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The Falcon 9 Crew Dragon spacecraft "Endurance" is being readied for the launch of Crew-3 now set for 3 November 2021 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It is the first spaceflight for ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who will be the 600th human to fly to space.
On Station, Matthias will become a long-duration crew member, spending around six months living and working in orbit. During this time, he will support more than 35 European experiments and numerous international experiments on board.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This false colour image of Moni crater shows spectacular colour contrasts, which are representative of compositional differences and are visible thanks to CaSSIS's colour filters, the camera on board the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Along the rim of the crater, dark blue basaltic sand caps the lighter, cyan bedrock exposures (possibly low-calcium pyroxene). The yellowish material present in and around the crater is the characteristic martian iron oxide dust, which in true colour would look slightly reddish. On the walls of the crater small gullies that trap basaltic sand can be seen.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Orion crew and service module stack for Artemis I was lifted out of the Final Assembly and Test (FAST) cell on Monday, November 11. The spacecraft has been stationed in the FAST cell since July 2019 for mating and closeout processing.
The service module and crew module were moved separately into the cell, stacked and connected together for the mission.
After lifting out of the cell, Orion will be attached to a tool called a verticator that rotates the stack from its vertical configuration to a horizontal configuration for transport to NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, USA, where it will undergo full environmental testing to certify the complete vehicle for flight.
Once the vehicle returns to NASA's Kennedy Space Centre it will return to the FAST cell for installation of final panels left off for environmental testing purposes and the service module’s four solar arrays.
Credits: NASA–Rad Sinyak
After its arrival in the final assembly building, on 1 April ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was slowly lifted into the air then carefully lowered onto the top of the Ariane 5 rocket that will carry it into space. Here we see technicians working atop the rocket, bolting down Juice’s launch vehicle adapter to keep it secure during launch.
All around the spacecraft and rocket are movable platforms that enable the operators to work efficiently. The whole process was performed under strict safety and cleanliness regulations to keep Juice in prime condition for launch on 13 April. The technicians wore bright yellow suits; these are used whenever hazardous operations are carried out, for example when a spacecraft is moved.
Following these steps Juice was encapsulated inside Ariane 5’s fairing, where it will remain during the launch. This took place on 4 April. Shortly after launch, the fairing will open up and Juice will separate from the rocket.
Juice is being prepared to launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. After an eight-year journey to Jupiter, the mission will make detailed observations of the gas giant and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – with a suite of instruments. The mission will characterise these moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, explore Jupiter’s complex environment in depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe.
Credits: ESA - M. Pédoussaut
Deck the halls with space-based bubbles!
Here is a festive bauble you will not see on Earth: a bubble produced by the Multiscale Boiling experiment, known affectionately as Rubi.
In this image, electrostatic forces are pulling the bubble upwards and making it spherical, producing not only a cool image but also cool insights into the boiling process.
Understanding how boiling behaves in weightlessness is imperative because gravity plays an important role. Without gravity, boiling takes place in slow motion and produces larger bubbles. This has allowed scientists to observe and measure effects that are too fast and too small on Earth.
The experiment is also installed with an electrode to observe the effect of an electric field on the bubbles, enabling scientists to observe and quantify the effect of external forces.
“Boiling is an extremely efficient way of getting rid of excess heat. This research could therefore provide very valuable information for improving the thermal management systems in space as well as in terrestrial applications,” says ESA project scientist Daniele Mangini.
With this insight and more accurate calculations of the boiling process, products such as laptops can be improved and made more compact.
Built by Airbus for ESA and housed in the Fluid Science Laboratory in the Columbus module, Rubi was installed by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano in August 2019. Since then it has generated bubbles under controlled conditions using a special heater.
The bubble imaged above is a follow on to the highly successful experiment. Called Multiscale Boiling X, the science on-going over the holidays is looking further at how things keep cool.
In the meantime, stay warm and stay safe!
Credits: Technical University Darmstadt
The replica ExoMars rover – the Ground Test Model (GTM) – that will be used in the Rover Operations Control Centre to support mission training and operations during tests around the Mars Terrain Simulator in July 2021.
This image shows the rover reaching a small hill in the Mars Terrain Simulator.
Credits: Thales Alenia Space
The two spiral arms winding towards the bright centre might deceive you into thinking you are looking at a galaxy a bit like our Milky Way. But the object starring in this image is of a different nature: PK 329-02.2 is a ‘planetary nebula’ within our home galaxy.
Despite the name, this isn’t a planet either. Planetary nebula is a misnomer that came about because of how much nebulas resembled giant, gaseous planets when looked through a telescope in the 1700s. Rather, what we see in this image is the last breath of a dying star.
When stars like the Sun are nearing the end of their lives, they let go of their gaseous outermost layers. As these clouds of stellar material move away from the central star they can acquire irregular and complex shapes. This complexity is evident in the faint scattered gas you see at the centre of the image. But there is also beautiful symmetry in PK 329-02.2, as the two bright blue spiral arms perfectly align with the two stars at the centre of the nebula.
It may look like the spiral arms are connected, but it is the stars that are companions. They are part of a visual binary, though only the one at the upper right gave rise to the nebula. While the stars will continue to orbit each other for millions or billions of years, the nebula – and its spiral arms – will spread out from the centre and eventually fade away over the next few thousands of years.
This planetary nebula with spiral arms is also known as Menzel 2, after the US astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered it in the 1920s. It is located in Norma, a constellation in the Southern celestial hemisphere where you can also find Menzel 1 and 3, two ‘bipolar planetary nebulas’ (shaped like butterflies or hourglasses).
Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 captured this image, which was processed using green, blue, red and infrared filters. Astrophotography-enthusiast Serge Meunier entered a version of this image into the 2012 Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over two saline lakes in East Africa: the larger Lake Natron in northern Tanzania and the smaller Lake Magadi, just over the border in Kenya.
Lake Natron is around 60 km long and is fed mainly by the Ewaso Ng'iro River. Despite its dark colour in this image, Lake Natron is often bright red owing to the presence of microorganisms that feed on the salts of the water.
The saline waters make the lake inhospitable for many plants and animals, yet the surrounding salt water marshes are a surprising habitat for flamingos. In fact, the lake is home to the highest concentrations of lesser and greater flamingos in East Africa, where they feed on spirulina – a green algae with red pigments.
The extinct Gelai Volcano, standing at 2942 m tall, is visible southeast of the lake.
The pink-coloured waters of Lake Magadi can also be seen at the top of the image. The lake is over 30 km long and has a notably high salt content, and in some places the salt is up to 40 metres thick. The mineral trona can also be found in the lake’s waters. This mineral is collected and used for glass manufacturing, fabric dyeing and paper production.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme. The mission’s frequent revisits over the same area and high spatial resolution allow changes in inland water bodies to be closely monitored.
This image, which was captured on 3 February 2019, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Could dying stars hold the secret to looking younger? New evidence from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope suggests that white dwarfs could continue to burn hydrogen in the final stages of their lives, causing them to appear more youthful than they actually are. This discovery could have consequences for how astronomers measure the ages of star clusters.
The prevalent view of white dwarfs as inert, slowly cooling stars has been challenged by observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. An international group of astronomers have discovered the first evidence that white dwarfs can slow down their rate of ageing by burning hydrogen on their surface.
“We have found the first observational evidence that white dwarfs can still undergo stable thermonuclear activity,” explained Jianxing Chen of the Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who led this research. “This was quite a surprise, as it is at odds with what is commonly believed.”
White dwarfs are the slowly cooling stars which have cast off their outer layers during the last stages of their lives. They are common objects in the cosmos; roughly 98% of all the stars in the Universe will ultimately end up as white dwarfs, including our own Sun. Studying these cooling stages helps astronomers understand not only white dwarfs, but also their earlier stages as well.
To investigate the physics underpinning white dwarf evolution, astronomers compared cooling white dwarfs in two massive collections of stars: the globular clusters M3 and M13. These two clusters share many physical properties such as age and metallicity but the populations of stars which will eventually give rise to white dwarfs are different. In particular, the overall colour of stars at an evolutionary stage known as the Horizontal Branch are bluer in M13, indicating a population of hotter stars. This makes M3 and M13 together a perfect natural laboratory in which to test how different populations of white dwarfs cool.
“The superb quality of our Hubble observations provided us with a full view of the stellar populations of the two globular clusters,” continued Chen. “This allowed us to really contrast how stars evolve in M3 and M13.”
Using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 the team observed M3 and M13 at near-ultraviolet wavelengths, allowing them to compare more than 700 white dwarfs in the two clusters. They found that M3 contains standard white dwarfs which are simply cooling stellar cores. M13, on the other hand, contains two populations of white dwarfs: standard white dwarfs and those which have managed to hold on to an outer envelope of hydrogen, allowing them to burn for longer and hence cool more slowly.
Comparing their results with computer simulations of stellar evolution in M13, the researchers were able to show that roughly 70% of the white dwarfs in M13 are burning hydrogen on their surfaces, slowing down the rate at which they are cooling.
This discovery could have consequences for how astronomers measure the ages of stars in the Milky Way. The evolution of white dwarfs has previously been modelled as a predictable cooling process. This relatively straightforward relationship between age and temperature has led astronomers to use the white dwarf cooling rate as a natural clock to determine the ages of star clusters, particularly globular and open clusters. However, white dwarfs burning hydrogen could cause these age estimates to be inaccurate by as much as 1 billion years.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto et al.; CC BY 4.0
These twin briefcase-sized nanosatellites will manoeuvre around each other, before performing an automated docking in orbit.
The RACE, Rendezvous Autonomous CubeSats Experiment, is ESA’s latest in-orbit demonstration CubeSat mission, presented at this week’s CubeSat Industry Days, taking place at ESA’s technical heart.
CubeSats are low-cost satellites built up from standardised 10-cm boxes, increasingly used to demonstrate promising new technologies and approaches in space, as well as for educational, scientific and commercial applications.
The RACE mission concept involves two ‘6-unit’ CubeSats that will fly together in close formation, proving the capability of nanosatellites to perform close-proximity operations. These will include rendezvous and docking on a cooperative basis, and the ability to perform a close flyby around uncooperative targets, such as derelict satellites.
RACE is being developed by a European consortium led by the GomSpace company, with GMV working on guidance, navigation and control systems, Almatech contributing the docking mechanism and Micos the CubeSats’ visual navigation camera. The mission is being funded through ESA’s Fly element of the General Support Technology Programme, readying new concepts for space and the market.
“RACE will act as an in-orbit testbed for advanced guidance, navigation and control software and autonomous system behaviour,” explains Roger Walker, overseeing ESA’s technology CubeSats programme. “And by making it possible to assemble larger structures in space in this way, these ambitious CubeSats could open up many novel types of missions in future.”
ESA’s fourth CubeSat Industry Days take place this week at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, with more than 260 participants from 25 European countries, representing some 152 companies.
“This event is focused on the current European state-of-the-art in this fast-expanding space sector and discussing key issues for future missions,” adds Roger. By popular demand these Industry Days have been expanded with an extra final day exploring CubeSat propulsion systems.
Credits: GomSpace
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in front of the Soyuz MS-09 rocket at Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, that will launch him into space on his second mission to the International Space Station.
The Soyuz launcher delivers millions of horsepower to reach an orbital speed of 28 800 km/h. After the engines ignite, they will propel the crew 1640 km in less than 10 minutes – averaging a 50 km/h increase in speed every second.
Credits: ESA
A Falcon 9 Crew Dragon is prepared for the launch of Crew-2 on launch pad 39A on 19 April 2021 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is returning to the International Space Station on his second spaceflight. Called ‘Alpha’the mission will see a European astronaut launch on a US spacecraft for the first time in over a decade. Thomas is flying alongside NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide on the Crew Dragon. Thomas will be the first ESA astronaut to fly on a vehicle other than the US Space Shuttle or Russian Soyuz.
The Crew-2 launch is scheduled for 22 April at 06:11 EDT/12:11 CEST.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Euclid’s Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument is dedicated to measuring the amount of light that galaxies emit at each wavelength. It will image the sky in infrared light (900–2000 nm) to measure the brightness and intensity of light. This image was taken during commissioning of Euclid to check that the focused instrument worked as expected.
This is a raw image taken using NISP’s ‘Y’ filter. Because it is largely unprocessed, some unwanted artefacts remain – for example the cosmic rays that shoot straight across. The Euclid Consortium will ultimately turn the longer-exposed survey observations into science-ready images that are artefact-free, more detailed, and razor sharp.
The image on the left shows the full NISP field of view, with the zoom-in on the right (4% of NISP’s full field of view) demonstrating the extraordinary level of detail that NISP is already achieving. We see spiral and elliptical galaxies, nearby and distant stars, star clusters, and much more. But the area of sky that it covers is actually only about a quarter of the width and height of the full Moon.
Euclid’s telescope collected light for 100 seconds to enable NISP to create this image. During nominal operation, it is expected to collect light for roughly five times longer, unveiling many more distant galaxies.
Before it reaches the detector, NISP sends incoming light through either a photometry filter or a spectrometry grism. In this image, the light from Euclid’s telescope has passed through the photometry filter.
Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This image shows a part of Mars’ surface located northeast of the Tharsis volcanic province. This is a portion of Tempe Fossae – a series of tectonic faults that cuts across Tempe Terra in Mars’ northern highlands. It comprises data gathered on 30 September 2019 during orbit 19913. The ground resolution is approximately 15 m/pixel and the images are centred at about 279°E/36°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. This HRSC stereo imaging was then used to derive a digital elevation model, upon which this oblique view is based.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Two images of the same front steps: one taken with a camera and the other with a flash imaging ‘lidar’, the laser equivalent of radar, under development for future space missions.
This image was acquired by the CECILE prototype lidar, developed with the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, CESM, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, FBK, in Italy, Visitech in Norway and the German Aerospace Center, DLR.
Lidar stands for ‘light detection and ranging’, with a pulsed laser beam scanning targets by measuring the time it takes for the light to bounce back. The wavelength of light is so much shorter than that of radio waves – measured in billionths of a metre rather than centimetres – that lidar provides much more precise measurements. On Earth lidar is employed widely for autonomous vehicles, helping them to judge distance and identify obstacles.
Flash imaging lidar means the 3D image of the target is generated in one single shot from a 2D grid of detecting elements, in contrast to the traditional scanning approach based on moving parts. The result is a faster acquisition time, with decreased sensitivity to vibration or target motion - and lower mass and volume making it easier to embark in space.
ESA is interested in lidar technology to acquire high-resolution views of landing zones on the Moon or other planets, or to assist with orbital docking manoeuvres baselined for the international Mars Sample Return endeavour.
Credits: CESM
This image provides a perspective view of a heart-shaped silhouette spotted by ESA’s Mars Express near Mars’ south pole. It comprises data gathered by ESA’s Mars Express on 8 November 2020 during orbit 21305. The ground resolution is approximately 15 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 148°E/78°S. This view 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. HRSC stereo imaging was then used to derive the digital elevation model (DTM) upon which this oblique view is based.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
On 30 July 2021, Ariane 5 flight VA254 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites Star One D2 and Eutelsat Quantum into their planned transfer orbits.
Flight VA254 was the 110th Ariane 5 mission.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The lower and upper stage of ESA’s new generation Ariane 6 launch vehicle arrived in French Guiana from Europe on 17 January 2022. Packed in separate containers they were transported to the new Ariane 6 launch vehicle assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport. This enables combined tests at Europe’s Spaceport where Ariane 6 parts will come together on the launch pad for the first time.
Credits: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique video du CSG - JM Guillon
This stereoscopic image shows the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars. It was generated from data captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter on 18 February 2023 during orbit 24164. The anaglyph, derived from data acquired by the nadir channel and one stereo channel of the HRSC, offers a three-dimensional view when viewed using red-green or red-blue glasses.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter showing the region where the ancient Uzboi Vallis enters Holden crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The valley begins on the northern rim of the Argyre basin and was formed by running water. The fluvial deposits are clearly visible in the impact cratered terrain.
The image was taken by the orbiter’s Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System, CaSSIS on 31 May 2018 and captures an approximately 22.7 x 6.6 km segment centred at 26.8ºS/34.8ºW. North is to the bottom left in this orientation.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over the North Sea, revealing a significant algae bloom covering most of the southern part. One of Europe's most productive fisheries, the North Sea covers an area of 570 000 sq km and is linked to the Atlantic by one of the world’s busiest shipping regions – the English Channel.
The image covers a large section of Scandinavia, including Norway, the south of Sweden, and Denmark, stretching down to Germany and the Netherlands in the bottom right. On the left of the image we can see the east coast of Scotland and the Northern Isles, comprising two archipelagos – Orkney and Shetland.
This true-colour image taken using Sentinel-3’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument shows a significant algae bloom.
Harmful algal blooms caused by excessive growth of marine algae have occurred in the North Sea and the English Channel area in recent years, with satellite data being used to track their growth and spread. These data can then be used to help develop alert systems to mitigate against damaging impacts for tourism and fishing industries.
Harmful blooms, which pose a threat to various forms of water life, are thought to carry an annual cost of over 900 million euros to these industries in the EU.
Helping to map algal blooms and providing critical information for marine operations are just some of the ways that the two-satellite Sentinel-3 is used for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. Since 2016, Sentinel-3A has been measuring our oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. In April 2018, it was joined by its twin satellite Sentinel-3B.
This image, which was captured on 27 May 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
This stereoscopic image shows Nectaris Fossae and Protva Valles on Mars. It was generated from data captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter on 23 May 2022 during orbit 23232. The anaglyph, derived from data acquired by the nadir channel and one stereo channel of the HRSC, offers a three-dimensional view when viewed using red-green or red-blue glasses.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of Chile's Atacama Desert, which is bound on the west by the Pacific and on the east by the Andes. The Atacama is considered one of the driest places on Earth – there are some parts of the desert where rainfall has never been recorded.
In this image, captured on 26 June 2019, a specific area in the Tarapacá Region, in northern Chile, is featured – where some of the largest caliche deposits can be found. It is here where nitrates, lithium, potassium and iodine are mined.
Iodine, for example, is extracted in a process called heap leaching – which is widely used in modern large-scale mining operations. Leach piles are visible as rectangular shapes dotted around the image, although the exact reason for the different shades of colour is uncertain. Some leach piles could appear lighter or darker owing to the varying water content or soil type concentration.
The geometric shapes in the right are large evaporation ponds. Brine is pumped to the surface through a network of wells into the shallow ponds. The dry and windy climate enhances the evaporation of the water and leaves concentrated salts behind for the extraction of lithium – which is used in the manufacturing of batteries.
The bright, turquoise colours of the evaporation ponds are in stark contrast with the surrounding desert landscape – making them easily identifiable from space. Distinctive black lines visible in the image are roads that connect to the various construction sites.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus programme. This false-colour image was processed by selecting spectral bands that can be used for classifying geological features.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Space Science image of the week:
This colourful streamer is created from real data that represents the viewing direction of ESA’s Gaia satellite as it scans across the sky.
Gaia’s mission is to make the largest, most precise 3D map of our Galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars. This goal relies on the systematic and repeating observation of star positions in two fields of view to detect any changes in an object’s motion through space. As such, Gaia is rotating slowly, sweeping its two telescopes, which are separated by 106.5º, across the entire celestial sphere to make four complete rotations per day.
At the same time, its spin axis changes orientation around the Sun with a period of about 63 days, allowing different parts of the sky to be scanned. This approach builds up an interlocking grid of stellar positions and motions.
While star maps have provided the focus of previous image releases, this image represents the motion of the satellite itself across the full sky.
Gaia’s attitude is plotted every second with two dots: one to represent each of the two telescopes at that moment in time. The positions are plotted in celestial coordinates: right ascension (horizontal axis) and declination (vertical axis), which can be imagined as lines of longitude and latitude printed on the inside of the celestial sphere.
The colours indicate the direction of the scan, the key for which is indicated in the border of the image. The direction of the scan with respect to north (up) can be found by starting in the centre of the image and moving towards the border to the appropriate colour. Each colour around the border covers a range of 18º.
Zooming in reveals first a cross weave-like pattern, and ultimately the individual dots. The highest density of overlapping pattern represents the areas of sky that have been scanned multiple times in different directions already, while the lower density regions were scanned fewer times and in fewer different directions. Eventually the gaps will close, as Gaia makes more and more repeated scans of the sky.
Gaia was launched on 19 December 2013 and began routine operations in July 2014. The first catalogue of more than a billion stars, based on the first 14 months of scanning, was published in September 2016. The image shown here was created from Gaia’s movements between 1 October 2014 and 31 May 2016. This corresponds to the period that includes the second data release, which is scheduled for April 2018.
Credit: ESA/Gaia
Almost like snowflakes, the stars of the globular cluster NGC 6441 sparkle peacefully in the night sky, about 13 000 light-years from the Milky Way’s galactic centre. Like snowflakes, the exact number of stars in such a cluster is difficult to discern. It is estimated that together the stars weigh 1.6 million times the mass of the Sun, making NGC 6441 one of the most massive and luminous globular clusters in the Milky Way.
NGC 6441 is host to four pulsars that each complete a single rotation in a few milliseconds. Also hidden within this cluster is JaFu 2, a planetary nebula. Despite its name, this has little to do with planets. A phase in the evolution of intermediate-mass stars, planetary nebulae last for only a few tens of thousands of years, the blink of an eye on astronomical timescales.
There are about 150 known globular clusters in the Milky Way. Globular clusters contain some of the first stars to be produced in a galaxy, but the details of their origins and evolution still elude astronomers.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto; CC BY 4.0
ESA's Proba-2 had a ring-side seat for the transit of Mercury on 11 November 2019.
Proba-2 monitors the Sun from Earth orbit and was able to spot Mercury’s transit as a small black disc – seen here to the right of centre as it passed across the face of the Sun. The image was taken with the SWAP extreme ultraviolet telescope.
Solar transits – where a celestial body is seen to pass across the solar disc from the perspective of Earth – are relatively rare events. Mercury undergoes around 13 transits a century, and will not occur again until 2032.
Credits: ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium
This stereoscopic image shows Medusae Fossae on Mars, and was generated from data captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter on 14 May 2021 during orbit 21948. The anaglyph, derived from data acquired by the nadir channel and the stereo channels of the HRSC, offers a three-dimensional view when viewed using red-green or red-blue glasses.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Maldives are featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
A popular tourist and diving destination with white sandy beaches, the Republic of Maldives is located in the Indian Ocean, around 700 km southwest of Sri Lanka. This island nation consists of a chain of around 1200 small coral islands that are grouped into clusters of atolls – scattered across 90 000 sq km of ocean.
An atoll is a circular or oval-shaped reef structure with a lagoon in the centre. These structures typically form around a volcanic island that has subsided while the coral grows upwards. The Maldives actually rests on top of an ancient volcanic mountain range.
In this image, the Ari Atoll in the west of the archipelago is featured. Ari Atoll is one of the largest atolls in the Maldives, and is around 90 km long and 30 km wide. The turquoise colours in the image depict clear, shallow waters which contrasts with the dark coloured waters of the deep Indian Ocean. Several clouds can be seen at the bottom of the image.
One of the world’s lowest-lying countries, more than 80% of the Maldives’ land is less than one metre above average sea level. This extremely low elevation makes the country, and its inhabitants, particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise.
Satellite data has shown that the global ocean has risen, on average, 3 mm a year over the last 25 years. But more alarmingly, satellite data shows the rate of the rise has accelerated over the last few years, and has been rising at around 5 mm per year. Warming ocean waters, melting glaciers and diminishing ice sheets is making rising sea levels a real threat for low-lying islands such as the Maldives.
The upcoming Copernicus Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite, set to launch in November 2020, will map up to 95% of Earth’s oceans every 10 days. The satellite carries a new generation radar altimeter that will observe annual changes in mean sea level with millimetre precision, together with measurements of surface wind speed, sea state and geostrophic ocean currents. This new satellite will assume the role as a reference mission to provide critical data for the long-term record of sea-surface height measurements.
These measurements are not only essential for monitoring our rising seas, but also for climate prediction, sustainable ocean-resource management, coastal management and environmental protection.
ESA is jointly developing the mission with its partners NASA, the European Commission, EUMETSAT and NOAA, with support from CNES.
This image, which was captured on 12 April 2019, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The latest prototype of the AstroPlant citizen science project has gotten the green light for production. AstroPlant is a desktop greenhouse that allows people to collect data on potential crops to grow in space.
The lights, heatsinks and extension shields imaged above are some of the components that future space farmers will need to build their own kits.
Just as agriculture revolutionised human settlements on Earth, it will also be a game changer in space. Crews on long missions to and on the Moon will need to be as self-sufficient and sustainable as possible so growing food is crucial.
But first we need more information on what to grow.
Enter the AstroPlant initiative. It was born at the annual Border Sessions technology conference in 2016 asking home-gardeners, schools, urban farmers and other enthusiasts to nourish seeds selected by ESA’s Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (Melissa) team.
Melissa has been working for over 27 years to create ecosystems for astronauts. They are fine tuning how microrganisms, chemicals, catalysts, algae and plants interact to process waste and deliver unending supplies of oxygen, water and food.
Since 2016, participants across Europe brainstormed prototypes and aspects such as hardware design, user interface and business development of the project. A crowd-funding campaign was also launched to finance some kits for interested participants.
Their feedback culminated in the latest round of testing for version six hardware that is now going into production.
The initiative hopes eventually to have AstroPlant kits set up in secondary schools as part of its educational goals.
Classroom resources developed by the ESA Education Office on AstroCrops, AstroFood, and AstroFarmers are already available, with more materials focusing on modern production techniques like hydroponics currently in development.
If you are interested in getting involved with the AstroPlant project or if you would like more information send an email to astroplant@esa.int
Credits: Axtron BV
Teams at Mission Control match the needs of ESA missions with the perfect rocket. The choice of rocket depends primarily on the mass of the payload and where it needs to go.
The further from Earth a spacecraft needs to be lifted, and the more massive it is, the more fuel that is needed.
To the Moon and beyond
The minimum velocity required to get beyond Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence is 11.2 km per second, after which point spacecraft engines and planetary flybys are used to reach deep space destinations.
The mighty Ariane 64 can accelerate 7600 kg (or a small T-Rex) to this important speed.
To geostationary transfer orbit
Most communication and weather satellites live about 36 000 km above Earth’s equator in geostationary orbit - from where they appear to hover unmoving above our heads.
The Ariane 62 can lift 5000 kg (or an Asian elephant) to the geostationary transfer orbit, and the Ariane 64, 11 500 kg (or a whale shark), from where spacecraft boost themselves into geostationary orbit.
Orbiting near Earth
Most human-made objects in space reside in low-Earth orbit, from 100 km to 2000 km above Earth’s surface.
The nimble Vega-C can carry 2250 kg (or a hippopotamus) to this crowded zone, while the Ariane 62 can lift up to 6450 kg (or an African elephant) and the mighty Ariane 64 a whopping 20 000 kg (or a diplodocus!).
Credits: ESA
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Danube Delta – the second largest river delta in Europe.
The Danube Delta is a labyrinth of water and land shared between Romania and Ukraine, made up of countless lakes, channels and islands lying at the end of the 2860 km-long river of the same name. The Danube River rises in the Black Forest mountains in Germany and along its course, passes through 10 countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine before emptying into the Black Sea.
The Danube Delta covers an area of some 4300 sq km and is known for its abundance of birdlife, as it hosts more than 300 species of birds as well as 45 species of freshwater fish in its numerous lakes and marshes. In 1991, the Romanian part of the Danube Delta became part of UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites.
In this true-colour image, captured in April 2020, the vast reed beds can be seen in shades of brown which is typical during this time of year. The Danube is visible (in the left of the image) before splitting into the various channels and branches that flow through the reeds and grassland before reaching the Black Sea. The distinct light-green colours in the sea are likely due to sediment being carried by the river.
Just south of the Danube Delta lie the lagoons of Razim (Razelm) and Sinoe, visible in emerald green owing to a high concentration of algae. This lagoon complex was formed with the help of the Danube’s alluvial deposits and the gradual eastward movement of the coastal currents caused by the advancement of the delta.
In the top-right of the image lies the Sasyk, or Kunduk, Lagoon in southern Ukraine. The site has been designated as Ramsar Wetland Site as it is important for migrating, breeding and moulting waterbirds.
Data gathered by the Sentinel-2 satellites are used for monitoring land use and changes, land management, agriculture, forestry and natural disasters (floods, forest fires, landslides and erosion). Offering colour vision for the Copernicus programme, Sentinel-2 delivers optical images from the visible to short-wave infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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 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
The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft arrived to the International Space Station just three hours after launch on 14 October, with Roscosmos astronauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins on board.
Aside from the human cargo, the Soyuz had space for some science, including one of ESA’s longest-running experiments, Dosis-3D.
Dotted around the International Space Station, these orange pouches collect information on radiation levels using a device called a dosimeter. The experiment, in different forms, has been monitoring radiation levels since 2009 and the current pouches are changed after each six-month crew rotation. This pouch has been placed on the left side on the Utility Interface Panel next to the Vacuum Connector on ESA’s Human Research Facility in ESA’s science laboratory Columbus.
Radiation levels in space can be 15 times higher than on Earth. As soon as humans leave the protective shield that is Earth’s atmosphere, space radiation becomes a serious concern. As we explore farther and head towards the Moon and even Mars on longer flights, defending ourselves against radiation becomes ever more important.
Dosis-3D helps researchers understand space radiation and how it penetrates the Space Station walls. Active and passive radiation detectors are used to map radiation in all modules, and will help designers and engineers make future spacecraft more resistant to radiation, such as the modules for the lunar Gateway.
Experiments like Dosis-3D often go overlooked as they sit passively in the corner, but as we approach the anniversary of 20 years of continuous habitation of the International Space Station, they are great examples of the kind of science that occurs on humankind’s outpost in space, and helps prepare for the future of human exploration.
The orange-wrapped dosimeters are about the size of a pack of playing cards and attach to the walls of the Space Station with Velcro. The detectors record how much radiation has been absorbed in total during the period they are in space.
In addition to the passive detectors shown, Dosis-3D uses active dosimeters that measure fluctuations in radiation levels over time. Data from all Station partners is shared to create as complete a picture of space radiation as possible.
Credits: NASA
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a massive galaxy cluster glowing brightly in the darkness. Despite its beauty, this cluster bears the distinctly unpoetic name of PLCK_G308.3-20.2.
Galaxy clusters can contain thousands of galaxies all held together by the glue of gravity. At one point in time they were believed to be the largest structures in the Universe — until they were usurped in the 1980s by the discovery of superclusters, which typically contain dozens of galaxy clusters and groups and span hundreds of millions of light-years. However, clusters do have one thing to cling on to; superclusters are not held together by gravity, so galaxy clusters still retain the title of the biggest structures in the Universe bound by gravity.
One of the most interesting features of galaxy clusters is the stuff that permeates the space between the constituent galaxies: the intracluster medium (ICM). High temperatures are created in these spaces by smaller structures forming within the cluster. This results in the ICM being made up of plasma — ordinary matter in a superheated state. Most luminous matter in the cluster resides in the ICM, which is very luminous X-rays. However, the majority of the mass in a galaxy cluster exists in the form of non-luminous dark matter. Unlike plasma, dark matter is not made from ordinary matter such as protons, neutrons and electrons. It is a hypothesised substance thought to make up 80 % of the Universe’s mass, yet it has never been directly observed.
This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide-Field Camera 3 as part of an observing programme called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey). RELICS imaged 41 massive galaxy clusters with the aim of finding the brightest distant galaxies for the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS, CC BY 4.0
This 32-metre antenna is undergoing an important transformation. Soon, it will be ready to communicate with spacecraft across deep space.
If you’re planning on flying a robotic or even human mission in the near future to the Moon, an asteroid or even Mars, one indispensable requirement you’ll face is the need for at least one deep-space tracking dish to communicate with your craft.
The Goonhilly 6 antenna is part of the Goonhilly ground station in Cornwall, England, home to over 60 dishes able to track satellites close to home, in highly elliptical orbits as well as planetary and celestial objects further afield.
Built in 1985, the antenna will be upgraded to provide fast data links for missions far beyond Earth, typically exceeding 2 million km.
ESA currently has three deep-space dishes in Australia, Spain and Argentina, providing full sky coverage for tracking and communicating with missions at Mars such as ExoMars and Mars Express as well as BepiColombo - currently on its way to Mercury. Future ESA missions such as Solar Orbiter, Euclid and Cheops will soon be added to this list.
However, by the middle of the next decade, ESA’s deep-space communication needs for its current and upcoming missions is expected to exceed present capacity by around half.
This is why ESA teams are excited by the upgrade of Goonhilly 6, which will enable the UK station to provide Europe’s first commercial deep-space tracking services, compliment ESA’s own ESTRACK stations and provide deep-space tracking for both space agencies and private business.
Credits: Nathanial Bradford / Goonhilly Earth Station
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This captivating image was taken in the north polar region of Mars by the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter’s CaSSIS camera.
Dunes come in various characteristic shapes on Mars just as on Earth, providing clues about the prevailing wind direction. Monitoring them over time also gives us a natural laboratory to study how dunes evolve, and how sediments in general are transported around the planet.
During winter in the polar regions, a thin layer of carbon dioxide ice covers the surface and then sublimates – turns directly from ice into vapour – with the first light of spring. In the dune fields, this springtime defrosting occurs from the bottom up, trapping gas between the ice and the sand. As the ice cracks, this gas is released violently and carries sand with it, forming the dark patches and streaks observed in this CaSSIS image.
The image also captures ‘barchan’ dunes – the crescent or U-shaped dunes seen in the right of the image – as they join and merge into barchanoid ridges. The curved tips of the barchan dunes point downwind. The transition from barchan to barchanoid dunes tells us that secondary winds also play a role in shaping the dune field.
The image is centred at 74.46ºN/348.3ºE. The image was taken on 25 May 2019.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Space Station's Expedition 57 crew in fancy dress for Halloween, posted by ESA astronaut and Station Commander Alexander Gerst on social media with the comment: "Having a scary day in space. The crew of the International @Space_Station wish you a happy #Halloween".
Credits: ESA/NASA
Europe’s largest satellite constellation has grown even bigger, following the launch of two more Galileo navigation satellites by Soyuz launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 5 December. Galileo satellites 27-28 add to an existing 26-satellite constellation in orbit, providing the world’s most precise satnav positioning to more than 2.3 billion users around the globe.
Soyuz launcher VS-26, operated by Arianespace and commissioned by ESA, lifted off with the pair of 715 kg satellites from French Guiana on 5 December at 01:19 CET. All the Soyuz stages performed as planned, with the Fregat upper stage releasing the satellites into their target orbit close to 23 525 km altitude, around 3 hours and 54 minutes after liftoff.
The satellites will spend the coming weeks being manoeuvred into their final working orbit at 23 222 km using their onboard thrusters, at the same time as their onboard systems are gradually checked out for operational use – known as the Launch and Early Operations Phase.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P Piron
In shaping the Universe, gravity builds a vast cobweb-like structure of filaments tying galaxies and clusters of galaxies together along invisible bridges hundreds of millions of light-years long. This is known as the cosmic web.
Credits:
Volker Springel (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) et al.
The region around double cluster h Persei and chi Persei (also known as NGC 869 and NGC 884) as viewed by ESA’s Gaia satellite using information from the mission’s second data release.
This stellar system comprises two open clusters of a relatively young age, around 12.8 million years old. Together with their surroundings, these two clusters contain enough mass to account for at least 20,000 stars as massive as the Sun.
The view is not a photograph but was compiled by mapping the total density of stars detected by Gaia in each pixel.
Acknowledgement: Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC); A. Moitinho / A. F. Silva / M. Barros / C. Barata, University of Lisbon, Portugal; H. Savietto, Fork Research, Portugal.
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC
This colour-coded topographic image shows part of the scarred landscape that makes up Aonia Terra, an upland region in the southern highlands of Mars. It was created from data collected by ESA’s Mars Express on 25 April 2022. It is based on a digital terrain model of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. Lower parts of the surface are shown in blues and purples, while higher altitude regions show up in whites and reds, as indicated on the scale to the top right.
North is to the right. The ground resolution is approximately 14 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 282°E/48°S.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Falcon 9 Crew Dragon spacecraft "Endurance" is being readied for the launch of Crew-3 now set for 6 November 2021 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It is the first spaceflight for ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who will be the 600th human to fly to space.
On Station, Matthias will become a long-duration crew member, spending around six months living and working in orbit. During this time, he will support more than 35 European experiments and numerous international experiments on board.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Vega-C VV21 with LARES-2 ready for launch as the gantry is being retracted on 13 July 2022 at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Vega-C brings a new level of performance to ESA's launch family. With new first and second stages and an uprated fourth stage, Vega-C increases performance to about 2.3 t in a reference 700 km polar orbit, from the 1.5 t capability of its predecessor, Vega.
Vega-C features a new, more powerful first stage, P120C, based on Vega’s P80. Atop that is a new second stage, Zefiro-40, and then the same Zefiro-9 third stage as used on Vega.
The re-ignitable upper stage is also improved. AVUM+ has increased liquid propellant capacity, to deliver payloads to multiple orbits depending on mission requirements and to allow for longer operational time in space, to enable extended missions.
The P120C motor will do double service, with either two or four units acting as strap-on boosters for Ariane 6. Sharing this component streamlines industrial efficiency and improves cost-effectiveness of both launchers.
With its larger main stages and bigger fairing – which doubles the payload volume compared to Vega – Vega-C measures 34.8 m high, nearly 5 m taller than Vega.
The new launcher configuration delivers a significant improvement in launch system flexibility. Vega-C can orbit larger satellites, two main payloads or can accommodate various arrangements for rideshare missions. ESA’s upcoming Space Rider return-to-Earth vehicle will be launched to orbit on Vega-C.
Credits: ESA - M. Pedoussaut
These galaxies look to be close companions — a small, bright spiral galaxy flitting around the edge of a much larger spiral with a dark and disturbed countenance. But looks can be deceiving — how close are they really? The celestial pair featured in this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week is known by the name Arp 4, and lies in the constellation Cetus (the Whale).
The designation Arp 4 comes from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled in the 1960s by astronomer Halton Arp. “Unusual galaxies” were selected and photographed to provide examples of weird and non-standard shapes, the better to study how galaxies evolve into these forms. Throughout its mission the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionised the study of galaxies and shown us some fantastically unusual examples from Arp’s atlas. In that catalogue, the first few galaxies like Arp 4 are “low surface brightness” galaxies, a type of galaxy that is unexpectedly faint and hard to detect. The large galaxy here — also catalogued as MCG-02-05-050 — fits this description well, with its fragmentary arms and dim disc. Its smaller companion, MCG-02-05-050a, is a much more bright and active spiral.
The trick is that these galaxies are not actually very close. The large blue galaxy MCG-02-05-050 is located 65 million light-years from Earth; its brighter smaller companion MCG-02-05-050a, at 675 million light-years away, is over ten times the distance! Owing to this, MCG-02-05-050a is likely the larger galaxy of the two, and MCG-02-05-050 comparatively small. Their pairing in this image is simply an unlikely visual coincidence. Despite this lack of a physical relation between them, our point of view on Earth allows us to enjoy the sight of Arp 4 as an odd couple in the sky.
[Image Description: This image shows two galaxies side by side. The galaxy on the top left is smaller in size, and appears as a bright glowing spiral with clearly-defined arms. A larger blue galaxy dominates the full right field of the image. This galaxy is more irregularly shaped, with a glowing central bar, and varying regions of concentrated hues of blue. The background is black with various stars and galaxies in the distance.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; CC BY 4.0
Crew Dragon Freedom is launched to the International Space Station, carrying ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert “Bob” Hines and Jessica Watkins.
Collectively known as Crew-4, the four astronauts were launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
Samantha is the third ESA astronaut to travel to the orbital outpost in a Crew Dragon. During the journey she and Jessica will serve as Mission Specialists. Kjell is Crew-4 Commander and Bob is Crew-4 Pilot.
Upon arrival, Crew-4 will be greeted by the Space Station’s current crew – including ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. Samantha and Matthias will enjoy a brief handover in orbit before he returns to Earth with Crew-3.
Samantha first flew to space in 2014 for her Italian Space Agency ASI-sponsored mission Futura. Her ESA space mission, known as Minerva, will officially begin once she reaches the Station.
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
Solar cells for space are typically grown on slices of germanium metal. An ESA General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) project looked into being able to remove and recycle this rare, expensive metal, resulting in much thinner and cheaper solar cells for missions.
The activity tested a method where the surface of the Germanium substrate is treated so that a cavity is introduced just below it. Once a solar cell is grown on the Ge surface, this 0.001 mm thick gap, or cavity, allows everything above it to be removed, leaving just a very thin layer of germanium still attached to the cell – around 10 micrometres thick instead of the previous 150.
This huge saving of weight and volume of a rare material will result in major cost savings, especially when multiplied across the roughly 10 000 solar cells needed for each satellite mission.
For more than a quarter of a century ESA’s optional GSTP has been preparing promising technologies for space and the open market. Read our GSTP Annual Report for 2019 to learn more about programme activities.
Credits: ESA
As she flew 400 km above Earth at hypersonic speed, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers caught a gigantic spark with blue flashes and red tentacles shooting upwards.
This electrical show was born from a summer thunderstorm in 2025. What Nichole captured from orbit is one of the rarest examples of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) – atmospheric phenomena rarely visible from Earth because they take place above the clouds, at altitudes between 40 and 80 kilometres.
In the image, a blue jet propagates into space towards the upper layers of the atmosphere. The beam of light is followed by red flashes spreading like tentacles across the sky. The magnificent event lasted less than a second.
ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen captured the first pulsating blue jet from space a decade ago, providing a new perspective on electrical activity at the top of thunderstorms. Scientists began to learn what types of clouds trigger such phenomena and how they may affect the chemistry of the atmosphere.
These were not isolated observations of nature’s fireworks. On another night in 2024, NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps directed a high-resolution camera from the International Space Station towards a thunderstorm in Australia. With the camera set at the fastest frame rate for slow-motion video, she managed to record for the first time pulsating giant jet with blue and red bursts in all its splendour from space.
Her recording is a continuation of the Thor-Davis experiment designed to investigate lightning in the upper atmosphere and how it might affect the concentration of greenhouse gases. The experiment is called Thor after the god of thunder, lightning and storms in Nordic mythology and is led by the Danish Technical University (DTU) together with the European Space Agency.
Lightning triggers powerful electrical bursts in our atmosphere almost every second, yet the inner workings of these forces of nature are still not fully understood. Capturing such phenomena is vital for scientists researching Earth’s weather systems.
Credits: NASA/N. Ayers
This image of the Helix Nebula from the Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy (left) shows the full view of the planetary nebula, with a box highlighting the smaller field of view from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (right).
[Image description: Two panels showing different views of a planetary nebula. The left panel, labeled VISTA, shows colorful light from a glowing cloud shaped like an American football at 45-degree angle. Its appearance resembles an eye. The outer edges of the nebula are red and clumpy, and traveling in towards the center, they become yellow and golden. The center of the nebula is black and speckled with tiny stars. At three o’clock along the shell of gas, there is a rectangular box around part of the shell. Lines extend from the box to the right, where the image shows thousands of orange and gold comet-like pillars stream leftward from the right, like thin liquid blown up a sheet of glass. These pillars are around the circumference of the arced shell, which forms a partial orange semi-circle at the right. The pillars are more numerous and denser at the right, and darker red.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0
This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Serpens Nebula, a stellar nursery about 1300 light-years away. Within the nebula, in the upper right of the image, a shadow is created by the protoplanetary disc surrounding the star HBC 672. While the disc of debris is too tiny to be seen even by Hubble, its shadow is projected upon the cloud in which it was born. In this view, the feature — nicknamed the Bat Shadow — spans approximately 200 times the diameter of our own Solar System. A similar looking shadow phenomenon can be seen emanating from another young star, in the upper left of the image.
Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, STScI; CC BY 4.0