ESA's astronaut candidates of the class of 2022 at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

The five candidates are Sophie Adenot, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Rosemary Coogan, Raphaël Liégeois, and Marco Sieber. The group is part of the 17-member astronaut class of 2022, selected from 22 500 applicants from across ESA Member States.

The astronaut candidates will be trained to the highest level for future space missions. Basic training includes learning about space exploration, technical and scientific disciplines, space systems and operations, as well as spacewalks and survival training.

The astronaut candidates are joined by Australian Space Agency astronaut candidate Katherine Bennell-Pegg.

Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot

Following on from last week’s Picture of the Week, this week we showcase the second part of the Hubble Deep UV (HDUV) Legacy Field, the GOODS-South view. With the addition of new ultraviolet light imagery, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured the largest panoramic view of the fire and fury of star birth in the distant Universe, encompassing 12 000 star-forming galaxies.

Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens up a new window on the evolving Universe, tracking the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years up to the cosmos’s busiest star-forming period, which happened about three billion years after the Big Bang.

So far, ultraviolet light has been the missing piece of the cosmic puzzle. Now, combined with data in infrared, and visible light from Hubble and other space- and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have assembled the most comprehensive portrait yet of the Universe’s evolutionary history. The image straddles the gap between the very distant galaxies, which can only be viewed in infrared light, and closer galaxies, which can be seen across different wavelengths. The light from distant star-forming regions in remote galaxies started out as ultraviolet, but the expansion of the Universe has shifted the light into infrared wavelengths. By comparing images of star formation in the distant and nearby Universe, astronomers can get a better understanding of how nearby galaxies grew from small clumps of hot, young stars long ago.

The observation programme harnessed the ultraviolet vision of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. This study extends and builds on the previous Hubble multi-wavelength data in the CANDELS-Deep (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) fields within the central part of the GOODS (The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey) fields. This mosaic is 14 times the area of the Hubble Ultraviolet Ultra Deep Field released in 2014.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, CC BY 4.0

The CaSSIS camera onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured remnant frost deposits in a region near Sisyphi Tholus, in the high southern latitudes of Mars (74ºS/246ºE). This image was taken during the early morning of a midsummer day in the southern hemisphere. At these high latitudes, carbon dioxide ice and frost develop. Frost can be seen within polygonal cracks in the terrain, a feature that indicates the presence of water ice embedded in the soil. The black spots observed throughout the scene are due to dark soil being pushed through cracks in the carbon dioxide ice as it sublimates – turns directly from solid ice to vapour – in the summer months.

The scale is indicated on the image.

The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos.

Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Kyiv – the capital and most populous city of Ukraine.

Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is visible just below the centre of the image, along the Dnieper River in north-central Ukraine. The city covers a total area of around 840 sq km and is home to approximately three million people.

Originally just on the west bank, today the city of Kyiv spreads across both sides of the Dnieper River, which flows southwards through the city. The Dnieper is the fourth-longest river in Europe, after the Volga, Danube and Ural rivers. It rises on the southern slopes of the Valdai Hills of Russia and flows in a southerly direction through western Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea.

Directly above the city of Kyiv is the Kyiv Reservoir – a large water reservoir which is 110 km in length and 12 km in width. The reservoir is mainly used for irrigation, hydroelectricity generation and industrial and public consumption.

The neon green colours in the Kyiv Reservoir indicate a high quantity of algae. Algal blooms are dense layers of microscopic plants that occur on the surface of lakes, or other bodies of water, when there is an overabundance of nutrients on which algae depend. These high levels of nutrients are often caused by human pollution, such as wastewater or fertiliser runoff from agriculture.

Owing to Ukraine’s climate and arable land, agriculture plays a large role in the country’s economy. Large, agricultural plots dominate this week’s image, with corn, wheat and barley being the country’s main crops. With over 40 million hectares of agricultural land covering 70% of the country, agriculture is Ukraine’s largest export industry.

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 is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of our vegetation.

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

This ESA-backed facility has been designed to fulfil researchers’ most extreme needs for speed: the European Shock Tube for High Enthalpy Research, ESTHER, can reproduce high-velocity shock flows equivalent to a meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere – or an interplanetary spacecraft returning home.

The process begins with laser ignition of low-pressure gas to pierce a pair of diaphragms to encounter higher-pressure gas in turn, their interaction giving rise to shock waves that can achieve plasma shock flows in excess of 12 km/s – unparalleled across Europe.

Spacecraft returning from interplanetary missions will reenter Earth’s atmosphere at higher velocities than those in Earth orbit. This means they require a new generation of thermal protection systems.

Measuring 16 m long and 8 cm wide, ESTHER will help to validate those designs in various gas combinations to represent different planetary atmospheres, becoming a vital engineering resource for future European space exploration. It will also recreate natural reentry events for scientists.

The development of ESTHER backed through ESA’s Technology Development Element to support promising new space technology. The facility is hosted at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon, which is an Associated Laboratory of Instituto Superior Técnico, within the Universidade de Lisboa.

Credits: European Shock Tube for High Enthalpy Research

The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has been observing the Sun for 30 years. In that time, SOHO has observed nearly three of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycles, throughout which solar activity waxes and wanes.

This montage of 30 images captured by the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope provides a snapshot of the changing face of our Sun. The brightest images occur around the time of solar maximum, when the Sun’s magnetic field is twisting and reshaping itself. Thanks to this magnetic activity, the Sun shines more brightly in extreme ultraviolet light, and also sends out streams of charged particles into space more often.

The individual images were taken at a wavelength of 28.4 nanometres and show gas with a temperature of about two million degrees Celsius in the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona. Click here to compare SOHO's different views of the Sun.

Read more about the mission's achievements

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View an unannotated version of this image

[Image description: On a black background, a montage of images of the Sun arranged in a serpentine chain of two-and-a-half nested upside-down ‘V’s. Along the chain, the Sun periodically alternates between being darker with little activity (left and right sides of the chain) and being brighter with more active regions (centre of the chain, at the peaks of the upside-down ‘V’s).]

Credits: SOHO (ESA & NASA); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Acknowledgements: F. Auchère & ATG Europe

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured this view of part of the south polar ice cap on Mars on 13 May 2018.

The poles of Mars have huge ice caps that are similar to Earth’s polar caps in Greenland and Antarctica. These caps are composed primarily of water ice and were deposited in layers that contain varying amounts of dust. They are referred to as the martian Polar Layered Deposits (PLD).

Thanks to massive canyons that dissect the layered deposits, orbiting spacecraft can view the layered internal structure. The ExoMars orbiter’s Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System, CaSSIS, viewed this 7 x 38 km segment of icy layered deposits near the margin of the South PLD, which extend as far north as 73ºS.

Here, CaSSIS has imaged remnant deposits within a crater at this margin. The beautiful variations in colour and brightness of the layers are visible through the camera’s colour filters. It highlights the bright ice and the redder sandy deposits toward the top of the image.

The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos.

Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS , CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

For this new Picture of the Month feature, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. With Webb, researchers can study the properties and growth of dust grains within protoplanetary discs like this one, shedding light on the earliest stages of planet formation.

In stellar nurseries across the galaxy, baby stars are forming in giant clouds of cold gas. As young stars grow, the gas surrounding them collects in narrow, dusty protoplanetary discs. This sets the scene for the formation of planets, and observations of distant protoplanetary discs can help researchers understand what took place roughly 4.5 billion years ago in our own Solar System, when the Sun, Earth, and the other planets formed.

IRAS 04302+2247, or IRAS 04302 for short, is a beautiful example of a protostar – a young star that is still gathering mass from its environment – surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which baby planets might be forming. Webb is able to measure the disc at 65 billion km across – several times the diameter of our Solar System. From Webb’s vantage point, IRAS 04302’s disc is oriented edge-on, so we see it as a narrow, dark line of dusty gas that blocks the light from the budding protostar at its centre. This dusty gas is fuel for planet formation, providing an environment within which young planets can bulk up and pack on mass.

When seen face-on, protoplanetary discs can have a variety of structures like rings, gaps and spirals. These structures can be signs of baby planets that are burrowing through the dusty disc, or they can point to phenomena unrelated to planets, like gravitational instabilities or regions where dust grains are trapped. The edge-on view of IRAS 04302’s disc shows instead the vertical structure, including how thick the dusty disk is. Dust grains migrate to the midplane of the disc, settle there and form a thin, dense layer that is conducive to planet formation; the thickness of the disc is a measure of how efficient this process has been.

The dense streak of dusty gas that runs vertically across this image cocoons IRAS 04302, blotting out its bright light such that Webb can more easily image the delicate structures around it. As a result, we’re treated to the sight of two gauzy nebulas on either side of the disc. These are reflection nebulas, illuminated by light from the central protostar reflecting off of the nebular material. Given the appearance of the two reflection nebulas, IRAS 04302 has been nicknamed the 'Butterfly Star'.

This view of IRAS 04302 features observations from Webb's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), combined with optical data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Together, these powerful facilities paint a fascinating multiwavelength portrait of a planetary birthplace. Webb reveals the distribution of tiny dust grains as well as the reflection of near-infrared light off of dusty material that extends a large distance from the disc, while Hubble focuses on the dust lane as well as clumps and streaks surrounding the dust that suggest the star is still collecting mass from its surroundings as well as shooting out jets and outflows.

The Webb observations of IRAS 04302 were taken as part of the Webb GO programme #2562 (PI F. Ménard, K. Stapelfeldt). This programme investigates four protoplanetary discs that are oriented edge-on from our point of view, aiming to understand how dust evolves within these discs. The growth of dust grains in protoplanetary discs is believed to be an important step toward planet formation.

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[Image description: A wide-field image of IRAS 16594-4656 taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The nebula’s bright core is split by a narrow dark band, with expansive rainbow lobes of light and colour radiating outward. Numerous background galaxies and stars are visible across the field.]

Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Villenave et al.; CC BY 4.0

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Nectaris Fossae and Protva Valles on Mars.

The area outlined by the bold white box indicates the area imaged by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera on 23 May 2022 during orbit 23232.

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Credits: NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team

Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana is performing the first combined test in preparation for the inaugural flight of Ariane 6, Europe’s new generation launch vehicle.

This test confirms the operations and electrical and mechanical equipment required for integration of the upper part of the launch vehicle. The procedures are carried out in conditions representative of a launch campaign. A major step of this test involves the closure of the Ariane 6 fairing around the payload.

Preparations started in May 2021 with a de-risking campaign of the mechanical operations.

The fairing, built by Ruag Space in Switzerland, stands 20 m high and 5.4 m in diameter. It protects payloads from the thermal, acoustic and aerodynamic stresses on the ascent to space.

This combined test was performed using a new integration dock, composed of a large white frame, with two mobile platforms adjustable to any level and accessible by fixed stairs and platforms, developed by the French space agency, CNES.

The assembly building has two halls: one for integration of the fairing and another where the payload is stowed in the fairing. This encapsulation area is a spacious clean room for Ariane 6.

These activities are part of extensive ‘combined tests’ at the Spaceport by ESA, CNES, ArianeGroup and other industry partners. They will prove the systems and procedures to prepare Europe's new Ariane 6 launch vehicle for flight.

ESA oversees the implementation and management of verification and qualification activities up to and including the first flight of Ariane 6 before handing over to the exploitation authority.

Ariane 6 is designed to extend guaranteed access to space for Europe and will be capable of carrying out all types of missions to all orbits. It features a modular design with two versions: Ariane 62, fitted with two strap-on boosters, and Ariane 64, with four.

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace / Optique vidéo du CSG - P. Baudon

The first instrument to fly on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, or Juice, has been delivered for integration onto the spacecraft this month. The ultraviolet spectrograph, or UVS for short, pictured in this photo while being prepared before shipping, was designed and built by Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX, US.

Juice is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme. With launch scheduled in 2022, it will arrive at Jupiter in 2029 to perform detailed observations of the giant planet and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

The mission, which is being developed by Airbus Defence and Space as prime contractor, comprises 10 state-of-the-art instruments to investigate the Jupiter system plus one experiment that uses the spacecraft telecommunication system jointly with ground-based radio observations (Very Long Baseline Interferometry). The 10 instruments will perform in situ measurements of Jupiter's atmosphere and plasma environment as well as remote observations of the surface and interior of the three icy moons.

As part of Juice’s comprehensive suite of instruments, UVS will get close-up views of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, which are all thought to host underground oceans beneath their icy surfaces. By recording the ultraviolet light emitted, transmitted and reflected by the moons, the instrument will reveal the composition of their surfaces and atmospheres, and enable investigations of how these icy bodies interact with Jupiter and its giant magnetosphere.

UVS will cover the wavelength range between 55 and 210 nm with spectral resolution better than 0.6 nm. It will achieve a spatial resolution of 0.5 km at Ganymede and up to 250 km at Jupiter.

The instrument is now at the premises of Airbus Defence & Space GmbH in Friedrichshafen, Germany, where it will be integrated on the spacecraft. The other nine instruments are being integrated and tested by the respective instrument teams and will be delivered for integration over the course of 2020.

The UVS instrument represents NASA’s contribution to the mission. The instrument team, led by scientists at Southwest Research Institute, includes additional scientists from University of Colorado Boulder and SETI institute in the US, as well as University of Leicester and Imperial College London (UK), University of Liège (Belgium) and Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (France). NASA’s New Frontiers Program at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) oversees the UVS contribution to ESA.

More about Juice

Credits: SwRI

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. Captured on 30 January 2019, this false-colour image was processed in a way that makes vegetation appear red.

Lake Guija, visible in the top left of the image, lies on the border between El Salvador and Guatemala. The lake once formed part of the Mayan Empire and legend says that it also hides an ancient city beneath its waters.

El Salvador sits on the eastern edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and despite being a small country, it has 25 volcanoes. The volcano complex of the Cerro Verde National Park can be seen dotted with clouds in the lower left of the image.

The Cerro Verde National Park is over 2000 metres above sea level. It is home to a cluster of three volcanoes surrounded by lush rainforest. Santa Ana, the highest volcano in the country, is clearly visible with its circular peak.

Izalco, located directly below Santa Ana, was born in 1770 and has erupted more than 50 times since. Its odd colour and shape is due to these frequent eruptions.

The large body of water to the right of Izalco is Lake Coatepeque, one of the largest crater lakes in the country. It is home to a variety of aquatic life and has remnants of ancient volcanic activity such as hot springs and openings emitting steam known as fumaroles.

The large volcano in the right of the image is named San Salvador. It is adjacent to the capital, with which it shares its name. The city sprawls close to the nearby Lake Ilopango, which occupies the crater of an extinct volcano.

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 is mostly used to track changes in the way land is being used and to monitor the health of vegetation.

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

Stars, gas and cosmic dust in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud glow in near-infrared light, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). In this light, astronomers see more of the region’s diverse, colourful stars, but less of its gas and dust structure. Webb’s instruments each provide astronomers with important information that help build a more complete picture of what is happening in this intriguing portion of the centre of our galaxy.

[Image description: A wide view of a region of space filled with stars and clumps of orange clouds.]

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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Ginsburg (University of Florida), N. Budaiev (University of Florida), T. Yoo (University of Florida). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission completed its second flyby of Venus on 19 August 2021, coming within 552 km of the planet at 13:51:54 UTC for a gravity assist manoeuvre.

All three monitoring cameras (MCAM) onboard the Mercury Transfer Module were activated during dedicated imaging slots from shortly before closest approach through to the days after. Examples are shown in this infographic.

The MCAM 1 image was taken while the spacecraft was approaching from the nightside of the planet, and captures the terminator – the division between night and day side. Part of the spacecraft’s solar array can also be seen.

The MCAM 2 image was captured two seconds after closest approach. With the Venus surface just 552 km away, the planet fills the entire field of view. The image also captures the Mercury Planetary Orbiter’s medium gain antenna and magnetometer boom

The MCAM 3 image was taken six minutes after closest approach, and its high gain antenna can be seen.

The images were captured during the second of two Venus flybys and the third of nine flybys overall. The flybys are gravity assist manoeuvres needed to help steer the spacecraft on course for Mercury. During its seven-year cruise to the smallest and innermost planet of the Solar System, BepiColombo makes one flyby at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury in order to enter orbit around Mercury. BepiColombo, which comprises ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is scheduled to reach its target orbit around the smallest and innermost planet of the Solar System in 2025. The spacecraft will separate and enter into their respective orbits before starting their science mission.

Credits: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the ‘meeting of waters’ in Brazil – where the Rio Negro and the Solimões River meet to form the Amazon River.

Click on the box in the lower-right corner to view this image at its full 10 m resolution directly in your browser.

The Rio Negro, visible in black, is the largest tributary of the Amazon and the world’s largest black-water river. It flows 2300 km from Colombia, and it gets its dark colouring from leaf and plant matter that has decayed and dissolved in its waters.

The Rio Negro contrasts significantly with the Solimões River – visible directly below - which owes its brown-colouring to its rich sediment content, including sand, mud and silt. After flowing for around 1600 km, the Solimões River meets the Rio Negro and together form this important junction.

Owing to differences in temperature, speed and water density, the two rivers, after converging, flow side-by-side for a few kilometres , before eventually mixing.

Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon Basin, is visible on the north bank of the Rio Negro. Despite being 1500 km from the ocean, Manaus is a major inland port. The Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve is visible northeast of the city. The almost square-shaped block of land is a protected area named after the botanist Adolfo Ducke, and is used for the research of biodiversity.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands and can help monitor changes in land cover and inland waters.

This image, captured on 7 February 2018, is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This image shows a portion of the Lupus cloud complex based on a combination of data from ESA’s Herschel and Planck space telescopes. The bright areas in the picture shows the emission by interstellar dust grains in three different wavelengths observed by Herschel (250, 350, and 500 microns) and the lines crossing the image in a ‘drapery pattern’ represent the magnetic field orientation (based on the Planck data.)

This cloud complex, which contains four main star-forming regions, lies in the constellation of Scorpius. The Lupus clouds form one of the largest regions where low-mass stars form, in terms of its angular extent across the sky.

Shown here is Lupus I, which is thought to be the youngest of the clouds. As such, it has sparse star formation compared to Lupus III (not shown), which is a dense region with rampant star formation and is the most evolved of the Lupus clouds. Lupus I contains B228, also known as the Dark Wolf nebula, which is the long filament visible in the picture.

Credits: ESA/Herschel/Planck; J. D. Soler, MPIA

This image shows the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex based on a combination of data from ESA’s Herschel and Planck space telescopes. The bright areas in the picture shows the emission by interstellar dust grains in three different wavelengths observed by Herschel (250, 350, and 500 microns) and the lines crossing the image in a ‘drapery pattern’ represent the magnetic field orientation (based on the Planck data.)

The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a nearby star-forming region, at around 440 light years from us, in the constellation Ophiuchus. The main bright region on the right side of the image is known as L1688, with L1704/L1709 on the upper left and L1712 on the lower left.

L1688 is a well-studied region of low-mass star formation. It contains young stellar objects and is the most active star-forming region within the cloud complex. L1688 is a dense filament whereas the areas on the left of the image are less dense and are known as streamers rather than filaments. Filaments are well-defined whereas streamers are broader and fainter.

Credits: ESA/Herschel/Planck; J. D. Soler, MPIA

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Finistère – a French department in the west of Brittany.

Brittany is an important cultural region in the northwest of France. Previously a kingdom, then a duchy, Brittany was united with France in 1532. Today, Brittany is divided into four departments: Ille-et-Vilaine in the east, Morbihan in the south, Côtes d'Armor in the north and Finistère in the west. Brittany has over 1000 km of coastline – with a wide range of beaches and rocky, coastal scenery making it a popular holiday destination.

Fields blanket the French countryside and dominate this image captured on 27 September 2018. Brittany is one of France’s leading vegetable growing regions known for its artichokes, cauliflowers, carrots and potatoes. In fact, France is one of the EU’s leading agricultural countries and is home to around a third of all agricultural land in the EU.

The city of Brest can be seen in the left of the image, lying along the sheltered bay close to the western tip of the peninsula. With a population of around 150 000, Brest is the largest city in the Finistère department. The port town played an important role in French history as it was a key naval base during World War II.

Just west of Brest lies Pointe de Corsen, otherwise known as the westernmost point of continental France. The name Finistère derives from the Latin ‘Finis Terræ’ – meaning ‘end of the earth’.

Ushant, or Ouessant in French, and the Iroise Islands lie around 30 km from the coast of France and can be seen in the left of the image.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission is designed to provide images that can be used to distinguish between different crop types as well as data on numerous plant indices, such as leaf area, leaf chlorophyll and leaf water – all essential to monitor plant growth accurately.

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

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

This wafer of Gallium Nitride – a material more typically found at the heart of Blu-Ray players – has been etched with hundreds of space-quality microwave integrated circuits. Many of ESA’s most ambitious future missions for telecommunications and Earth observation have only become possible because of a switch to this high-power and high-temperature capable semiconductor – regarded as the most promising material since silicon.

This image is one of the 99 Objects of ESA ESTEC website, a set of intriguing, often surprising artefacts helping tell the story of more than half a century of activity at ESA’s technical heart.

Credits: ESA-Remedia

The deployment of ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) solar array is tested as part of launch preparations at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou. The solar array is not yet installed on the MPO module, which can be seen in the back left corner of the image.

The MPO is one of the three modules of the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo along with the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) and the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). The MTM will use solar electric propulsion to take the two science orbiters to the Mercury, together with gravity assist flybys at Earth, Venus and Mercury itself.

BepiColombo is Europe's first mission to Mercury, due to launch this year on a journey to the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in the inner Solar System.

Credits: ESA–B.Guillaume

The James Webb Space Telescope lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, at 13:20 CET on 25 December on its exciting mission to unlock the secrets of the Universe.

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Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace

This ‘mirror module’ – formed of 140 industrial silicon mirror plates, stacked together by a sophisticated robotic system – is destined to form part of the optical system of ESA’s Athena X-ray observatory.

Due to launch in 2031, Athena will probe 10 to 100 times deeper into the cosmos than previous X-ray missions, to observe the very hottest, high-energy celestial objects. To achieve this the mission requires entirely new X-ray optics technology.

Energetic X-rays don’t behave like typical light waves: they don’t reflect in a standard mirror. Instead they can only be reflected at shallow angles, like stones skimming along water. So multiple mirrors must be stacked together to focus them: ESA’s 1999-launched XMM-Newton has three sets of 58 gold-plated nickel mirrors, each nestled inside one another. But to see further, Athena needs tens of thousands of densely-packed mirror plates.

A new technology had to be invented: ‘silicon pore optics’, based on stacking together mirror plates made from industrial silicon wafers, which are normally used to manufacture silicon chips.

It was developed at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, and patented by ESA, invented by an ESA staff member with the founder of cosine Research, the Dutch company leading an European consortium developing Athena’s optics.

The technology was refined through a series of ESA R&D projects, and all process steps have been demonstrated to be suitable for industrial production. The wafers have grooves cut into them, leaving stiffening ribs to form the ‘pores’ the X-rays will pass through. They are given a slight curvature, tapering towards a desired point so the complete flight mirror can focus X-ray images.

“We’ve produced hundreds of stacks using a trio of automated stacking robot,” explains ESA optics engineer Eric Wille. “Stacking the mirror plates is a crucial step, taking place in a cleanroom environment to avoid any dust contamination, targeting thousandth of a millimetre scale precision. Our angular resolution is continuously improving.”

“Ongoing shock and other environmental testing ensures the modules will meet Athena’s requirements, and the modules are regularly tested using different X-ray facilities.”

Athena’s flight mirror – comprising hundreds of these mirror modules – is due for completion three to four years before launch, to allow for its testing and integration.

Each new ESA Science mission observes the Universe in a different way from the one before it, requiring a steady stream of new technologies years in advance of launch. That’s where ESA’s research and development activities come in, to early anticipate such needs, to make sure the right technology is available at the right time for missions to come.

Long-term planning is crucial to realise the missions that investigate fundamental science questions, and to ensure the continued development of innovative technology, inspiring new generations of European scientists and engineers.

Science is everywhere at ESA. As well as exploring the Universe and answering the big questions about our place in space we develop the satellites, rockets and technologies to get there. Science also helps us to care for our home planet. All this week we're highlighting different aspects of science at ESA. Join the conversation with #ScienceAtESA.

Credits: ESA/cosine Research

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, outside the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour shortly after having splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, USA.

Thomas is the first European to fly to the International Space Station and return on a commercial spacecraft. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour transporting Crew-2 autonomously undocked from the International Space Station and after a series of burns, entered Earth’s atmosphere and deployed parachutes for a soft water-landing. Thomas and crew splashed down on 9 November 2021 at 03:33 GMT (04:33 CET).

Credits: NASA–A.Gemignani

The Rosalind Franklin ‘ground test model’ being commanded for the first time via the Rover Operations Control Centre, in Turin, Italy. The rover is situated on a tilt table and is pictured here with its drill box inclined. As part of recent system verification tests, the replica rover was commanded to deploy its drill with a dummy sample onboard, transporting it to the Analytical Laboratory Drawer.

In reality, on Mars, a sophisticated laboratory inside the rover will then analyse the sample’s composition. It is the first time in Mars exploration that a rover will be able to retrieve soil samples down to 2 m underground, where ancient biomarkers may still be preserved from the harsh radiation on the surface.

The tilt table allows engineers to test the rover’s capabilities in a range of inclinations.

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Credits: Thales Alenia Space

Perched on a narrow passage, ESA astronaut Marco Sieber stops for a moment to admire the heart of the cave he is set to explore.

His journey into the deep is part of ESA’s CAVES training that prepares astronauts for the challenges of spaceflight both as individuals and as a team. Just like in space, the cave imposes isolation, confinement and limited supplies.

For four days, an international crew of astronauts descended underground to live and work together, cut off from the outside world. Marco shared the expedition with NASA’s Jasmin “Jaws” Moghbeli, Makoto Suwa from Japan’s space agency JAXA and Mohammad Al Mulla from MBRSC, the Emirati space agency.

Marco’s role for the first two days and nights was to scout the 3.5 km long cave in the Italian Apennines, staying focused for hours on end under real exploration conditions. He was the first one into the unknown. The use of artificial light in constant darkness alters the perception of time and of colour.

Beyond his skills as a medical doctor, his fellow explorers describe him as adventurous and humble, always curious to learn new things.

Together with Jasmin, he was in charge of mapping the cave, choosing the best path and reporting their progress to the ground. All roles were swapped halfway through the expedition.

The team of ‘cavenauts’ navigated sloping and uneven terrain, keeping situational awareness at all times. They overcame vertical drops of 20 metres using newly acquired rope climbing skills and organised the campsite that became their home.

Over four dark days, they discovered a new world and new things about themselves and each other.

“I feel privileged to see nature’s beauty in a new and unexpected way, but also to share these unforgettable moments with my crewmates. CAVES has been a great learning experience in team dynamics,” says Marco.

Throughout the expedition, the crew monitored the cave's changing environment and conducted science experiments, including microbial sampling and tracking radon and carbon dioxide levels.

“Like in space exploration, we are reminded that we might reach places where no one else has been before. We have the duty to preserve it and avoid polluting it,” says Marco.

Listen to Marco on our astro chat podcast, learn how the crew prepared for the cave on ESA’s blog and see them in action on our CAVES Flickr gallery.

Credits: ESA/V. Crobu

Space Science image of the week:

Blink and you might have missed them. But thanks to the cadence at which Rosetta took images of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko during its most active period in August 2015, scientists watching for brief but powerful outbursts caught plenty. Thirty-four no less, in the three months centred around the comet’s closest approach to the Sun, which occurred nearly two years ago, on 13 August 2015.

The increase in solar energy during these months warmed the comet’s frozen ices, turning them to gas, which subsequently poured out into space, dragging dust along with it. The violent, transient events occurred over and above regular jets and flows of material seen streaming from the comet’s nucleus, and were much brighter. Although typically only lasting a few minutes, some 60–260 tonnes of comet material could be released.

As can be seen from the montage shown here, some outbursts were long, narrow jets extending far from the comet nucleus, while others had a broader base that expanded more laterally. Others seem to be a hybrid of the two.

Scientists studying the outbursts even traced them back to their origins on the surface. Some were found to be linked to changes in local temperatures, perhaps in the early morning after many hours of darkness, or later in the day after several hours of heating, while others came from areas associated with pits or steep cliffs.

The images seen here are from both the high-resolution OSIRIS camera, and from the spacecraft’s navigation camera. Browse more images from Rosetta’s mission via ESA’s Archive Image Browser imagearchives.esac.esa.int/.

Rosetta arrived at the comet on 6 August 2014 and released its lander Philae on 12 November 2014. Rosetta followed the comet around the Sun for just over two years, watching the rise and fall of its activity over time and returning a wealth of scientific data from its suite of in situ and remote sensing instruments. It concluded its pioneering mission on 30 September 2016 by descending on to the comet’s surface in a controlled impact.

Credit: OSIRIS: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; NavCam: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Ariane 5 flight VA254 with the Eutelsat Quantum and Star One D2 satellites is being rolled out from the Final Assembly Building (BAF) to 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: ESA - S. Corvaja

Galileo sensor stations, reversing the way satellite navigation usually operates, work together to pinpoint a Galileo satellite’s orbital position, its clock rate and signal health. Sensor station data gets fed through to the twin Galileo control centres so a set of corrections can be compiled. These corrections are uplinked to the satellites by Uplink stations every 100 minutes or less, for rebroadcast within the Galileo signal, keeping the system sufficiently aware. Telecommands to the satellite platforms are uplinked by dedicated Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) stations.

Credits: ESA-F. Zonno

These spur gears – seen here with a euro cent coin for scale – have been produced in stainless steel to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3D printer.

ESA-supported startup TIWARI Scientific Instruments in Germany has developed a technique allowing low cost 3D printing using a variety of metals and ceramics. Ordinarily producing precision parts in such high-performance materials would be costly in both time and money, but the company can instead shape them using standard 3D printing techniques.

TIWARI’s ‘Fused Filament Fabrication’ (FFF) print process uses thermoplastic filaments that are embedded with particles of the metal or ceramic the part is to be made from. Once the printing is finished, the part – known as a ‘green body’ – is put through a thermal treatment to eliminate the plastic, leaving behind a metal or ceramic item.

“Once this plastic-containing body goes through this treatment then what is left behind is pure metal or ceramic,” explains ESA non-metallic materials and processes engineer Ugo Lafont. “The result is high-quality parts with very good physical properties. So this cheap, simple technique can offer us additional part manufacturing capability for space applications with an expanded pallet of materials.”

Test parts made using the FFF process in stainless steel and titanium metals, as well as aluminia and silicon carbide ceramics underwent a full-scale campaign of non-destructive and destructive testing at the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, assessing their added value and suitability for space.

One surprise has been that the parts possess enhanced mechanical performance compared to their conventionally made equivalents – for instance, stainless steel can be elongated to a previously unachievable 100% without breaking.

TIWARI is a startup hosted at ESA’s Business Incubation Centre Hessen & Baden-Württemberg in Germany, specialising in instruments for thermal characterisation of materials as well as 3D printing of high-performance metals and ceramics.

“Desktop 3D printers have become cheaper and cheaper in recent years and there’s been a lot of interest in mixing in materials with traditional print stock,” explains company founder Siddharth Tiwari. “But our company’s particular focus has really been on understanding the process thoroughly and investigating the kind of thermal and mechanical properties we can achieve.

“So this test campaign with ESA was part of our strategic planning from the start, to help commercialise the technology. At a time when other companies are still speculating about the properties achievable with 3D printed parts we have tested and qualified not one but four separate materials.

“This means we’ve ended up with a database no other company possesses, thanks to being able to make use of ESA resources – which otherwise would have cost many tens of thousands of euros. And the fact that our parts make the grade for space helps us in terrestrial markets too.”

The collaboration between the ESA and TIWARI on the testing and evaluation of the 3D printed parts has been facilitated by ESA’s Technology Transfer and Patent Office.

“We hope to offer an affordable solution to a market often put off by the high prices associated with additive manufacturing,” adds Siddharth Tiwari. “Our company offers one of the best price-to-performance ratio in the market, and we have launched an online estimation tool allowing customers to check how much the customised parts they require will cost.”

Credits: TIWARI Scientific Instruments

Europe' Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana is gearing up for the arrival of Ariane 6, Europe's new generation launch vehicle.

Aerial views from December 2021 show the main elements of the new Ariane 6 launch complex: the launch vehicle assembly building, the mobile gantry, and launch pad.

Ariane 6 has two versions depending on the required performance and will be capable of a wide range of missions to guarantee Europe’s independent access to space.

Credits: CNES-ESA/Sentinel

Einstein predicted that time slows down the faster you travel and the time-dilation hypothesis has since been proven by flying atomic clocks on aircraft.

The three fastest human beings at the moment are NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques (pictured) and Roscosmos astronaut Oleg Kononenko who are orbiting Earth on the International Space Station at a speed of around 28 800 km/h.

They are travelling so fast that they will return home to Earth after their six-month spaceflight 0.007 seconds younger than if they had stayed with their feet on the ground.

But how do astronauts perceive time in space? Space Station crew report that time seems to speed up in microgravity so European researchers are trying to find out more by immersing astronauts in virtual reality and testing their reaction times.

A virtual reality headset is used to block external visual cues that could influence the results. The experiment focuses on how astronauts estimate time duration as well as their reaction times. They are asked gauge how long a visual target appears on screen. Their reaction times to these prompts are recorded to process speed and attention.

The astronauts run the experiment before flight, on the International Space Station and again when they land to compare results. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was the first test subject to take part in this experiment in 2018. Anne and David did a session in February in ESA’s Columbus laboratory.

Understanding how time is perceived in space is important as astronauts are often required to conduct precision work where timing is everything. This research in microgravity will help reveal clues as to what helps keep our brains ticking the seconds accurately.

Credits: NASA

All ten solar panels for ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, have arrived at Airbus Defence and Space in The Netherlands ready to be turned into the spacecraft’s two solar wings. The solar panels are a key element of the mission, providing the necessary power to run the spacecraft and operate the science instruments.

Each panel measures about 2.5 m x 3.5 m, and with five on each side of the spacecraft, total an area of about 85 square metres. They have to be folded up to fit inside the launcher, and after launch, will deploy in a distinctive cross-like formation.

En route to Jupiter, Juice will make several gravity assist flybys at Earth, Venus and Mars before heading to the outer Solar System, meaning that the solar panels have to withstand a large temperature range from +110ºC to -230ºC. At Jupiter, there will be times when the spacecraft is temporarily eclipsed by the giant planet and the moons, depriving it from any sunlight, leading to a rapid cool down of the solar arrays. In addition, the spacecraft will be subjected to a harsh radiation environment. Extensive testing is carried out to ensure the spacecraft and its solar arrays can survive these tough conditions.

The next step for the solar panels is to turn them into wings and to test the deployment mechanisms. Further checks will also be made to verify that the spacecraft and its instruments can receive all of the power generated by the solar array even under the most challenging conditions.

Juice is scheduled to launch in 2022, arriving in the Jovian system in 2029. It will investigate Jupiter and three of its planet-sized moons – Ganymede, Europa and Callisto – which are thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts. This makes them extremely interesting to study to better understand the habitability potential of ocean worlds – in our own Solar System and in exoplanet systems beyond.

Read more about the preparation of the solar panels here.

Credits: Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands

It might appear featureless and unexciting at first glance, but NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observations of this elliptical galaxy — known as Messier 105 — show that the stars near the galaxy’s centre are moving very rapidly. Astronomers have concluded that these stars are zooming around a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass of 200 million Suns! This black hole releases huge amounts of energy as it consumes matter falling into it and causing the centre to shine far brighter than its surroundings. This system is known as an active galactic nucleus.

Hubble also surprised astronomers by revealing a few young stars and clusters in Messer 105, which was thought to be a “dead” galaxy incapable of star formation. Messier 105 is now thought to form roughly one Sun-like star every 10 000 years. Star-forming activity has also been spotted in a vast ring of hydrogen gas encircling both Messier 105 and its closest neighbour, the lenticular galaxy NGC 3384.

Messier 105 was discovered in 1781, lies about 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), and is the brightest elliptical galaxy within the Leo I galaxy group.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Sarazin et al. ; CC BY 4.0

This image shows the Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, as viewed by ESA’s Herschel observatory. Lying more than 20 million light-years from us, this spiral galaxy is similar in shape to our Milky Way, but it is almost twice as large.

Herschel's observations at far-infrared and submillimetre wavelengths reveal the glow of cosmic dust, which is a minor but crucial ingredient in the interstellar material in the galaxy’s spiral arms. This mixture of gas and dust provides the raw material to produce the galaxy’s future generations of stars.

The Pinwheel Galaxy is in the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Dipper. Thanks to its orientation, we can enjoy a face-on view of the beautiful spiral structure of the galaxy’s disc.

The spiral arms are dotted with several bright, blue-hued spots of light: these are regions where large numbers of massive stars are being born.

This three-colour image combines Herschel observations at 70 and 100 microns (blue), 160 and 250 microns (green), and 350 and 500 microns (red). North is up and east to the left.

Full story: Herschel’s chronicles of galaxy evolution

Credit: ESA/Herschel/NASA/JPL-Caltech; acknowledgement: R. Hurt (JPL-Caltech), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission takes us over the Japanese archipelago – a string of islands that extends about 3000 km into the western Pacific Ocean.

While the archipelago is made up of over 6000 islands, this image focuses on Japan's four main islands. Running from north to south, Hokkaido is visible in the top right corner, Honshu is the long island stretching in a northeast–southwest arc, Shikoku can be seen just beneath the lower part of Honshu, and Kyushu is at the bottom.

Honshu’s land mass comprises approximately four-fifths of Japan’s total area. Honshu’s main urban areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka are clearly visible in the image. The large grey area in the east of the island, near the coast, is Tokyo, while the smaller areas depicted in grey are the areas around Nagoya and Osaka.

Honshu is also home to the country’s largest mountain, Mount Fuji. A volcano that has been dormant since it erupted in 1707, Mount Fuji is around 100 km southwest of Tokyo and its snow covered summit can be seen as a small white dot.

The Sea of Japan, also referred to as the East Sea, (visible to the west of the archipelago) separates the country from the east coast of Asia. The turquoise waters surrounding the island of Hokkaido can be seen at the top of the image, while the waters in the right of the image have a silvery hue because of sunglint – an optical effect caused by the mirror-like reflection of sunlight from the water surface back to the satellite sensor.

Sentinel-3 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. Each satellite’s instrument package includes an optical sensor to monitor changes in the colour of Earth’s surfaces. It can be used, for example, to monitor ocean biology and water quality.

This image, which was captured on 24 May 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

This colourful image from the CaSSIS camera onboard the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter shows an area within Oyama Crater, which is near Mawrth Vallis on Mars.

The lighter tones are probably related to clay minerals that have been identified across the region by the OMEGA instrument on ESA’s Mars Express and by the CRISM instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The CaSSIS data has higher spatial resolution and, in combination with the spectrometer, can help look at spatial relationships between the different mineral species. This image is particularly interesting because of the distinct layers exposed in the walls of small crater at the top of the image, giving us a window back in time. Areas like these are frequently ranked highly as potential landing sites for missions because of the influence of water and as such their potential for preservation of traces of past life.

The image is centred at 23.4ºN/340ºE. North is up. The image was taken on 13 June 2019.

Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Gravity is so much a part of our daily lives that it is all too easy to forget its awesome power — but on a galactic scale, its power becomes both strikingly clear and visually stunning.

This image was taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and shows an object named SDSS J1138+2754. It acts as a gravitational lens illustrates the true strength of gravity: A large mass — a galaxy cluster in this case — is creating such a strong gravitational field that it is bending the very fabric of its surroundings. This causes the billion-year-old light from galaxies sitting behind it to travel along distorted, curved paths, transforming the familiar shapes of spirals and ellipticals (visible in other parts of the image) into long, smudged arcs and scattered dashes.

Some distant galaxies even appear multiple times in this image. Since galaxies are wide objects, light from one side of the galaxy passes through the gravitational lens differently than light from the other side. When the galaxies’ light reaches Earth it can appear reflected, as seen with the galaxy on the lower left part of the lens, or distorted, as seen with the galaxy to the upper right.

This data were taken as part of a research project on star formation in the distant Universe, building on Hubble’s extensive legacy of deep-field images. Hubble observed 73 gravitationally-lensed galaxies for this project.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt; CC BY 4.0

The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. As a volcanic island famous for its volcanoes, glaciers, lakes, lava and hot springs, Iceland attracts tourists all year round with its vast array of natural wonders.

This true colour image shows us the small city of Reykjavik, home to around 120 000 people, and seen in the lower central part of the image. The port town of Akranes, 20 km north of the capital, is also shown in grey in the centre of the image. In between the two lies Mount Esja, standing just over 900 m tall, and providing a dramatic backdrop to the capital.

In the upper left part of the image, ‘kettle holes’ are visible as small dark green dots scattered across the reddish brown area. Kettle holes are formed when blocks of ice break away from glaciers and then become buried in outwash. When these buried blocks of glacier ice melt away they leave behind holes, which become filled with water and turn into kettle hole lakes. They are often found in areas that were covered in ice during the last ice age, which ended around 12 000 years ago. Kettle holes are common in Michigan in the United States, as well as in parts of Germany, Austria and the UK.

The Sentinel-2 mission is tasked with monitoring our changing lands. Designed specifically to monitor vegetation, it can also detect differences in sparsely vegetated areas, as well as the mineral composition of soil, as found in Iceland.

This image, which was captured on 1 November 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

ESA’s Euclid satellite sets sail from the port of Savona, Italy to the port near its launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The ship is expected to reach its destination at the beginning of May, getting ready for launch no earlier than this July on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, USA.

Euclid will travel 1.5 million km from Earth, in the opposite direction to the Sun, to the Lagrange point L2. From there, ESA's Euclid mission will begin the detective work of exploring the dark Universe.

Euclid will create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever. It will observe billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. With this map, Euclid will reveal how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure has evolved over cosmic history. And from this, we can learn more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

Credits: Thales Alenia Space / ImagIn

A scene from a star-forming factory shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This Hubble picture captures incredible details in the dusty clouds in a star-forming region called the Tarantula Nebula. What’s possibly the most amazing aspect of this detailed image is that this nebula isn’t even in our galaxy. Instead, it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is located about 160 000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the dozens of small satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region not just in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but in the entire group of nearby galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.

The Tarantula Nebula is home to the most massive stars known, some of which are roughly 200 times as massive as our Sun. The scene pictured here is located away from the centre of the nebula, where there is a super star cluster called R136, but very close to a rare type of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that have lost their outer shell of hydrogen and are extremely hot and luminous, powering dense and furious stellar winds.

This nebula is a frequent target for Hubble, whose multiwavelength capabilities are critical for capturing sculptural details in the nebula’s dusty clouds. The data used to create this image come from an observing programme called Scylla, named for a multi-headed sea monster from the Greek myth of Ulysses. The Scylla programme was designed to complement another Hubble observing programme called ULYSSES (Ultraviolet Legacy library of Young Stars as Essential Standards). ULYSSES targets massive young stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, while Scylla investigates the structures of gas and dust that surround these stars.

[Image Description: A nebula. The top-left is dense with layers of fluffy pink and greenish clouds. Long strands of green clouds stretch out from here; a faint layer of translucent blue dust combines with them to create a three-dimensional scene. A sparse network of dark dust clouds in the foreground adds reddish-black patches atop the nebula. Blue-white and orange stars, from our galaxy and beyond, are spread amongst the clouds.]

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray; CC BY 4.0

This image shows the coming together of two key parts of the Euclid spacecraft – the instrument-carrying payload module and the supporting service module.

To connect the two together, engineers used a crane to lower the 800-kilogram payload module onto the service module via six attachment points. The team took great care to make sure that these points matched up very well, as a poor contact could induce stresses that damage the structure or deform Euclid’s 1.2-metre telescope mirror.

After the modules were joined mechanically, the engineers added connector brackets and plugged in the electrical connectors. Then they checked that everything was working properly before covering the connector brackets and any tiny remaining gaps between the two modules with thermal insulation to really seal up the spacecraft.

Read more about the coming together of the two modules here.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

ESA’s Rosalind Franklin twin rover on Earth has drilled down and extracted samples 1.7 metres into the ground – much deeper than any other martian rover has ever attempted.

The first samples have been collected as part of a series of tests at the Mars Terrain Simulator at the ALTEC premises in Turin, Italy. The replica, also known as the Ground Test Model, is fully representative of the rover set to land on Mars.

The Rosalind Franklin rover is designed to drill deep enough, up to two metres, to get access to well-preserved organic material from four billion years ago, when conditions on the surface of Mars were more like those on infant Earth.

Rosalind Franklin’s twin has been drilling into a well filled with a variety of rocks and soil layers. The first sample was taken from a block of cemented clay of medium hardness.

Drilling took place on a dedicated platform tilted at seven degrees to simulate the collection of a sample in a non-vertical position. The drill acquired the sample in the shape of a pellet of about 1 cm in diameter.

The drill was developed by Leonardo, while Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for ExoMars 2022. The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos.

Credits: Thales Alenia Space

The upper stage of Ariane 5 which will transport the James Webb Space Telescope in space, is now integrated with the Ariane 5 core stage inside the launch vehicle integration building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

The upper stage arrived at the launch vehicle integration building on 11 November 2021 where it joined the Ariane 5 core stage and boosters. It was then hoisted high to awaiting engineers so that it could be integrated on top of the core stage.

The Ariane 5 upper stage is powered by the HM7B engine. It will contain 14.7 t of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant to deliver 6.6 t of thrust for 1000 seconds. After core stage separation, the upper stage will provide attitude control during the ascent and separation of Webb on its path to the Lagrange point.

The Vehicle Equipment Bay, ‘the brain’ of Ariane 5, which is integrated with the upper stage, autonomously controls the whole vehicle and transmits all key flight parameters to the ground station network.

Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

These activities mark the beginning of a five-week campaign to prepare the Ariane 5 launch vehicle which runs in parallel with teams preparing Webb, which started three weeks earlier. Soon Webb will meet Ariane 5 and teams will unite for the final integration for launch.

Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit.

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG - S.Martin

The Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus as it approached for its closest-ever flyby of the moon's active south polar region.

The spacecraft flew about 49 km above the surface through the towering plumes of ice, water vapour and organic molecules spraying from that region. Previous flybys have sampled the plume but the low altitude of this close encounter was devised partly to provide greater sensitivity to heavier, more massive molecules, including organics.

Studies with Cassini have shown that beneath the moon’s icy exterior lies a global ocean heated in part by tidal forces from Saturn and its moon Dione.

Scientists will use the new information gathered during this dive through the plume to gain insights about how habitable the ocean environment may be for simple forms of life, and to study the chemistry and composition of the plume.

In this view of the moon, the heavily cratered northern latitudes at the top transition to fractured, wrinkled terrain in the middle and southern latitudes. The wavy boundary of the moon’s active south polar region – Cassini's destination for this flyby – is visible at the bottom, where it disappears into wintry darkness.

This image of the Saturn-facing side of the moon was taken with the narrow-angle camera on 28 October 2015 when Cassini was at a distance of some 96 000 km from Enceladus. The image scale is 578 m per pixel.

More images from the ‘plume dive’ can be viewed on the JPL website.

The Cassini–Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and ASI, the Italian space agency. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission for NASA.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The purple lines and blotches scattered across this image show something incredible: all of the X-ray sources that were serendipitously detected – that is, not intentionally targeted – by ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space observatoryfrom 2000 to 2017.

This image is based on a catalogue named 3XMM-DR8, the latest publicly released catalogue of serendipitous XMM-Newton X-ray sources, created on behalf of ESA by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre. The catalogue, released in May 2018, features sources in the 0.2 to 12 keV energy range drawn from 10 242 observations made by XMM-Newton’s European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC), an instrument capable of detecting very faint sources and rapid changes in intensity, between 3 February 2000 and 30 November 2017. It contains 532 more observations and 47 363 more detections than the preceding 3XMM-DR7 catalogue, which was made public in June 2017.

While the pattern of sources across the sky may appear random, some structure can be seen here. The oval represents the celestial sphere, an abstract perspective upon which our observations of the Universe are projected. The data are plotted in galactic coordinates, such that the centre of the plot corresponds to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy – and this can be seen in the image. Through the centre of the oval is a horizontal line, where patches of purple appear to draw together. This line is the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, with the large splotch of colour in the centre corresponding to our galaxy’s core, where XMM-Newton made a higher number of serendipitous detections.

XMM-Newton has been orbiting the Earth since 1999, observing the cosmos around us while on the hunt for X-rays coming from high-energy phenomena such as black holes, stellar winds, pulsars, and neutron stars. With every patch of sky that XMM-Newton observes, the telescope detects between 50 and 100 serendipitous sources, such as those shown here, besides the objects that were the original target of the observations. This is due to the large collecting area of the telescope’s mirrors and its wide field of view.

All-sky images and large-scale cosmic data are immensely valuable in our study of the cosmos. Upcoming missions – such as the eROSITA space telescope, a German-led satellite scheduled for launch on 12 July to complete the first all-sky survey in the medium-energy X-ray band, up to 10keV – will add to this wealth of knowledge, and help further our understanding of the X-ray Universe.

Credits: ESA/XMM-Newton/N. Webb (XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre)

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Clarence Strait, a narrow body of water in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Click on the box in the lower-right corner to view this image at its full 10 m resolution directly in your browser.

The strait ties the Beagle Gulf in the west with the Van Diemen Gulf to the east and separates Australia’s mainland from Melville Island, part of the Tiwi Islands. The southernmost tip of Melville is visible in the upper part of the image.

The three islands in the southern part of the strait, are the Vernon Islands, which host navigation aids to assist vessels passing through the strait.

Australia’s Northern Territory is a sparsely-populated region. With a population of around 140 000, Darwin is the territory’s capital and largest city, and is visible in grey in the centre of the image.

In 1839, the HMS Beagle sailed into the waters of what is now known as Darwin Harbour. The harbour was named after the British evolutionist Charles Darwin, but, contrary to popular belief, Darwin himself never visited the area.

With a strong Aboriginal culture, art and tropical summers, Darwin is a popular tourist destination. The Crocosaurus Cove in the heart of the city houses the world’s largest display of Australian reptiles.

The waters that surround Darwin are riddled with saltwater crocodiles and deadly box jellyfish, which inhabit the waters from October to May. The Adelaide River, known for its high concentration of saltwater crocodiles, can be seen to the right of Darwin, snaking its way northwards, flowing 180 km before emptying into the Timor Sea.

The Djukbinj National Park, visible east of Adelaide River, is a protected area and consists mostly of wetlands. The close vicinity to the water makes the park a major breeding ground for a variety of water birds, including magpie geese, herons and egrets.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission. Each satellite carries a high-resolution camera that images Earth’s surface in 13 spectral bands. Data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 can help monitor changes in land cover.

This image, captured on 24 June 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

A sunlight lamp illuminates a satellite model covered in golden thermal insulation. A cup-shaped thruster extends from the model’s centre, reflecting a rainbow of colours. A few metres to the left, not captured in this image, a camera is brought closer and closer to the model, scanning the scene in this simulation of a rendezvous in space.

Two companies from Luxembourg, LMO and ClearSpace, have used the European Space Agency’s Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Rendezvous, Approach and Landing Simulator – GRALS – for the testing of their autonomous satellite navigation technology.

GRALS is part of ESA’s Guidance, Navigation and Control Test Facilities at the agency’s technical centre, ESTEC, in the Netherlands. It consists of a duo of robotic arms, mounted on long rails. One holds the navigation unit of a ‘chaser', the other holds a satellite model as the ‘target’, suspended in the centre of a dark room, simulating space.

As part of the Development of In-Orbit Servicing Space Situational Awareness Payloads (DIOSSA) activity, LMO and ClearSpace are developing a navigation system for rendezvous scenarios in space.

“The number of uncooperative human-made objects in space that are in need of servicing is rapidly increasing,” explains Sabrina Andiappane from ClearSpace. “Whether these are satellites that ran out of fuel, reached the end of their operational life, or were damaged by debris, they are progressively cluttering Earth’s orbital environment.”

“In order for us to be able to refuel, repair, or deorbit them, we first need to be able to identify and approach them,” notes Alexander Finch from LMO.

“Working out where another satellite is relative to you is actually quite difficult. Imagine trying to walk to a friend’s house, go in through the front door, and then lightly tap your friend on the nose – you need to be able to see what you are doing. We’re trying to provide the ‘eyes’ for satellites to do just that, by developing what is called a ‘Vision-Based Navigation’ (VBN) system.”

VBN systems enable satellites to identify and approach or avoid other objects in space with the help of AI – in a way similar to self-driving cars.

The satellite model shown in the image was developed by ClearSpace and includes typical features of a real-life satellite. “At first, we used a smaller model to simulate a greater distance between the target and the camera. This larger model was used for the later, more close-up stages of a rendezvous,” adds Alexander. “These real-world models complement and validate computer-generated images we use to train our AIs.”

“To test VBN systems in the final, close-proximity phases of a rendezvous simulation, ClearSpace developed a larger physical model of a satellite,” says Sabrina. “High-fidelity models like this one complement and validate the computer-generated scenarios to ensure that autonomous servicing technologies are robust and reliable in real-world conditions.”

Joris Belhadj, ESA’s GNC system engineer, comments: “Although GRALS already enables representative real-world hardware testing in simulated space scenarios, we continue developing the facility to keep meeting the needs of European industries. In the future, we will offer new features and accommodate scenarios that are more complex, taking another step closer to the reality these instruments encounter in space.”

The DIOSSA activity was funded by LuxIMPULSE, Luxembourg’s national programme for research and development.

[Image description: This is a close-up photo of a satellite model, seen from the side. A prominent feature is a cone-shaped nozzle extending from the centre of the model. The nozzle has an iridescent surface with shades of blue, purple, red and gold. The rest of the model is covered in crinkled gold-coloured thermal insulation, which is shiny and reflective. The background is out of focus, but horizontal metal rails mounted on the wall behind the model are visible. The lighting is bright and highlights the textures of the nozzle and the insulation.]

Credits: ESA-SJM Photography

A camera closes in on a detailed model satellite, to simulate the extreme ‘guidance navigation and control’ (GNC) challenge of rendezvousing with an uncooperative target, such as a derelict satellite or distant asteroid.

This scene takes place in ESA’s GNC Rendezvous, Approach and Landing Simulator, or GRALS, based at the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, which is used to test vision-based navigation algorithms as well as cameras in development for future space debris removal, as well as the Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence.

GRALS is the Agency’s single longest lab, incorporating a 33-m long railing. Camera-carrying robotic arms can be mounted onto this railing to mimic the entire cycle of closing in upon a rendezvous target.

ESTEC is ESA’s largest establishment, the technical heart of the Agency. The site is devoted to programme management, technology development and satellite testing. This year’s ninth ESA Open Day at ESTEC is taking place on Sunday 4 October on an online basis. To participate you need to register. Registration is open until Friday at midday CEST.

Credits: ESA-M Schwendener/L Pasqualetto-Cassinis

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Kuwait in the Middle East. With a total area of around 17 800 sq km, Kuwait is considered one of the smallest countries in the world. At its most distant points, it is around 200 km north to south and 170 km east to west.

Situated in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula, Kuwait shares its borders with Iraq to the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. Kuwait is generally low lying, with the highest point being only 300 m above sea level.

The flat, sandy Arabian Desert covers the majority of Kuwait and appears as a vast expanse of light sand-coloured terrain in this image, captured on 25 July 2019. During the dry season, between April and September, the heat in the desert can be severe with daytime temperatures reaching 45°C and, on occasion, over 50°C.

Kuwait City, visible jutting out into Kuwait Bay, holds most of the country’s population – making Kuwait one of the most urbanised countries in the world.

The various colours of Kuwait Bay come from a combination of wind and the amount of sunlight reflected off the waters. The Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway can be seen cutting across the bay. The bridge is 36 km long – making it the fourth largest bridge in the world.

Al-Jahra lies around 50 km west of Kuwait City and is visible as a small, green oasis on the west side of Kuwait Bay. It is the centre of the country’s principal agricultural region – producing primarily fruits and vegetables. The circular shapes to the right of Al-Jahra are an example of the pivot irrigation or centre-pivot irrigation method, where equipment rotates around a central pivot and crops are watered with sprinklers.

Just south of Kuwait City lies the Great Burgan oil field – considered the second largest oil field in the world. The Great Burgan comprises three smaller fields: Burgan, Al-Maqwa and Al-Ahmadi. The oil fields can be identified an extensive network of interlocking roads which connect the individual wellheads.

Satellites, such as Copernicus Sentinel-2, allow us to capture images such as these from space, but also allows us to monitor changing places on Earth. Flying 800 km above, satellites take the pulse of our planet by systematically imaging and measuring changes taking place, which is particularly important in regions that are otherwise difficult to access.

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

Sławosz Uznański, ESA project astronaut from Poland, gives a “thumbs-up” from the heart of the action inside the Columbus training mockup at ESA's European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

Sławosz's path to this point started in November 2022 when he was selected as a member of the ESA astronaut reserve after a year-long selection process. The 2022 ESA recruitment campaign received more than 22 500 applications from across its Member States.

As of 1 September 2023, Sławosz joined ESA as a project astronaut. He is currently engaged in an intensive initial training programme, preparing for a future space mission.

Born in Poland in 1984, Sławosz has a background in space systems engineering and has been involved in research related to radiation effects. Before joining ESA, he worked at CERN in Switzerland, overseeing operation Large Hadron Collider.

During his first week at the European Astronaut Centre, Sławosz followed initial International Space Station training, and learned all about the European laboratory module, Columbus. This module serves as the living and working quarters for European astronauts on the International Space Station. Additionally, he received an overview of space systems, vehicles, and operations.

The European Astronaut Centre (EAC) serves as a centre for astronaut selection, training, medical support, and surveillance. It plays a central role in supporting astronauts and their families throughout the preparation and execution of their space missions. EAC serves as a key training centre for astronauts worldwide, preparing them for missions involving European hardware.

Within EAC’s training hall, there are classrooms, payload training booths, an extended reality laboratory, and mockups of European human-rated spacecraft, including the Columbus laboratory. A team of instructors ensures that all astronauts receive training that meets the high standards required for spaceflight.

Ready to embark on his mission duties with the European Astronaut Corps, Sławosz is excited for this adventure to begin.

Credits: ESA