, minerals with a typically dark appearance.

The dunes and flow features in Moreux crater are intriguing. Many of the features surrounding the central peak and southern region of the crater (to the left of the image) appear to have been formed by substantial and episodic glacial activity over the past few million years. Many other features, most notably the sickle-shaped dunes covering the crater floor, show signs of being eroded or formed by wind-related processes.

This image comprises data gathered on 30 October 2019 during orbit 20014. The ground resolution is approximately 16 m/pixel and the images are centred at about 44°E/42°N. This image was created using data from the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is to the right.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is shown here as a long streak against a backdrop of stars as it orbits the Earth after its successful launch on 18 December 2019.

The 6-minute long exposure was taken at 13:18 UTC on 11 January 2020 with the 1-m SAINT-EX robotic telescope, located at the National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico at San Pedro Martir, Mexico.

The coordinates of the centre of this 2048 x 2048 pixel image are: right ascension 11h 56m 58.00s and declination +27º 30’ 45.0’’ (J2000). The visible trail seen running from bottom to top in the image is due to sunlight reflected by the Cheops spacecraft, which is in a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 700 km and a local time of the ascending node of 6:00am.

The image spans only 12 arcminutes across, so Cheops spent a very short time in the field of view – around 400 ms. The estimated r’-band magnitude of CHEOPS in this image is 7.8 ± 0.3 (calculation by M. Sestovic, University of Bern).

More about Cheops

Credits: Courtesy of the SAINT-EX team, University of Bern

This Hubble Picture of the Week shows the spiral galaxy Messier 98, which is located about 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair). It was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier, and is one of the faintest objects in Messier’s astronomical catalogue.

Messier 98 is estimated to contain about a trillion of stars, and is full of cosmic dust — visible here as a web of red-brown stretching across the frame — and hydrogen gas. This abundance of star-forming material means that Messier 98 is producing stellar newborns at a high rate; the galaxy shows the characteristic signs of stars springing to life throughout its bright centre and whirling arms.

This image of Messier 98 was taken in 1995 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, an instrument that was installed on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope from 1993 till 2009. These observations were taken in infrared and visible light as part of a study of galaxy cores within the Virgo Cluster, and feature a portion of the galaxy near the centre.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, V. Rubin et al.; CC BY 4.0

This striking image combines data gathered with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, installed on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. It shows just a part of the spectacular tail emerging from a spiral galaxy nicknamed D100.

Tails such as these are created by a process known as ram-pressure stripping. Despite appearances, the space between galaxies in a cluster is far from empty; it is actually filled with superheated gas and plasma, which drags and pulls at galaxies as they move through it, a little like the resistance one experiences when wading through deep water. This can be strong enough to tear galaxies apart, and often results in objects with peculiar, bizarre shapes and features — as seen here.

D100’s eye-catching tail of gas, which stretches far beyond this image to the left, is a particularly striking example of this phenomenon. The galaxy is a member of the huge Coma cluster. The pressure from the cluster’s hot constituent plasma (known as the intracluster medium) has stripped gas from D100 and torn it away from the galaxy’s main body, and drawing it out into the plume pictured here.

Densely populated clusters such as Coma are home to thousands of galaxies. They are thus the perfect laboratories in which to study the intriguing phenomenon of ram-pressure stripping, which, as well as producing beautiful images such as this, can have a profound effect on how galaxies evolve and form new generations of stars.

Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Cramer et al.; CC BY 4.0

With some places expecting to be hit with air temperatures of over 40°C in the next days, much of Europe is in the grip of a heatwave – and one that is setting record highs for June. According to meteorologists this current bout of sweltering weather is down to hot air being drawn from north Africa.

This map shows the temperature of the land on 26 June. It has been generated using information from the Copernicus Sentinel-3’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer, which measures energy radiating from Earth’s surface in nine spectral bands – the map therefore represents temperature of the land surface, not air temperature which is normally used in forecasts. The white areas in the image are where cloud obscured readings of land temperature and the light blue patches are snow-covered areas.

Countries worst hit by this unusual June weather include Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland. In many places heat warnings have been issued and cities such as Paris have connected fountains and sprinklers to hydrants to help give people some relief. Wildfires in Catalonia, said to be the worst in two decades, have already ripped across 5000 hectares of land and are being blamed on the heat and strong winds.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Very close to the left hand edge of this image in the top half, is a thin vertical line with a broad top. This is one of Philae’s three legs sticking up from behind an obscuring boulder, illustrating the difficulty in spotting the lander on the comet’s chaotic surface.

The scale of the image is 4.6 cm/pixel, with Philae’s foot estimated to be about 2.5 km away when Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera took the image on 30 August 2016. The contrast of the image has been stretched to reveal Philae’s foot against the shadowed background.

Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The BepiColombo mission to Mercury sits on the launch pad at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, ahead of its scheduled liftoff at 01:45 GMT on 20 October. Watch live

BepiColombo is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

Some galaxies are closer friends than others. While many live their own separate, solitary lives, others stray a little too close to a near neighbour and take their relationship to the next level.

The galaxy in this Picture of the Week, named NGC 6286, has done just that! Just out of frame lies its partner, NGC 6285. Together, the duo is named Arp 293 and they are interacting, their mutual gravitational attraction pulling wisps of gas and streams of dust from them, distorting their shapes, and gently smudging and blurring their appearances on the sky — to Earth-based observers, at least.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has viewed a number of interacting pairs. These can have distinctive, beautiful, and downright odd shapes, ranging from sheet music to a spaceship entering a sci-fi-esque wormhole, a bouquet of celestial blooms, and a penguin fiercely guarding its precious egg.

Arp 293 is located in the constellation of Draco (The Dragon), and lies over 250 million light-years from Earth.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Larson et al.; CC BY 4.0

Ariane 5 VA 260 with Juice, start of rollout on Tuesday 11 April.

Juice is being prepared to launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 April 2023.

Juice – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – is humankind’s next bold mission to the outer Solar System. This ambitious mission will characterise Ganymede, Callisto and Europa with a powerful suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments to discover more about these compelling destinations as potential habitats for past or present life. Juice will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giant systems across the Universe.

Following launch, Juice will embark on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, arriving in July 2031 with the aid of momentum and direction gained from four gravity-assist fly-bys of the Earth-Moon system, Venus and, twice, Earth.

Flight VA260 will be the final Ariane 5 flight to carry an ESA mission to space.

Find out more about Juice in ESA’s launch kit

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

Not everyone can fly to the International Space Station, but astronauts are working hard to bring the experience to Earth – including through a virtual reality (VR) film project known as ISS Experience.

This Z-CAM V1 Pro Cinematic camera, shown to the left of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, was launched to the Space Station in December 2018. It shoots high quality 360-degree footage, documenting life and research on the Space Station for people to experience in VR on Earth.

ISS Experience is a commercial project and technology demonstration, developed by a team at Felix and Paul Studios in partnership with TIME and the US ISS National Laboratory responsible for managing all non-NASA research on Station. Through the VR series, the team hope to transport audiences to space and make spectators feel like crew members on a mission.

On Station, the camera is used to film up to four hours of footage each week. Every one to two weeks, this footage is transferred from the camera onto solid state drives that are used for storage and downlinking.

ESA astronauts Luca Parmitano, Thomas Pesquet, Samantha Cristoforetti and Alexander Gerst discussed the project following Luca’s return from the Space Station, including the need to keep objects away from the lenses to ensure these did not take over the scene.

Initially scheduled to end with Luca’s increment, the project has now been extended. “That’s because this year and into next year, they’re going to have one version of ISS Experience that’s going to go EVA. They’re going to take one outside,” Luca says.

Before a VR camera is taken out on a spacewalk, there are some challenges to overcome. These include power source, as the current camera must be plugged in. However, if successful, it will provide unprecedented insight into the daily lives of astronauts in a way never experienced before.

Watch the full conversation about ISS Experience here.

Credits: NASA

New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have investigated the nature of the gamma-ray burst GRB 190114C.

Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the Universe. They emit most of their energy in gamma rays, light which is much more energetic than the visible light we can see with our eyes.

In January 2019, an extremely bright and long gamma-ray burst (GRB) was detected by a suite of telescopes, including NASA’s Swift and Fermi telescopes, as well as by the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes. Known as GRB 190114C, some of the light detected from the object had the highest energy ever observed: 1Tera electron volt (TeV) — about one trillion times as much energy per photon as visible light. Scientists have been trying to observe such very high energy emission from GRB’s for a long time, so this detection is considered a milestone in high-energy astrophysics.

Previous observations revealed that to achieve this energy, material must be emitted from a collapsing star at 99.999% the speed of light. This material is then forced through the gas that surrounds the star, causing a shock that creates the gamma-ray burst itself. For the first time, scientists have observed extremely energetic gamma rays from this particular burst.

Read more.

Credits: ESA/Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin; CC BY 4.0

The upper composite containing 53 separate satellites being attached to the rest of the Vega launcher, ahead of Friday morning’s launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

This will be the inaugural launch of Vega’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) dispenser, providing a ‘ride share’ service for multiple small missions, ranging from 1 kg CubeSats up to 500 kg minisatellites.

A total of eight European states have satellites aboard the flight, including four ESA payloads – the 100 kg ESAIL microsatellite and three CubeSats: Simba, PICASSO and FSSCat which carries pioneering AI technology named Φ-sat-1.

Notice the air conditioning umbilical fitted to the upper composite, used to keep the delicate satellites cool, dry and comfortable in the humid conditions of French Guiana.

Follow the launch on ESA Web TV from 03:36 CEST, with liftoff due at 03:51 CEST (01:51 UTC, 10:51 on Thursday night French Guiana time).

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P. BAUDON

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this image of Santiago – the capital and largest city of Chile.

Santiago lies in the centre of Chile’s most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, with a population around eight million, of which five million live in the city’s urban area. Santiago is spread over more than 600 sq km with most of the city lying between 500 to 650 m above mean sea level.

The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September).

The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries.

Cerro El Plomo, 5424 m, is the largest mountain peak visible from Santiago on clear days. There are many ski resorts in the snow-covered mountains, as well as viewpoints offering spectacular views of Santiago.

The Maipo River runs south of the city coming from the mountains and is the main river flowing through the Santiago Metropolitan Region and the Valparaíso Region of Chile. The Maipo River is by far the major source of irrigation and drinking water for the region. The Mapocho River, which flows through central Santiago, is one of its tributaries.

In the top of the image lies the Los Bronces copper mine and it represents one of the largest copper reserves in Chile. The Paloma Glacier lies just south of it. Las Tórtolas, visible in the top of the image, is an artificial lake that is used for processing the copper ore that comes from Los Bronces through an extensive network of pipes.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 data are not only used to monitor plant growth, but also to map changes in land cover, and monitor the world’s forests as well as inland and coastal waters. The mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites in the same orbit, 180° apart for optimal coverage and data delivery. Together they cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days at the equator.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and her Crew-4 crew mates, NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert “Bob” Hines and Jessica Watkins, run through launch day procedures ahead of their journey to the International Space Station.

This rehearsal takes place in the days before launch to ensure the crew and support teams are well-versed in the roles and processes of launch day.

Crew-4 will be launched to the Station in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. This rocket will lift off from Launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA and Crew-4’s transit to the orbital outpost is expected to take less than 24 hours.

This is the second space mission for Samantha, who first flew to space in 2014 for her Italian Space Agency ASI-sponsored mission Futura. Her second mission, known as Minerva, is an ESA mission and officially begins once Samantha reaches the Station.

Samantha will be welcomed on board by fellow ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and enjoy a short handover in orbit before Matthias returns to Earth in April as part of Crew-3.

Throughout her mission, Samantha will hold the role of US Orbital Segment (USOS) lead, taking responsibility for all operations within the US, European, Japanese and Canadian modules and components of the Space Station. She will support around 35 European and many more international experiments in orbit.

For more about Samantha and her Minerva mission, visit the Minerva mission page.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission, this image shows Cyclone Idai on 13 March 2019 west of Madagascar and heading for Mozambique. Here, the width of the storm is around 800–1000 km, but does not include the whole extent of Idai. The storm went on to cause widespread destruction in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. With thousands of people losing their lives, and houses, roads and croplands submerged, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters and the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service were triggered to supply maps of flooded areas based on satellite data to help emergency response efforts.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA

Summertime and the Space Station livin’ is easy.

Like most people this season, the International Space Station is chasing some Sun. Amateur astrophotographer Javier Manteca captured this transit of the Sun on 2 August, at 17:10 CEST from Fuenlabrada in Spain.

The International Space Station regularly transits the Sun but often along a very narrow ground path, which makes it hard to record. Once you lock down the best viewing location on Earth, timing is a critical factor: transits of the Sun last only half a second.

Using a DSLR camera attached to a 150/750 telescope recording in full HD at 30 frames per second, Javier was able to capture the 0.8 seconds it took for the Station to pass. The image is made up of those stacked frames.

An astronomy fan from a young age, Javier’s passion has grown with him. He takes photographs of any near-Earth event, because “who says that daytime astronomy is boring?” Follow Javier and his photography on Instagram.

Meanwhile, on the International Space Station the six-astronaut crew is busy carrying out science experiments, maintain the Station and getting their daily dose of exercise.

Summer is a less noticeable in the controlled environment of the Station, but the atmosphere is pleasant. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is finding time to sneak in selfies while working with friends.

Back on Earth, summer events are in full swing in the western hemisphere, including next week’s space-themed Stockholm Culture Festival. Held from 13 to 17 August, the mass event welcomes thousands to experience space through popular culture.

Alongside a full programme of family-friendly activities promoting space topics – from talks, to book readings, dance events and movie screenings – festival goers will get to connect to space live with an in-flight call to the International Space Station.

Luca will share his experiences in orbit with fellow astronauts Tim Peake and Thomas Reiter on stage to host the event.

The Culture Festival is also the place to be for the world premiere of the stunning film Space Station Earth, featuring images from space set to music by composer Ilan Eshkeri.

Credits: Javier Manteca

There it is – the first Orion spacecraft to travel to the Moon is seen here in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Already integrated and tested with the first European Service Module that will power and propel the craft and the Crew Module, Orion has now been fitted with the adaptor cone that will connect it to the Space Launch Systems (SLS) rocket. This is one of the final major hardware checkouts before being integrated with SLS for the Artemis I launch to the Moon next year.

Earlier this month at NASA’s Kennedy, the last solar wing for Orion was unfolded, tested and folded for launch. This week, the four solar arrays will be connected to the main structure.

Each 7 m wing are hinged at two points so they can be folded to fit inside the fairing of the SLS rocket. After launch and in Earth orbit the four wings unfold to span 19 m and swivel and rotate to collect solar energy, turning it into electricity for the spacecraft’s systems.

Needless to say, all teams involved – NASA, ESA and the 16 companies in ten European countries supplying the components that make up humankind’s next generation spacecraft for exploration – are over the Moon.

Read more and stay up to date on Orion news via the blog.

Credits: NASA

The US State of Washington is under a state of emergency following days of severe wind and rain leading to extensive flooding in parts of the state. The extreme weather was caused by an atmospheric river, a huge plume of moisture extending over the Pacific and into Washington. Different satellites in orbit carry different instruments that can provide us with a wealth of complementary information to understand and to respond to flooding disasters.

The first image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows the extent of the floods in the Nooksack River, which spilled over its banks this week and washed out several roads in the process. The flooding forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and lead to the closure of schools.

More than 158 000 people were affected by power outages and disruptions to other services. The conditions triggered mudslides in the region, prompting the closure of the Interstate 5, but it has since reopened.

Optical satellite instruments such as the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites cannot see through clouds, which is why radar missions like Sentinel-1 are particularly useful. Radar images acquired before and after flooding events offer immediate information on the extent of inundation, thanks to Sentinel-1’s ability to ‘see’ through clouds and rain.

The following radar image uses information from two separate acquisitions captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on 4 November and 16 November 2021 and shows the extent of the flooding of the Nooksack River in dark blue.

The Copernicus Sentinels are a fleet of dedicated EU-owned satellites, designed to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to the European Union's Copernicus environmental programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

A small forest of antennas sprouts from the roof of ESA’s Navigation Laboratory, based at the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, which is among the most frequently satnav-fixed locations on Earth. This is also the site of the very first Galileo positioning fix, acquired back in 2014 using the first quartet of Galileo satellites.

“The antenna is a critical component of any Global Navigation Satellite System user segment, capturing power from the electromagnetic waves it receives, then converting it into electrical current to be processed by the rest of the receiver chain,” explains Radio Navigation Engineer Michelangelo Albertazzi.

“Up here we have a variety of antenna designs in place – such as omnidirectional, high gain and arrays – from leading world receiver manufacturers, which acquire signals from all major global GNSS constellations, including Galileo, GPS, the Russian Glonass and China’s Beidou, as well as regional systems such as Europe’s EGNOS.”

The NavLab is also equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to record, replay and analyze the RF signals picked up by these antennas, to help with its main goal of performing tests, analyses and characterisation of navigation systems for both ESA and external customers.

To find out more about working with ESA facilities, check our new website on the duties and resources of ESA’s Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

Credits: ESA-Remedia

What looks like an engine made its way to space and back last November. While the hardware of the Perwaves experiment will not end up in your car, results from this research could lead to more efficient and carbon-free fuel in the future.

Perwaves, or Percolating Reaction-Diffusion Waves, set metal powder on fire to study how it burns in a chamber. This is done in weightless conditions because the powder clumps under gravity. In weightlessness, the metal powder can be evenly spaced and suspended, making it easier to study.

Why metals? Because of their high energy density, metals can compete with gasoline and oil for fuel efficiency. The only waste product is rust, which can easily be recycled back into metal powder, making metals a fully carbon-free source of energy. However, metals do not ignite easily unless in powder form, when they burn in a process known as ‘discrete burning.’

Like a sparkler lit on New Year’s Eve, the metal powder ignites and burns completely due to the heat created by other fuel elements around it. Unlike traditional fires that burn through their fuel continuously, discrete fires spread by jumping from one fuel source to another.

The Perwaves experiment is looking for the ideal blend of oxygen and metal powder as well the ideal size of the metal dust to create the best conditions for combustion. The results from the burning will be analysed to create discrete burning models to extrapolate the ideal conditions and to optimise industrial burner designs.

Perwaves launched on the Texus-56 sounding rocket from Esrange, Sweden last November. The rocket flew to 260 km before falling back to Earth, offering researchers six minutes of zero gravity. During this time, researchers confirmed that the hardware works and that iron-fuelled combustion is sustainable.

The team details their work in an article published in Acta Astronautica but the next step is to fly the experiment in the world’s weightless laboratory, the International Space Station, to continue collecting scientific data over longer periods of time.

Perwaves was conceived by McGill University in Montreal, Canada and designed by the sounding rocket team at Airbus in Bremen, Germany.

Credits: Airbus sounding rocket team Bremen

ESA’s Biomass satellite at Airbus’ Astrolabe facilities in Toulouse, France, undergoing its environment campaign. During these mechanical tests, the satellite was subjected to environments that simulated the noise and vibrations of launch. This is to ensure that it will remain intact and healthy during its rough ride into orbit. The satellite is pictured here on the shaker.

Credits: Airbus

The constant ‘rain’ of radiation in space includes cosmic rays, which, despite the name ‘ray’, comprises highly energetic particles arriving from beyond the Solar System. These rays are considered the main health hazard for astronauts conducting future exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

This bad stuff can also play havoc with sensitive spacecraft electronics, corrupting data, damaging circuits and degrading microchips.

There are many different kinds of cosmic rays, and they can have very different effects on spacecraft and their occupants, depending on the types of particles, the particles’ energies and the duration of the exposure.

A new international accelerator, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), now under construction near Darmstadt, Germany, at the existing GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI), will provide particle beams like the ones that exist in space and make them available to scientists for studies that will be used to make spacecraft more robust and help humans survive the rigours of spaceflight.

For example, researchers will be able to investigate how cells and human DNA are altered or damaged by exposure to cosmic radiation and how well microchips stand up to the extreme conditions in space.

FAIR’s central element will be a new accelerator ring with a circumference of 1100 m, capable of accelerating protons to near-light speeds. The existing GSI accelerators will repurposed to serve as pre-accelerators for the new FAIR facility.

This image shows the high-tech equipment that generates the particles, which are then injected into the GSI and FAIR accelerator systems.

On 14 February 2018, ESA and FAIR inked a cooperation agreement that will build on an existing framework of cooperation between the Agency and GSI, and see the two cooperate in the fields of radiation biology, electronic components, materials research, shielding materials and instrument calibration.

The agreement also includes cooperation in technology and software development and in joint activities in areas such as innovation management.

More information

- The Universe in the Laboratory: ESA and FAIR form partnership for researching cosmic radiation

- Heavy but fast

- New radiation research programme for human spaceflight

- Cosmic opportunity for radiation research at ESA

- Radiation: satellites’ unseen enemy

Follow GSI/FAIR

- Instagram: @universeinthelab

- Twitter: @GSI_en

- Facebook: GSIHelmholtzzentrum & FAIRAccelerator

Credits: GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH/Jan Michael Hosan 2018

Dutch shipbuilder Royal Huisman applied the same concurrent engineering process developed by ESA for space missions to the design of superyacht Sea Eagle II, due to become the world’s largest aluminium sailing yacht when delivered to its owner this spring.

This uniquely contemporary 81 m-long three-masted schooner was recently transported by barge from the company’s shipyard in Vollenhove to Royal Huisman Amsterdam, where its carbon composite rig will be installed, leaving her ready for sea trials and on-board crew training.

Sea Eagle II’s modern style extends to its design, which took place using concurrent engineering, taking inspiration from the long-established Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) at ESA’s technical centre ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, where it is employed for performing preliminary design and assessment of potential future space missions and systems.

“Satellites and superyachts are both complex machines, and concurrent engineering is advantageous in designing any complex system,” explains Massimo Bandecchi, founder of ESA’s CDF. “The basic idea is simple: bring together all necessary experts and design tools into a single room to work together as a team on a shared software model that updates immediately as changes are made, to assess design feasibility and trade-offs in a much more effective and reliable way.”

“While our main focus is fulfilling the needs of ESA engineering, there has also been strong interest in our work from industry. Concurrent engineering’s improved performance in terms of time, cost and efficiency speaks for itself. The result is that more than 50 centres have been built following ESA’s original CDF model and are now in operation across Europe, the majority in the space sector, plus around 10 non-space centres.”

Stefan Coronel, Royal Huisman’s Design and Engineering Manager, received training from Massimo and his team before setting up his own concurrent engineering room: “Yacht building is not rocket science, but it does involve a complex, multi-disciplinary system, with lots of trade-offs to be decided.

“The traditional ‘over the hedge’ design method – where one knowledge field does its work, then throws it across to the next team in sequence – demands the subsequent checking of feedback then possible design adjustments, so is quite a time consuming process. In the modern yard-building world there isn’t so much time to spare.

“That said, compared to the dramatic shortening of satellite conceptual design time achieved by ESA, the main benefit we see from concurrent engineering is not gaining time but that the quality of the final design ends up much better, and more complete – giving us confidence to proceed to the build phase.”

Royal Huisman is now applying concurrent engineering to all of their new builds, and many of their refitting and service projects.

Mr. Coronel adds: “Our room is not as fancy as ESA’s CDF, but has the same basic approach of a place where everyone can contribute, with means of accessing all normal engineering tools and calculation methods, plus a splinter room for small separate discussions.”

In the same way that satellite design is broken down into subsystems, yacht design involves some main disciplines taking part in all the sessions: structural strength and stiffness; deck and sail handling; systems such as propulsion, power, heating and air conditioning; electronics and finally interior design – creating a desirable, luxurious interior. Additional external experts, such as noise and vibration specialists, attend as required.

“The kind of trade-offs that concurrent engineering makes easier to resolve include such deceptively simple tasks as placing a side hatch or staircase,” adds Mr. Coronel. “In the case of a hatch it would need to be watertight and endure loads from sea waves, while also integrated with the living space and looking good when trimmed with wood. While any staircase needs to be open and attractive, while also having pipes and electrical cables run through it, and meeting all relevant fire and safety regulations.”

The company’s adoption of concurrent engineering also meant Sea Eagle II’s aluminium panels have had holes and support structures added to them in advance, saving time in construction and the integration of feature such as winches or hatches.

European companies and institutions have variously adopted concurrent engineering for educating students, designing automobiles, planning oil platforms , optimising the production plant of dairy product company FrieslandCampina.

Credits: Royal Huisman

Launched on 25 April 2018, the Sentinel-3B satellite has already delivered impressive first images from its ocean and land colour instrument, and now the radiometer carried on this latest Copernicus satellite has revealed its talents. Captured on 9 May 2018, this image shows a low pressure system over the UK and Ireland, France, the Bay of Biscay, Spain and part of north Africa. Vegetation appears in red.

The Sentinel-3B satellite lifted off from Russia on 25 April and joins it identical twin, Sentinel-3A, in orbit. This pairing of satellites increases coverage and data delivery for the European Union’s Copernicus environment programme. Both Sentinel-3 satellites carry the same suite of instruments.

The sea and land surface temperature radiometer is particularly sophisticated, measuring energy radiating from Earth’s surface in nine spectral bands, including visible and infrared. It also includes dedicated channels for measuring fires. This early image came from its optical channels.

The image is also featured on the Eumetsat website.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by EUMETSAT

Every now and then, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope glimpses a common object — say, a spiral galaxy — in an interesting or unusual way. A sharply angled perspective, such as the one shown in this Picture of the Week, can make it seem as if we, the viewers, are craning our necks to see over a barrier into the galaxy's bright centre.

In the case of NGC 3169, this barrier is the thick dust embedded within the galaxy's spiral arms. Cosmic dust comprises a potpourri of particles, including water ice, hydrocarbons, silicates, and other solid material. It has many origins and sources, from the leftovers of star and planet formation to molecules modified over millions of years by interactions with starlight.

NGC 3169 is located about 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Sextans (The Sextant). It is part of the Leo I Group of galaxies, which, like the Local Group that houses our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of a larger galactic congregation known as the Virgo Supercluster.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Ho; CC BY 4.0

This pretty, cloud-like object may not look much like a galaxy — it lacks the well-defined arms of a spiral galaxy, or the reddish bulge of an elliptical — but it is in fact something known as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies sit somewhere between the spiral and elliptical types; they are disc-shaped, like spirals, but they no longer form large numbers of new stars and thus contain only ageing populations of stars, like ellipticals.

NGC 2655’s core is extremely luminous, resulting in its additional classification as a Seyfert galaxy: a type of active galaxy with strong and characteristic emission lines. This luminosity is thought to be produced as matter is dragged onto the accretion disc of a supermassive black hole sitting at the centre of NGC 2655. The structure of NGC 2655’s outer disc, on the other hand, appears calmer, but it is oddly-shaped. The complex dynamics of the gas in the galaxy suggest that it may have had a turbulent past, including mergers and interactions with other galaxies.

NGC 2655 is located about 80 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe). Camelopardalis contains many other interesting deep-sky objects, including the open cluster NGC 1502, the elegant Kemble’s Cascade asterism, and the starburst galaxy NGC 2146.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Fillipenko, CC BY 4.0

The European Robotic Arm (ERA) successfully made its first moves in orbit during the 250 spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station.

Two spacewalkers worked outside the orbiting lab for 7 hours and 42 minutes on 28 April 2022. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev removed thermal blankets and then unlocked the robotic arm.

The duo released the launch locks that held the arm in its folded configuration for the journey to space last year. Inside the Space Station, crewmate Sergey Korsakov monitored the first commanded movements of the robotic arm.

One of the robotic arm’s end effectors moved for the first time shortly after 20:00 CEST (18:00 GMT). The European Robotic Arm translated to another base point in a “walkoff” manoeuvre.

The robotic arm brings new ways of operating automated machines to the orbital complex. ERA has the ability to perform many tasks automatically or semi-automatically, can be directed either from inside or outside the Station, and it can be controlled in real time or preprogrammed.

The International Space Station already has two robotic arms – Canadian and Japanese robots play a crucial role in berthing spacecraft and transferring payloads and astronauts.

ERA is the first robot capable of ‘walking’ around the Russian parts of the orbital complex. It can handle components up to 8000 kg with 5 mm precision, and it will transport astronauts from one working site to another.

Additional spacewalks are planned to continue outfitting the European Robotic Arm.

More information about the European Robotic Arm

Credits: ESA/NASA-M. Maurer CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 11 January 2021 at 12:14 CET, this image of Madrid in Spain appears to have been taken in black and white. In fact, it is a true-colour image – but the heaviest snowfall in 50 years has blanketed the region, turning the landscape white.

Storm Filomena hit Spain over the weekend, blanketing parts of the country in thick snow and leaving half of the country on red alert. Madrid, one of the worst affected areas, was brought to a standstill with the airport having to be closed, trains cancelled and roads blocked.

Although this satellite image was taken after the storm had passed, it is clear to see that much snow still remains, especially in the outskirts of the city. For example, some runways at the airport, which is visible in the top-right of the image, are still covered by snow. The unusual cold weather on the Iberian Peninsula is expected to last until later this week with temperatures forecasted to plunge to –12°C. The race is on to clear roads so that supplies of essential goods such as food supplies and Covid vaccines can be delivered.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. Together they cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days at the equator.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Ariane 5 flight VA254 with the Eutelsat Quantum and Star One D2 satellites is now on the launch par of the ELA-3 (Ensemble de Lancement Ariane) Ariane 5 launch complex, at Europe's Space Port in Kourou, French Guyana on 29 July 2021.

Quantum, the ESA Partnership Project with Eutelsat, Airbus and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, is a pioneering mission preparing the way for the next generation of telecommunications satellites, which will be more flexible by design and so more adaptable to customer needs once in orbit.

Quantum is a shift from custom-designed satellite with one-off payloads to a more generic approach, resulting in unprecedented in-orbit reconfigurability in coverage, frequency and power, allowing complete mission rehaul, including orbital position.

ESA partnered with satellite operator Eutelsat and manufacturer Airbus to design this programme, in response to today's market requiring satellites to be able to respond to changes in geographical or performance demand, either during manufacturing or after launch. This will enable the operator to address emerging business opportunities — even those that appear after it has ordered a satellite.

Such ESA Partnership Projects maximise the benefits to industry thanks to an efficient, co-managed approach that is tailored to commercial best practice.

Credits:

Title :

Eutelsat Quantum on the launch pad

Credit line image :

ESA - S. Corvaja

Hidden from our sight, the Westerhout 43 star-forming region is revealed in full glory in this far-infrared image from ESA’s Herschel space observatory. This giant cloud, where a multitude of massive stars come to life in the billowing gas and dust, is almost 20 000 light-years away from the Sun, in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle.

Massing more than seven million Suns, this region is home to over 20 stellar nurseries, which are being heated by the powerful light from newborn stars within. These hubs of star formation stand out in blue hue against the cooler yellow and red surroundings.

Nestled in the glowing blue bubble of gas at the centre of the image is a cluster of extremely hot and massive Wolf-Rayet and OB stars, which together are over a million times brighter than our Sun. This bubble, hosting the seeds that will grow into several new stellar clusters, is one of the most prolific birthplaces of stars in our Galaxy.

A less extreme but still very active stellar factory is the large complex of blue bubbles visible in the image towards the right. Scrutinising the Herschel images, astronomers have found evidence of what appears like a network of filaments linking these two intense hubs of star formation.

Located in a very dynamic region of the Milky Way, at the transition between the central bar of the Galaxy and one of its spiral arms, Westerhout 43 is an excellent laboratory to study how stars – especially massive ones – take shape at the collision of two large flows of interstellar matter.

Investigating star-forming regions across our Galaxy in unprecedented detail was one of the main goals of Herschel, which was launched in 2009 and operated for almost four years, observing the sky at far-infrared and submillimetre wavelengths. Sensitive to the heat from the small fraction of cold dust mixed in with the clouds of gas where stars form, imaging such regions points astronomers to dense areas of gas where new stars are being born, enabling them to study the action in detail, just as in this image.

This three-colour image combines Herschel observations at 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green) and 250 microns (red), and spans about 3º on the long side; north is up and east to the left. The image was obtained as part of Herschel’s Hi-GAL key-project, which imaged the entire plane of the Milky Way in five different infrared bands. A video panorama compiling all Hi-GAL observations was published in April 2016.

Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS, SPIRE/Hi-GAL Project. Acknowledgement: UNIMAP / L. Piazzo, La Sapienza – Università di Roma; E. Schisano / G. Li Causi, IAPS/INAF, Italy

The Orion spacecraft with integrated European Service Module sit atop the Space Launch System, imaged at sunrise at historic Launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on 27 August.

The Flight Readiness Review has deemed the trio GO for launch, marking the dawn of a new era in space exploration.

The first in a series of missions that will return humans to the Moon, including taking the first European, Artemis I is scheduled for launch no earlier than Monday 29 August, at 14:33 CEST.

This mission will put NASA’s Orion spacecraft and ESA’s European Service Module to the test during a journey beyond the Moon and back. No crew will be on board Orion this time, and the spacecraft will be controlled by teams on Earth.

The crew module, however, won’t be empty. Two mannequins, named Helga and Zohar, will occupy the passenger seats. Their female-shaped plastic bodies are filled with over 5600 sensors each to measure the radiation load during their trip around the Moon. The specially trained woolly astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, has also been assigned a seat.

The spacecraft will enter lunar orbit using the Moon’s gravity to gain speed and propel itself almost half a million km from Earth – farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.

The second Artemis mission will see four astronauts travel around the Moon on a flyby voyage around our natural satellite.

Mission duration depends on the launch date and even time. It will last between 20 to 40 days, depending on how many orbits of the Moon mission designers decide to make.

This flexibility in mission length is necessary to allow the mission to end as intended with a splashdown during daylight hours in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, USA.

Two more dates are available if a launch on 29 August is not possible. The Artemis Moon mission can also be launched on 2 September and 5 September. Check all the possible launch options on ESA’s Orion blog.

Orion is the only spacecraft capable of human spaceflight outside Earth orbit and high-speed reentry from the vicinity of the Moon. More than just a crew module, Orion includes the European Service Module (ESM), the powerhouse that fuels and propels Orion.

ESM provides for all astronauts’ basic needs, such as water, oxygen, nitrogen, temperature control, power and propulsion. Much like a train engine pulls passenger carriages and supplies power, the European Service Module will take the Orion capsule to its destination and back.

Watch launch coverage on ESA Web TV starting at 12:30 CEST here. Follow @esaspaceflight for updates and live Twitter coverage.

Credits: ESA-A. Conigli

Quantum technology or stage at a music festival? Both would have one thing in common: students.

Oscar-Qube, short for Optical Sensors based on CARbon materials: QUantum Belgium, is an experiment developed by a group of students from the University of Hasselt, Belgium. Part of ESA Education Office’s Orbit Your Thesis! programme, the experiment arrived at the International Space Station on Space X Dragon CR23 resupply mission yesterday.

This week, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will install the experiment in the Ice Cubes Facility that offers commercial and educational access to the microgravity environment of the Space Station.

Oscar-Qube’s mission is to create a detailed map of Earth’s magnetic field. It makes use of a new type of magnetometer that exploits quantum sensing, meaning that it is highly sensitive, offers measurements to the nano scale, and has a better than 100-nanosecond response time.

These features combine to create a powerful experiment that, once in position, will allow it to map the Earth’s magnetic field to an unrivalled level of precision.

Oscar-Qube is designed and built exclusively by the first student team to test a quantum technology sensing device in space. They will go on to manage operations during its ten-month stay onboard the International Space Station.

Orbit Your Thesis! is a hands-on ESA educational programme that helps university students realise the dream of putting an experiment of their own design into space. The Oscar-Qube students have been assisted at every stage of their journey by ESA experts, helping not only to develop the experiment, but also investing in the students themselves, equipping them with the skills and mindsets needed for future careers in the space sector.

Credits: Oscar-Qube–J. Gorissen

Space Science Image of the Week: The eye of Saturn's storm

Sitting at Saturn’s south pole is a vortex of monstrous proportions. The dark ‘eye’ of this feature is some 8000 km across, or about two thirds the diameter of Earth.

This image is 10 times more detailed than any previous picture of the polar vortex and shows a level of detail inside the eye that was not previously observable. Earlier images showed towering clouds around the edge of this vortex, but inside the air was thought to be mostly transparent. Here, however, a multitude of features is revealed.

Clouds are produced by convection – warm, rising gases in the atmosphere of Saturn. As they reach higher, and therefore colder, layers of the atmosphere, the gases condense and appear as clouds. At the 10 o’clock position, a stream of upwelling gas has created its own smaller vortex inside the larger one.

This view is an adjusted composite of two frames taken by the Cassini spacecraft on 14 July 2008. Cassini actually captured the scene from an oblique angle, some 56º below the plane of Saturn’s rings – a far cry from the view directly over the south pole. The orbiter was about 392 000 km from the planet at the time, yet Cassini’s camera still provided a resolution of 2 km per pixel.

Towering eye-walls of cloud are a distinguishing feature of hurricanes on Earth. Like earthly hurricanes, the eye of this storm is composed of warmer gas than the surroundings. However, whereas hurricanes are powered by warm water and move across the surface of our planet, this vortex has no liquid ocean at its base and remains fixed to Saturn’s south pole.

Round, swirling vortices are part of the general circulation in the atmospheres of all four giant, outer planets, and Cassini has spied many mobile ones rolling through Saturn’s clouds at other latitudes. While vortices are often informally referred to as storms, scientists generally reserve that term for bright, short-lived bursts of convection that punch though the clouds, often accompanied by lightning.

In addition to being a thing of beauty, the vortex provides astronomers with a way to look deep into the planet’s atmosphere.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Gulf of Kutch – also known as the Gulf of Kachchh – an inlet of the Arabian Sea, along the west coast of India.

The Gulf of Kutch divides the Kutch and the Kathiawar peninsula regions in the state of Gujarat. Reaching eastward for around 150 km, the gulf varies in width from approximately 15 to 65 km. The area is renowned for extreme daily tides which often cover the lower lying areas – comprising networks of creeks, wetlands and alluvial tidal flats in the interior region.

Gujarat is the largest salt producing state in India. Some of the white rectangles dotted around the image are salt evaporation ponds which are often found in major salt-producing areas. The arid climate in the region favours the evaporation of water from the salt ponds.

Just north of the area pictured here, lies the Great Rann of Kutch, a seasonal salt marsh located in the Thar desert. The Rann is considered the largest salt desert in the world.

The Gulf of Kutch has several ports including Okha (at the entrance of the gulf), Māndvi, Bedi, and Kandla. Kandla, visible on the northern peninsula in the left of the image, is one of the largest ports in India by volume of cargo handled.

The gulf is rich in marine biodiversity. Part of the southern coast of the Gulf of Kutch was declared Marine Sanctuary and Marine National Park in 1980 and 1982 respectively – the first marine conservatory established in India. The park covers an area of around 270 sq km, from Okha in the south (not visible) to Jodiya. There are hundreds of species of coral in the park, as well as algae, sponges and mangroves.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. The mission’s frequent revisits over the same area and high spatial resolution allow changes in water bodies to be closely monitored.

This image, acquired on 4 April 2020, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Heavy rainfall has triggered flooding in southern Iran, particularly in the Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan and Kerman provinces. The downpour has led to blocked roads and destroyed bridges, crops and houses – displacing thousands of people.

This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, shows the extent of the flooding in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on 13 January 2020. Flooded areas are visible in brown, while the flooded villages are highlighted by dotted circles. Sediment and mud, caused by the heavy rains, can be seen gushing from the Bahu Kalat River, Iran, and Dasht River, Pakistan, into Gwadar Bay.

Zoom in to view the image of the floods at its full 10 m resolution.

The flooding has also affected Zahedan, as well as Konarak, Saravan, Nik Shahr, Delgan, Bazman, Chabahar, Zarābād and Khash.

In response to the flood, the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service was activated. The service uses satellite observations to help civil protection authorities and, in cases of disaster, the international humanitarian community, respond to emergencies.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Ahead of World Wetlands Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Lake Titicaca – one of the largest lakes in South America.

Zoom in to see this image at its full 10 m resolution or click on the circles to learn more about the features in it.

Covering an area of around 8300 sq km, Lake Titicaca lies on the high Andes plateau and straddles the border between Peru (to the west) and Bolivia (to the east). It is considered the highest major body of navigable water in the world, as it sits at an elevation of 3800 m above sea level.

The lake extends approximately 190 km from northwest to southwest and is 80 km across at its widest point. Tiquina, a narrow strait, actually separates the lake into two separate bodies of water. The larger subbasin in the northwest is called Lake Chucuito in Bolivia and Lake Grande in Peru, while the smaller in the southeast is referred to as Lake Huiñaymarca in Bolivia and Lake Pequeño in Peru.

Many rivers drain into the lake, including the Ramis, one of the largest, visible in the northwest corner of the lake. The smaller Desaguadero river drains the lake at its southern end, which then flows south through Bolivia. This outlet only accounts for a small percentage of the lake’s excess water, as the rest is lost by evaporation caused by persistent winds and intense sunlight.

Forty-one islands rise from Titicaca’s waters, the largest of which, Titicaca Island, or Isla del Sol in Spanish, can be seen just off the tip of the Copacabana Peninsula in Bolivia. Several green algal blooms can be seen in the lake, including in the lake’s northwest and southeast corners. Snow in the Andes mountain range can be seen in the top-right of the image.

Lake Titicaca is a designated Ramsar Site of International Importance, as the waters of Titicaca are essential to the wellbeing of millions of people who rely on the lake for agriculture, fishing and tourism, as well as water birds and animals that live along and on its shores.

The 2 February marks the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, known as the Ramsar Convention, in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. World Wetlands Day aims to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for our planet and population.

From their vantage point of 800 km high, Earth-observing satellites provide data and imagery on wetlands that can be used to monitor and manage these precious resources sustainably. For example, both the Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 missions have recently been used to monitor the variation of chlorophyll concentrations in the lake and help detect trends and hotspots over time.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme

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Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This annotated image from ESA’s Mars Express shows the southern flanks of Ascraeus Mons, the second-tallest volcano on Mars.

Several key features are labelled across the frame, including lava flows, chains of craters, channel-like rilles and large fissures, all resembling irregular depressions and grooves in the tan-coloured surface. These are collectively named Ascraeus Chasmata, and encompass an enormous patch of collapsed terrain over 70 km across.

This image comprises data gathered by Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 5 April 2022 during orbit 24045. It was created using data from the nadir channel, the field of view aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, and the colour channels of the HRSC. It is a ‘true colour’ image, reflecting what would be seen by the human eye if looking at this region of Mars.

North is to the right. The ground resolution is approximately 16 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 254°E/9°N.

Read more

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron liftoff to the International Space Station in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft “Endurance”.

Collectively known as “Crew-3”, the astronauts were launched from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. They will spend around six months living and working aboard the orbital outpost before returning to Earth.

It is the first space mission for Matthias, who will be the 600th human to fly to space. He chose the name “Cosmic Kiss” for his mission as a declaration of love for space.

Matthias has a background in materials science and looks forward to supporting a wide range of science and research in orbit. The work he carries out throughout his mission will contribute to the success of future space missions and help enhance life on Earth.

Visit the Cosmic Kiss mission page to learn more about Matthias’s mission.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

Located in west-central Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur is the country’s largest urban area and its cultural, commercial and transportation centre. The city lies in the hilly countryside of the Klang Valley and lies astride the confluence of the Kelang and Gombak rivers. Its name in Malay means ‘muddy estuary.’

The city’s commercial quarter, known as the Golden Triangle, is the site of the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world. Kuala Lumpur International Airport, one of the busiest airports in Asia, can be seen in the bottom of the image.

The Klang Valley is bordered by the Titiwangsa Mountains to the east, some minor ranges in the north and the Strait of Malacca in the west. Visible in the far left of the image, the Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. A main shipping channel between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. Port Klang, is the main gateway by sea into Malaysia and lies around 40 km southwest of Kuala Lumpur.

The Greater Kuala Lumpur area is around 2700 sq km and is an urban agglomeration of over seven million people – making it one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Southeast Asia. Like many other growing cities and areas in the world, the region is facing the daunting challenge of urban sprawl. This puts pressure on urban land in the city, but also on agricultural land in the periphery, as well as on other natural resources.

Urban areas are already home to 55% of the world’s population and that figure is expected to grow to 68% by 2050. In order to gain a better understanding of current trends in global urbanisation, ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), in collaboration with the Google Earth Engine team, have jointly developed the World Settlement Footprint – the world’s most comprehensive dataset on human settlement.

The World Settlement Footprint Evolution has been generated by processing seven million images from the US Landsat satellite collected between 1985 and 2015. One of the animations illustrates the growth of Kuala Lumpur on a year-by-year basis, from 1985 to 2015.

This unprecedented collection of information on human settlement will not only advance our understanding of urbanisation on a global scale but will also become an asset for national statistical offices, local authorities, civil society and international organisations.

This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Barcelona – the second largest city in Spain.

On the northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula, Barcelona occupies a low plateau along the Mediterranean coastal plain. The city and its red roofs contrast with the forested hills and the sea that surround it.

The famous Avinguda Diagonal avenue can be seen in the right of the image. The road is one of Barcelona’s broadest avenues and cuts the city diagonally in two, hence its name. The circular Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes was meant to be the city centre in the original urban plan, but nowadays is used largely as a roundabout.

Dominating the left side of the image are the Garraf Massif mountains, their cliffs reaching the Mediterranean coast. Its highest point on the coastal side is La Morella – almost 600 m above sea level.

The Llobregat River can be seen entering the image in the top left. The river rises in the eastern Pyrenees and flows southeast before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. Before reaching the sea, the river forms a small delta, which used to provide a large extension of fertile land but is now largely urbanised. Barcelona-El Prat airport can be seen to the left of the river. Along the coast, the port of Barcelona, one of Europe’s top ten largest container ports, is visible.

Barcelona is home to the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – the largest engineering university in Catalonia. In 2017, the university won ESA’s Small Satellite Challenge and the top prize at the Copernicus Masters competition with its Federated Satellite Systems (FSSCat) project. The FSSCat mission consists of two small CubeSat satellites, each about the size of a shoebox, and will use state-of-the-art dual microwave and multispectral optical sensors.

Ф-sat-1 – an enhancement of FSSCat carried on one of the two CubeSats – is set to launch soon from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou. It will be the first experiment to demonstrate how artificial intelligence can be used for Earth observation. Ф-sat-1 will have the ability to filter out less than perfect images so that only usable data are returned to Earth. This will allow for the efficient handling of data so that users will have access to timely information – ultimately benefiting society at large.

Ф-sat-1 will acquire an enormous number of images that will allow scientists to detect urban heat islands, monitor changes in vegetation and water quality, as well as carry out experiments on the role of evapotranspiration in climate change.

This image, which was captured on 16 March 2017, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The launch pad is 28.5 m deep and 200 m wide, formed with enough concrete to fill 67 Olympic sized swimming pools – approximately 167,500 cubic metres. It comprises a 700 tonne steel launch table that supports Ariane 6. Steel deflectors funnel the fiery plumes of Ariane 6 at liftoff into the exhaust tunnels buried deep under the launch table. Four lightning protection masts, and a water tower for deluge systems are also part of the launch pad.

Credits: CNES 2019

At first glance, this image is dominated by the vibrant glow of the swirling spiral to the lower left of the frame. However, this galaxy is far from the most interesting spectacle here — behind it sits a galaxy cluster.

Galaxies are not randomly distributed in space; they swarm together, gathered up by the unyielding hand of gravity, to form groups and clusters. The Milky Way is a member of the Local Group, which is part of the Virgo Cluster, which in turn is part of the 100 000-galaxy-strong Laniakea Supercluster.

The galaxy cluster seen in this image is known as SDSS J0333+0651. Clusters such as this can help astronomers understand the distant — and therefore early — Universe. SDSS J0333+0651 was imaged as part of a study of star formation in far-flung galaxies. Star-forming regions are typically not very large, stretching out for a few hundred light-years at most, so it is difficult for telescopes to resolve them at a distance. Even using its most sensitive and highest-resolution cameras, Hubble cannot resolve very distant star-forming regions, so astronomers use a cosmic trick: they search instead for galaxy clusters, which have a gravitational influence so immense that they warp the spacetime around them. This distortion acts like a lens, magnifying the light of galaxies sitting far behind the cluster and producing elongated arcs like the one seen to the left of centre in this image.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, CC BY 4.0

“Valentine’s Day has struck again,” tweeted ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet when he posted this image of a heart-shaped lake in Mongolia. Thomas took this image from the International Space Station during his Proxima mission in 2017.

Two years on, it is that time of year again, the day that brings some joy and others anxiety. But if thoughts of ordering flowers and making dinner reservations are stressing you out, spare a thought for our stressed-out Earth.

The fact that Earth is rich in flora and fauna is without question, but our planet is changing fast – particularly because human activity is placing pressure on natural resources.

Increasing industrial production and a continued reliance on fossil fuels is causing global temperatures to rise. With a change in climate comes huge environmental challenges that humans will not be able to keep up with.

We need to check the status of our relationship with Earth before we wreck it. How?

The first step to fixing a problem is to understand the causes and full extent of it. The vantage point of space provides a window on the world like no other, through which to understand and monitor our changing planet.

And Earth-observing satellites are not the only tools to do this. Astronauts are also viewing Earth from space and taking pictures. Their photography is not just a perk of being an astronaut; they are often used to supplement satellite imagery and provide a different perspective.

Take the case of ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. He was tasked with capturing a phenomenon notoriously difficult to photograph from Earth: elusive electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere that sport names such as red sprites, blue jets, pixies and elves. Reported by pilots, they are difficult to study as they occur above thunderstorms. (A dedicated instrument called ASIM has since been launched to the Space Station to monitor this phenomenon).

Besides their value to science, astronaut photographs from space are a great tool for science communication. From the very first images of Earth taken by NASA astronauts in the 1960s that showed the world how fragile Earth is, to the ones like this taken by astronauts and posted to social media, they all drive home an important message:

Love our planet, because it is the only home we have.

Credits: ESA

ESA’s biggest and most complex Earth Explorer mission yet is currently being tested for space at ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre, the largest satellite test facility in Europe.

The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer, EarthCARE, is equipped with two main instruments, a lidar plus radar – along with a smaller radiometer and cloud imager – which are powered in turn by this mammoth 11-m-long solar wing.

EarthCARE will fill a missing dimension in current climate change modelling: the role of clouds and aerosols in reflecting incoming solar radiation back out to space and trapping infrared radiation as it is emitted from Earth’s surface. Is the net effect a heating or cooling of Earth’s atmosphere?

Developed as a joint venture between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, the front of the van-sized EarthCARE satellite hosts its quartet of instruments with its solar wing deployed from its rear.

The satellite is set to undergo seven months of testing at the 3000 sq. m ESTEC Test Centre to check every aspect of its readiness for space, starting with a recent deployment test of its solar wing from stowed configuration.

Credits: ESA - SJM Photography

The image shows sea-surface temperatures in May 2022 and May 2023 compared to a reference period 1985–1993. The temperature of the surface waters of our oceans recently hit an all-time high. With an El Niño looming, concerns are that we will soon be facing even worse extremes. Satellites orbiting overhead are being used to carefully track the patterns that lead up to El Niño to further understand and predict the consequences of this cyclic phenomenon against the backdrop of climate change.

Read full story: Our oceans are in hot water

Credits: ESA (Data source: NOAA)