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This colour-coded topographic view shows Chalcoporos Rupes, a region on Mars that shows signs of dust and wind activity.
Lower parts of the surface are shown in blue and purple hues, while higher altitude regions show up in whites, yellows, and reds, as indicated on the scale to the top right. This view is based on a digital terrain model of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. It comprises data obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express on 3 January 2019 during Mars Express Orbit 18983.
The ground resolution is approximately 13 metres per pixel and the images are centred at about 23° East and 53° South. North is to the right.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This graphic presentation of spectral data highlights a key similarity and difference between observations of Comet 238P/Read by the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 and observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 by NASA’s Deep Impact mission in 2010. Both show a distinct peak in the region of the spectrum associated with water. Finding this in Comet Read was a significant accomplishment for Webb, as it is in a different class of comets than Jupiter-family comets like Hartley 2, and this marks the first time that a gas has been confirmed in such a main belt comet. However, Comet Read did not show the characteristic, expected bump indicating the presence of carbon dioxide.
[Image description: Graph comparing the spectral data of Comet 238 P/Read and Comet 109 P/Hartley 2, highlighting the detection of water in both, and the absence of carbon dioxide in Comet Read.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a spectacular view of the galaxy I Zwicky 18 (I Zw 18) in this new image. The galaxy was first identified by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the 1930’s and resides roughly 59 million light-years from Earth.
This galaxy has gone through several sudden bursts of star formation. This galaxy is typical of the kinds of galaxies that inhabited the early Universe and it is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy (much smaller than our Milky Way).
Two major starburst regions are embedded in the heart of the galaxy. The wispy brown filaments surrounding the central starburst region are bubbles of gas that have been heated by stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation unleashed by hot, young stars. A companion galaxy resides nearby to the dwarf galaxy, which can be seen at the bottom of the wider-field image. The companion may be interacting with the dwarf galaxy and may have triggered that galaxy's recent star formation. The orange blobs surrounding the dwarf galaxy are the dim glow from ancient fully formed galaxies at much larger distances.
This image was taken as part of a Webb programme to study the life cycle of dust in I Zw 18. Scientists are now building off of previous research with Hubble obtained at optical wavelengths, studying individual dusty stars in detail with Webb’s equivalent spatial resolution and sensitivity at infrared wavelengths. This galaxy is of particular interest as its content of elements heavier than helium is one of the lowest of all known galaxies in the local Universe. Such conditions are thought to be similar to those in some of the first star-forming galaxies at high redshift, so the Webb study of I Zw 18 should shed light on the life-cycle of stars and dust in the early Universe.
Although previously believed to have only just recently begun forming its first generation of stars, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope found fainter, older red stars contained within the galaxy, suggesting its star formation started at least one billion years ago and possibly as much as 10 billion years ago. The galaxy, therefore, may have formed at the same time as most other galaxies.
The new observations from Webb have revealed the detection of a set of candidate dusty evolved stars. It also provides details about Zw 18’s two dominant star-forming regions. Webb’s new data suggest that the dominant bursts of star formation in these regions occurred at different times. The strongest starburst activity is now believed to have happened more recently in the northwest lobe as compared to the galaxy’s southeast lobe. This is based on the relative populations of younger versus older stars found in each of the lobes.
[Image Description: Many small galaxies are scattered on a black background: mainly, white, oval-shaped and red, spiral galaxies. The image is dominated by a dwarf irregular galaxy, which hosts a bright region of white and blue stars at its core that appear as two distinct lobes. This region is surrounded by brown dusty filaments.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A. Hirschauer, M. Meixner et al.; CC BY 4.0
The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space in this stunning image seem surreal, like a portal to another world opening up before us. In fact, the subject of this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week is very real. We are seeing vast clouds of ionised atoms and molecules, thrown into space by a dying star. This is a planetary nebula named Kohoutek 4-55, a member of the Milky Way galaxy situated just 4600 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan).
Planetary nebulae are the spectacular final display at the end of a giant star’s life. Once a red giant star has exhausted its available fuel and shed its last layers of gas, its compact core will contract further, enabling a final burst of nuclear fusion. The exposed core reaches extremely hot temperatures, radiating very energetic ultraviolet light that energises the enormous clouds of cast-off gas. Molecules in the gas are ionised and glow brightly; here, red and orange indicate nitrogen molecules, green is hydrogen and blue shows oxygen in the nebula. Kohoutek 4-55 has an uncommon, multi-layered form: a bright inner ring is surrounded by a fainter layer of gas, all wrapped in a broad halo of ionised nitrogen. The spectacle is bittersweet, as the brief phase of fusion in the core will end after mere tens of thousands of years, leaving a white dwarf that will never illuminate the clouds around it again.
This image itself is also a swan song, the final work of one of Hubble’s instruments: the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Installed in 1993 to replace the original Wide Field and Planetary Camera, WFPC2 was responsible for some of Hubble’s most enduring images and fascinating discoveries. It in turn was replaced by the Wide Field Camera 3 in 2009, during Hubble’s final servicing mission. The data for this image were taken a mere ten days before the instrument was removed from the telescope, as a fitting send-off for WFPC2 after 16 years’ work. The latest and most advanced processing techniques have been used to bring the data to life one more time, producing this breathtaking new view of Kohoutek 4-55.
[Image Description: A planetary nebula, a glowing shell of material thrown off by a star. A small central region of greenish clouds is encircled by a glowing, jagged ring, like a hole torn in fabric. A band of silvery-blue clouds outside this is again encircled by a larger, fainter yellow ring of gas. Puffy, smoky clouds of orange and red gas billow out from there into a large oval nebula, fading into the dark background of space.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll; CC BY 4.0
The subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the stunning spiral galaxy NGC 5530. NGC 5530 is situated 40 million light-years away in the constellation Lupus (The Wolf). This galaxy is classified as a ‘flocculent’ spiral, meaning that its spiral arms are patchy and indistinct.
While some galaxies have extraordinarily bright centres where they host a feasting supermassive black hole, the bright source near the centre of NGC 5530 is not an active black hole but instead a star within our own galaxy, only 10 thousand light-years from Earth. This chance alignment gives the appearance that the star is at the dense heart of NGC 5530.
If you had pointed a backyard telescope at NGC 5530 on the evening of 13 September 2007, you would have seen another bright point of light adorning the galaxy. That night, Australian amateur astronomer Robert Evans discovered a supernova, named SN 2007IT, by comparing NGC 5530’s appearance through the telescope to a reference photo of the galaxy. While it’s remarkable to discover even one supernova using this painstaking method, Evans has in fact discovered more than 40 supernovae this way! This particular discovery was truly serendipitous: it’s likely that the light from the supernova had completed its 40-million-year journey to Earth just days before the explosion was discovered.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen tilted at a slight angle, on a dark background of space. It glows softly from its centre, throughout its disc out to the edge. The disc is a broad swirl of webs of dark reddish dust and sparkling blue patches where stars have formed. Atop the centre of the galaxy there is a star that appears very large and bright with four spikes emanating from it, because it is relatively close to Earth.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker; CC BY 4.0
What kind of astronomical object is this? It doesn’t look quite like the kinds of galaxies, nebulae, star clusters or galaxy clusters which Hubble normally brings us images of. In fact, this is a spiral galaxy, named UGC 10043 — we just happen to be seeing it directly from the side! Located roughly 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Serpens, UGC 10043 is one of the somewhat rare spiral galaxies that are seen edge-on.
From this point of view, we see the galaxy’s disc as a sharp line through space, overlain with a prominent dust lane. This dust is spread across the spiral arms of UGC 10043, but it looks very thick and cloudy when viewed from the side. You can even see the lights of some active star-forming regions in the arms, shining out from behind the dust. Strikingly, we can also see that the centre of the galaxy sports a glowing, almost egg-shaped ‘bulge’, rising far above and below the disc. All spiral galaxies have a bulge like this one as part of their structure, containing stars that orbit the galactic centre on paths above and below the whirling disc; it’s a feature that isn’t normally obvious in pictures of galaxies. The unusually large size of this bulge compared to the galaxy’s disc is possibly thanks to UGC 10043 siphoning material from a nearby dwarf galaxy. This may also be why the disc is warped, bending up at one end and down at the other.
Like most of the full-colour Hubble images released by ESA/Hubble, this image is a composite, made up of several individual snapshots taken by Hubble at different times and capturing different wavelengths of light. You can see the exact images used in the sidebar on this page. A notable aspect of this image is that the two sets of Hubble data used were collected 23 years apart, in 2000 and 2023! Hubble’s longevity doesn’t just afford us the ability to produce new and better images of old targets; it also provides a long-term archive of data which only becomes more and more useful to astronomers.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen directly from the side, such that its disc looks like a narrow diagonal band across the image. A band of dark dust covers the disc in the centre most of the way out to the ends, and the disc glows around that. In the centre a whitish circle of light bulges out above and below the disc. The tips of the disc are a bit bent. The background is black and mostly empty.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Windhorst, W. Keel; CC BY 4.0
A massive, spacetime-warping cluster of galaxies is the setting of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy cluster in question is Abell 209, which is located 2.8 billion light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).
This Hubble image of Abell 209 shows more than a hundred galaxies, but there’s more to this cluster than even Hubble’s discerning eye can see. Abell 209’s galaxies are separated by millions of light-years, and the seemingly empty space between the galaxies is actually filled with hot, diffuse gas that can be spotted only at X-ray wavelengths. An even more elusive occupant of this galaxy cluster is dark matter: a form of matter that does not interact with light. The Universe is understood to be comprised of 5% normal matter, 25% dark matter, and 70% dark energy
Hubble observations like the ones used to create this image can help astronomers answer fundamental questions about our Universe, including mysteries surrounding dark matter and dark energy. These investigations leverage the immense mass of a galaxy cluster, which can bend the fabric of spacetime itself and create warped and magnified images of background galaxies and stars in a process called gravitational lensing.
While this image lacks the dramatic rings that gravitational lensing can sometimes create, Abell 209 still shows subtle signs of lensing at work, in the form of streaky, slightly curved galaxies within the cluster’s golden glow. By measuring the distortion of these galaxies, astronomers can map the distribution of mass within the cluster, illuminating the underlying cloud of dark matter. This information, which Hubble’s fine resolution and sensitive instruments help to provide, is critical for testing theories of how our Universe has evolved.
[Image Description: A cluster of distant, mainly elliptical galaxies. They appear as brightly shining points radiating golden light that each take the shape of a smooth, featureless oval. They crowd around one that is extremely large and bright. A few spiral galaxies of comparable size appear too, bluer in colour and with unique shapes. Of the other, more small and distant galaxies covering the scene, a few are warped into long lines.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Postman, P. Kelly; CC BY 4.0
The Russian Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft that will transport ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano to the International Space Station is rolled out onto launchpad number one at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
This rocket will be launched on Saturday 20 July, marking the start of Luca’s second space mission known as Beyond.
In the lead-up to liftoff, component parts of a Soyuz spacecraft are brought to Kazakhstan to be assembled. Once the rocket is ready, it is loaded onto a train and transported to the launchpad.
The rollout happens in the morning, two days ahead of launch day. It is considered bad luck for the crew to witness this rollout or see the rocket again before the day of their launch, though the rollout is witnessed by the backup crew and support teams.
When the train arrives at its destination on the launchpad, the rocket is put into position. When it is fully lifted, four green arms ensure it is secured correctly for liftoff. These arms will mechanically rotate away to release the rocket at the time of launch.
After the rocket has been secured, the service structure containing the stairs and elevator as well as the umbilical towers that provide fuel and liquid oxygen, are erected.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
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
ESA's newly selected astronaut candidates of the class of 2022 arrived at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, on 3 April 2023 to begin their 12-month basic training.
The group of five candidates, Sophie Adenot, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Rosemary Coogan, Raphaël Liégeois, and Marco Sieber, are part of the 17-member astronaut class of 2022, selected from 22 500 applicants from across ESA Member States in November 2022.
The astronaut candidates will be trained to the highest level of standards in preparation for future space missions. During basic training, this includes learning all about space exploration, technical and scientific disciplines, space systems and operations, as well as spacewalk and survival training.
This image shows the candidates an Australian astronaut candidate Katherine Bennell-Pegg, joining the group under agreement with Australian Space Agency, on their first day at the European Astronaut Centre, ready to embark on their journey to become certified ESA astronauts.
Credits: ESA-S. Corvaja
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant galaxy M87 shows a 3000-light-year-long jet of plasma blasting from the galaxy's 6.5-billion-solar-mass central black hole. The blowtorch-like jet seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. These novae are not caught inside the jet, but are apparently in a dangerous neighbourhood nearby. During a recent 9-month survey, astronomers using Hubble found twice as many of these novae going off near the jet as elsewhere in the galaxy. The galaxy is the home of several trillion stars and thousands of star-like globular star clusters.
[Image description: A Hubble photo of galaxy M87, which resembles a translucent, fuzzy white cotton ball. The brightness decreases gradually out in all directions from a bright white point of light at the centre. A wavy blue-white jet of material extends from the point-like core outward to the upper right, about halfway across the galaxy. Stars speckle the background.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Lessing (Stanford University), E. Baltz (Stanford University), M. Shara (AMNH), J. DePasquale (STScI); CC BY 4.0
Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – has launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time).
MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution compared to the original MetOp mission – along with new measurement capabilities to expand its scientific reach.
This new weather satellite also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission to deliver daily global data on air pollutants and atmospheric trace gases as well as aerosols and ultraviolet radiation.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s heavy launcher and a key element of ESA’s efforts to ensure autonomous access to space for Europe’s citizens. Ariane 6 has three stages: two or four boosters, and a main and upper stage. For this flight, VA264, the rocket was used in its two-booster configuration.
Credits: ESA - S.Corvaja
'Swage' was the word of the day on Monday as ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano carried out the third spacewalk to service the cosmic ray hunting Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer AMS-02. Here Luca is suspended above Earth as he is moved to a he second worksite to swage, or join, the instrument’s tubes to a new pump system that will give it a new lease on life.
Riding on the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Luca soared to the cosmic ray detector’s worksite for nearly five hours of space plumbing.
Yesterday’s spacewalk was the most critical of four spacewalks planned to service the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer that has provided scientists with invaluable data on cosmic particles long after its original three-year mission. In 2017 the decision was made to service the instrument after all four cooling systems wore out.
Luca and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan began by passing the cooling system to each other as they inched their way from the airlock to the Space Station’s robotic arm. Luca then attached himself to the arm and – aided by astronaut Jessica Meir who operated this from inside the Station – transported the system to the hard-to-reach worksite.
Luca rode the arm into position, seen in this image, and together with Drew screwed the new pump onto AMS. The system was powered on and Luca was moved to a different location by robotic arm for the swage operations. Luca did six swages before taking the robotic arm ride again to the underside of AMS for the last two and finish the job.
The spacewalk was a success, with Luca and Drew finishing their delicate and unprecedented work ahead of schedule. They returned to the Space Station airlock ending the spacewalk at six hours and two minutes. A fourth and last spacewalk for AMS is planned at a later date.
NASA
The James Webb Space Telescope, configured for flight, was moved from the cleanroom to the payload preparation facility for fuelling at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 11–12 November 2021.
Webb will be loaded with propellants before being mounted on top of the rocket and then encapsulated by the Ariane 5 fairing.
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).
Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit and interactive brochure.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P Baudon
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano was launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 20 July 2019 alongside NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov.
The trio travelled to the Station in a Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft and will spend more than six months living and working in orbit.
Beyond is Luca’s second space mission – his first was Volare in 2013. During the second part of this mission, known as Expedition 61, Luca will become the third European and first Italian commander of the International Space Station.
The most recent European commander was ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst during his Horizons mission in 2018. The first was ESA astronaut Frank De Winne during his OasISS mission in 2009.
During Beyond, Luca will support over 50 European experiments and more than 200 International experiments in microgravity. A number of these experiments, such as Grip and Grasp, are continuations from previous missions.
New experiments include BioRock, an experiment looking at the potential of microbes in extracting minerals from rocks on other planets, and NutrISS, which looks at the best strategies for monitoring and controlling changes in energy balance, metabolism and body composition during spaceflight.
Follow Luca's mission Beyond mission here and visit the blog for regular updates.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Leelanau Peninsula on the northwest coast of Northern Michigan, US.
The region is shaped by rolling hills, large inland lakes shaped by glaciers around 20 000 years ago which form the basis for great farmland. The body of water that surrounds the peninsula is Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the US.
In the image, the bright turquoise in the water shows sediments, algae and chlorophyll in the shallower waters along the shore. The greener colours visible in Lake Leelanau to the north, Platte Lake to the west, and several inland bodies of water are due to a combination of a high chlorophyll and plant content.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore extend for around 55 km along the coast of the peninsula, and is visible in light brown. The name comes from an Ojibwa legend in which a mother bear and her two cubs swim across the lake trying to escape a forest fire. The two cubs are said to have disappeared in the process, and the mother bear waited for weeks for them to re-surface before finally falling asleep and never waking. Touched by her suffering, a powerful spirit is said to have covered her with sand, and raised the two cubs above the water, creating the North and South Manitou islands, visible north of the peninsula.
A more realistic explanation of the creation of the Sleeping Bear Dunes is geology. During the last Ice Age, glaciers spread southwards from Canada burying this area under sheets of ice. During the process, piles of sand and rock were deposited in the area. When the ice retreated and melted, it left the hilly terrain that exists along the lake today. The area is popular for hiking and climbing.
This image, which was captured on 18 October 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
In this week’s Hubble Picture of the Week we are treated to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of NGC 3430. A spiral galaxy, it lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. Several other galaxies are located relatively nearby to this one, just out of frame; one is close enough that gravitational interaction is driving some star formation in NGC 3430.
That NGC 3430 is such a fine example of a galactic spiral may be why it ended up as part of the sample that Edwin Hubble used to define his classification of galaxies. Namesake of the Hubble Space Telescope, in 1926 he authored a paper which classified some four hundred galaxies by their appearance — as either spiral, barred spiral, lenticular, elliptical or irregular. This straightforward typology proved immensely influential, and the modern, more detailed schemes that astronomers use today are still based on it. NGC 3430 itself is an SAc galaxy, a spiral lacking a central bar with open, clearly-defined arms.
At the time of Hubble’s paper, the study of galaxies in their own right was in its infancy. With the benefit of Henrietta Leavitt’s work on Cepheid variable stars, Hubble had only a couple of years before settled the debate about whether these ‘nebulae’, as they were called then, were situated within our galaxy or were distant and independent. He himself referred to ‘extragalactic nebulae’ in his paper, indicating that they lay beyond the Milky Way galaxy. Once it became clear that these distant objects were very different from actual nebulae, the favoured term for a while was the quite poetic ‘island universe’. While NGC 3430 may look as if it still deserves this moniker, today we simply call it and the objects like it a ‘galaxy’.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy with three prominent arms wrapping around it, and plenty of extra gas and dark dust between the arms. There are shining blue points throughout the arms and some patches of gas out beyond the galaxy’s edge, where stars are forming. The centre of the galaxy also shines brightly. It is on a dark background where some small orange dots mark distant galaxies.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick; CC BY 4.0
This portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope puts the nearby galaxy NGC 4449 in the spotlight. The galaxy is situated just 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). It is a member of the M94 galaxy group, which is near the Local Group of galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs.
NGC 4449 is a dwarf galaxy, which means that it is far smaller and contains fewer stars than the Milky Way. But don’t let its small size fool you — NGC 4449 packs a punch when it comes to making stars! This galaxy is currently forming new stars at a much faster rate than expected for its size, which makes it known as a starburst galaxy. Most starburst galaxies churn out stars mainly in their centres, but NGC 4449 is alight with brilliant young stars throughout. Researchers believe that this global burst of star formation came about because of NGC 4449’s interactions with its galactic neighbours. Because NGC 4449 is so close, it provides an excellent opportunity for Hubble to study how interactions between galaxies can influence the formation of new stars.
A Hubble image of NGC 4449 was previously released in 2007. This new version incorporates several additional wavelengths of light that Hubble collected for multiple observing programmes. These programmes encompass an incredible range of science, from a deep dive into NGC 4449’s star-formation history to the mapping of the brightest, hottest, and most massive stars in more than two dozen nearby galaxies.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has also observed NGC 4449, revealing in intricate detail the galaxy’s tendrils of dusty gas, glowing from the intense starlight radiated by the flourishing young stars.
[Image Description: This Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 4449. The field is dominated by dust that appears in dark red, with scattered brighter regions of star formation as bright pink globules. The background shows countless blue stars peeking around the dusty regions.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, E. Sabbi, D. Calzetti, A. Aloisi; CC BY 4.0
Ariane 5 VA 260 with Juice, start of rollout on Tuesday 11 April.
Juice is being prepared to launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 13 April 2023.
Juice – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – is humankind’s next bold mission to the outer Solar System. This ambitious mission will characterise Ganymede, Callisto and Europa with a powerful suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments to discover more about these compelling destinations as potential habitats for past or present life. Juice will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giant systems across the Universe.
Following launch, Juice will embark on an eight-year journey to Jupiter, arriving in July 2031 with the aid of momentum and direction gained from four gravity-assist fly-bys of the Earth-Moon system, Venus and, twice, Earth.
Flight VA260 will be the final Ariane 5 flight to carry an ESA mission to space.
Find out more about Juice in ESA’s launch kit
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Jezero crater, the touchdown site for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, in context of its surroundings. It is situated between highlands, an impact basin, a volcanic province and an ancient river delta. The dark bluish-black areas are layers of ancient volcanic ash that is widely dispersed by the wind, often piling up into impressive dune fields.
This image was created from the red, green and blue channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express, combined with high-resolution data from its nadir channel, which is directed perpendicular to the surface of Mars.
The high resolution of the data processed for this image allows for greater enlargement, enabling a closer look at individual details of the landscape. Small gaps in the image mosaic were interpolated.
Find out more about Jezero crater and its surrounds, here.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
This image is a view of the Sun taken by the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) Full Disc Telescope on ESA’s Solar Orbiter on 18 June 2020. This is a visible light image and represents what we would see with the naked eye. There are no sunspots visible because the Sun is displaying only low levels of magnetic activity at the moment.
Credits: Solar Orbiter/PHI Team/ESA & NASA
This mockup of ESA’s European Lunar Logistics Lander (EL3) is currently on display at the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai.
The versatile EL3 will be used to land cargo on the lunar surface in support of crewed expeditions as well as to host science payloads, potentially enabling sample returns as well.
This EL3 Landing and Descent Element mockup was created for ESA by startup Spartan Space in France. In practice this segment will be attached to a payload-hauling Cargo Platform Element, the subject of a study by ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF).
Credits: ESA-G. Porter
Gift wrapping a rocket: finishing touches to the Ariane 5 fairing include the application of NASA, ESA and Canadian Space Agency logos and Webb insignia.
Webb will soon be encapsulated inside this 17 m-high 5.4 m-diameter fairing which will provide protection from the thermal, acoustic and aerodynamic stresses during the ascent to space.
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).
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG - P.Piron
The ring of light surrounding the centre of the galaxy NGC 6505, captured by ESA’s Euclid telescope, is a stunning example of an Einstein ring. NGC 6505 is acting as a gravitational lens, bending light from a galaxy far behind it. The almost perfect alignment of NGC 6505 and the background galaxy has bent and magnified the light from the background galaxy into a spectacular ring. This rare phenomenon was first theorised to exist by Einstein in his general theory of relativity.
This wide field shows the extended stellar halo of NGC 6505 and showcases the Einstein ring, surrounded by colourful foreground stars and background galaxies.
Download the close-up image of the Einstein ring here
[Image description: A sea of colourful stars and galaxies appear to swim in the vast blackness of space around a hazy halo at centre stage. In the middle of the image, the fuzzy-looking bulb of light in a warm shade of yellow extends around a small bright spot, nestled within a thin light circle that appears to be drawn closely around it. As we follow the central halo’s rim outwards, its brightness dims and blends smoothly into its surroundings. Here, extended discs of shades ranging from a warm purple to golden yellow, and piercing dots of light with sharp diffraction spikes are spread evenly across the image.
Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
While it may appear unassuming at first glance, just another spiral galaxy among thousands in the Universe, this subject of the ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week has plenty to study. NGC 7456 is its name, located over 51 million light-years away in the constellation Grus (the Crane).
In this image we see in fine detail the patchy spiral arms of this galaxy, followed by clumps of dark, obscuring dust. Blossoms of glowing pink are rich reservoirs of gas where new stars are forming, illuminating the clouds around them and causing the gas to emit this tell-tale red light. The Hubble programme which collected this data is focused on stellar activity just like this, tracking new stars, clouds of hydrogen and star clusters to learn how the galaxy has evolved through time.
Hubble, with its ability to capture visible, ultraviolet and some infrared light, is not the only observatory focused on NGC 7456. ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite has imaged X-rays from the galaxy on multiple occasions, discovering a number of so-called ultraluminous X-ray sources. These small, compact objects emit terrifically powerful X-rays, much more than would be expected for their size. Astronomers are still trying to pin down what powers these extreme objects, and NGC 7456 contributes a few more examples.
On top of that, the region around the galaxy’s supermassive black hole is spectacularly bright and energetic, making NGC 7456 an active galaxy. Whether looking at its core or its outskirts, at visible light or X-rays, this galaxy has something interesting to show!
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It shines brightly at the centre, and most of its disc also glows in warm colours. Its two spiral arms, which wind outwards from the centre, are made up mostly of large patches of bright blue specks. They also contain thin, reddish clouds of dust, and bright pink bubbles of glowing gas, where stars are forming. Distant galaxies can be seen around the galaxy as small orange spots, on a dark background.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker; CC BY 4.0
This image show dramatic dark areas in the Sun's corona and was acquired by the SWAP instrument on ESA's Proba-2 mission at midday on Wednesday, 7 November.
The dark areas are 'coronal holes' – areas of open magnetic field in the Sun's corona that emit charged particles as high-speed solar wind that spreads into space.
When it reaches Earth, this solar wind can affect the functioning of satellites in orbit.
The nice thing is that these are predictable events, as we can see these gaps or holes on the solar disc before the high-speed wind hits Earth.
ESA's future Lagrange mission will significantly improve our ability to detect these holes and forecast solar wind effects, providing a lead time of three to five days.
Credits: ESA/ROB via helioviewer.org
Resting near the centre of the northerly constellation Cepheus, high in the northern sky, is the barred spiral galaxy UGC 11861, the subject of the latest Hubble Picture of the Week.
UGC 11861 is located 69 million light-years away from Earth — which may seem a vast distance, but it’s just right for Hubble to grab this majestic shot of the galaxy’s spiral arms and the short but brightly glowing bar in its centre. Among the cloudy gases and the dark wisps of dust, this galaxy is actively forming new stars, visible in the glowing blue patches in its outer arms.
This activity has resulted in three supernova explosions being spotted in and nearby UGC 11861, in 1995, 1997 and 2011. The earlier two were both Type II supernovae, a kind which results from the collapse of a massive star at the end of its life. This Hubble image was made from data collected to study Type II supernovae and their environments.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy with two broad spiral arms wrapping around a large central region, which has a glowing white bar in the very centre. Thin strands of dark dust lie over much of the galaxy. The arms have small and large patches of glowing blue light, emitted by new stars. The galaxy is on a dark background. In the foreground, bright stars with four points are dotted around.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick; CC BY 4.0
The 11th annual ESA Open Day at ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, took place on the weekend of 1 and 2 October 2022. On 1 October, visitors with disabilities had the opportunity to follow the tour at their own pace. On both days visitors were able to meet astronauts, space scientists and engineers and learn all about the work carried out at Europe’s largest space establishment.
Credits: G. Porter
This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) of star-forming region NGC 604 shows how large clouds of cooler gas and dust glow at mid-infrared wavelengths. This region is a hotbed of star formation and home to more than 200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives.
In the MIRI view of NGC 604, there are noticeably fewer stars than Webb’s NIRCam image. This is because hot stars emit much less light at these wavelengths. Some of the stars seen in this image are red supergiants — stars that are cool but very large, hundreds of times the diameter of our Sun. The blue tendrils of material signify the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.
[Image description: At the centre of the image is a nebula on the black background of space. The nebula is composed of wispy filaments of light blue clouds. At the centre-right of the blue clouds is a large cavernous bubble. The bottom left edge of this cavernous bubble is filled with hues of pink and white gas. Hundreds of dim stars fill the area surrounding the nebula.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
This vibrant and dynamic-looking image features the spiral galaxy NGC 1566, which is sometimes informally referred to as the ‘Spanish Dancer Galaxy’. Like the subject of another recent Hubble Picture of the Week, NGC 1566 is a weakly-barred or intermediate spiral galaxy, meaning that it does not have either a clearly present or a clearly absent bar-shaped structure at its centre. The galaxy owes its nickname to the vivid and dramatic swirling lines of its spiral arms, which could evoke the shapes and colours of a dancer’s moving form. NGC 1566 lies around 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado, and is also a member of the Dorado galaxy group.
Galaxy groups are assemblages of gravitationally bound galaxies. Groups differ from galaxy clusters in size and mass: galaxy clusters may contain hundreds of galaxies, whereas groups might contain several tens of galaxies. That said, there is not a precise delineation between the definition of a galaxy group and a galaxy cluster. Some astronomers have proposed that the definitions be sharpened up, with one suggestion that galaxy aggregations with less mass than 80 trillion Suns should qualify as galaxy groups.
The Dorado group has had a fluctuating membership over the past few decades, with various scientific papers changing its list of constituent galaxies. As an example of why it is so challenging for astronomers to pin down members of groups such as the Dorado group, we can imagine a photograph of an adult human and a large oak tree. We have foreknowledge of the approximate size of the person and the tree, so if we were to see a photo where the person appeared roughly the same size as the tree, then we would be able to guess that, in reality, the person was positioned much closer to the camera than the tree was, giving the false impression that they were the same size. When working out members of a galaxy group, astronomers are not necessarily equipped with the knowledge of the size of the individual galaxies, and so have to work out whether galaxies really are relatively close together in space, or whether some of them are actually much closer or much further away. This has become easier with more sophisticated observation techniques, but still sometimes presents a challenge.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy. The entire galaxy is displayed, centred and face-on to the viewer. It has two spiral arms that each make only a half-turn from start to finish, resembling the shape of a comma. Lanes of dark dust follow the arms into the centre, and split into many fibres that swirl around the glowing galactic core. Bright pink blooms along the arms show areas of new star formation.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Calzetti and the LEGUS team, R. Chandar
Down to the microscopic level, nanoparticles show promising properties. A team of experts in Italy has spent years tailoring tiny inorganic materials and analysing their behaviour. Some have magnetic properties, others are able to give electrical stimuli. In this picture, a peculiar type of nanoparticle is mimicking the biological activity of enzymes in living organisms.
These ceramic particles, called nanoceria, are chemically designed in a laboratory and can display a powerful antioxidant activity. The nanoparticles are highlighted in fluorescent green, while the nucleus of each cell is shown in blue. The skeleton of the cell, or cytoskeleton, appears in red.
These tiny, smart particles could hold a key to fight chronic disease, as they are able to protect organisms from the damage caused by oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body, which can lead to cell damage. Oxidative stress occurs naturally and plays a role in the ageing process, but also in several pathological conditions, such as heart failure, muscle atrophy and Parkinson’s disease.
One way to fight this natural wear is through the intake of antioxidants – cells that can prevent or slow damage to other cells caused by free radicals.
In an experiment flown to the Space Station in 2017 the nanoceria particles remained stable and provided protection to the muscle cells. Nanoceria could act as an antioxidant agent with effects lasting longer than any supplement from the pharmacy – up to several weeks.
Now the Nano Antioxidants project is ready to be launched on the SpaceX’s Dragon supply spacecraft this week from Cape Canaveral, in the United States, towards the International Space Station. Since long-term exposure to microgravity and radiation increases the damage to muscle cells, the Space Station is a perfect scenario in which to study how the cells deteriorate and how to fight this.
Nanotechnology has been largely explored in medicine on Earth, and is now on its way to space to find more answers. This innovative solution will support deep space exploration and could result in novel therapeutic approaches to a number of diseases affecting people on Earth.
Credits: Gianni Ciofani
The spiral galaxy IC 1954, located 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium, is the star of this Picture of the Week from the Hubble Space Telescope. It sports a glowing bar in its core, two main majestically winding spiral arms and clouds of dark dust across it. An image of this galaxy was previously released in 2021; this week’s image is entirely new and now includes H-alpha data. The improved coverage of star-forming nebulae, which are prominent emitters of the red H-alpha light, can be seen in the numerous glowing, pink spots across the disc of the galaxy. Interestingly, some astronomers posit that the galaxy’s ‘bar’ is actually an energetic star-forming region that just happens to lie over the galactic centre.
The new data featured in this image come from a programme to extend the cooperation between multiple observatories: Hubble, the infrared James Webb Space Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a ground-based radio telescope. By surveying IC 1954 and over fifty other nearby galaxies in radio, infrared, optical, and ultraviolet light, astronomers aim to fully trace and reconstruct the path matter takes through stars and the interstellar gas and dust in each galaxy. Hubble’s observing capabilities form an important part of this survey: it can capture younger stars and star clusters when they are brightest at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths, and its H-alpha filter effectively tracks emission from nebulae. The resulting dataset will form a treasure trove of research on the evolution of stars in galaxies, which Webb will build upon as it continues its science operations into the future.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen tilted diagonally. It has two large, curling arms that extend from the centre and wrap around. The arms are followed by thick strands of dark reddish dust. The arms and rest of the galaxy’s disc are speckled with glowing patches; some are blue in colour, others are pink, showing gas illuminated by new stars. A faint glow surrounds the galaxy, which lies on a dark, nearly empty background.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team; CC BY 4.0
The subject of this Hubble Picture of the Week is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo named NGC 5668. It is relatively near to us at 90 million light-years from Earth and quite accessible for astronomers to study with both space- and ground-based telescopes. At first blush, it doesn’t seem like a remarkable galaxy. It is around 90 000 light-years across, similar in size and mass to our own Milky Way galaxy, and its orientation nearly face-on to us shows open spiral arms made of cloudy, irregular patches.
One noticeable difference between the Milky Way galaxy and NGC 5668 is that this galaxy is forming new stars 60% more quickly. This fact belies a galaxy with churning clouds and flows of gas, inclement weather that forms excellent conditions for the formation of new stars! Two main drivers of star formation have been identified by astronomers. Firstly, this high-quality Hubble snapshot reveals a bar at the centre; it might look more like a slight oval shape than a real bar, but it appears to have impacted the galaxy’s star formation rate, as central bars do in many spiral galaxies. Secondly, high-velocity clouds of hydrogen gas have been tracked moving vertically between the disc of the galaxy and the spherical, faint halo which surrounds it. These can be produced by the strong stellar winds of hot, massive stars, and they contribute gas to new star-forming regions.
The enhanced star formation rate in NGC 5668 comes with a corresponding abundance of supernova explosions. Three have been spotted in the galaxy, in 1952, 1954 and 2004. In this image, Hubble was used to examine the surroundings of the Type II SN 2004G, seeking to study the kinds of stars that end their lives as this kind of supernova.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen up close and face-on. It is coloured yellow and glowing brightly at the oval-shaped centre, showing older and cooler stars, and it becomes bluer out to the edge of the disc where the stars are younger and hotter. It has a number of somewhat patchy spiral arms curling around, with sparkling areas where stars form. The black background can just be seen at the corners.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick; CC BY 4.0
This image of Uranus’ aurorae was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 10 October 2022. These observations were made by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and includes both visible and ultraviolet data.
An international team of astronomers used Hubble to make new measurements of Uranus' interior rotation rate by analysing more than a decade of the telescope’s observations of Uranus’ aurorae. This refinement of the planet’s rotation period achieved a level of accuracy 1000 times greater than previous estimates and serves as a crucial new reference point for future planetary research.
[Image description: This Hubble image shows Uranus and dynamic aurora activity on 10 October 2022. The centered planet is dominated by a blue hue and a large white region in the lower left. A faint ring is also visible around the planet. Fuzzy blue/purple regions hovering over the planet on the left and ride indicate the presence of aurorae.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, L. Lamy, L. Sromovsky; CC BY 4.0
What is the first creature that comes to mind when you look at the dark cloud in this image? Perhaps a dark kitten with a vivid white nose, front paws stretching towards the right of the frame and tail up towards the left? Or perhaps a fox, running with its mouth open and looking ahead, its vigilant eyes pointing to the right?
In fact, this animal-themed shape belongs to a dark nebula, a dense cloud of gas and dust in the constellation of Orion, the Hunter, with the cat’s nose (or fox’s eye) corresponding to the Orion Nebula Cluster, a star cluster near the famous Orion Nebula, M42. The image is based on data from the first release of ESA’s Gaia satellite, and shows the density of stars observed while scanning that region of the sky.
While this particular nebula is not visible to the naked eye, similar clouds can be seen against the bright background of the Milky Way from dark locations in the southern hemisphere. Finding shapes in these dark nebulas is part of the astronomical tradition of various cultures, from South America to Australia, that include ‘dark cloud constellations’ resembling a variety of creatures in their firmaments.
Launched in 2013, Gaia has been charting more than a billion stars to unprecedented accuracy. This information is extremely valuable to astronomers who are studying the distribution of stars across our Galaxy.
Even in the dark patches where fewer stars are observed, Gaia’s meticulous census provides important information to study the interstellar material that blocks starlight. It is in these dark clouds of gas and dust that new generations of stars come to life.
The first data release from Gaia, published in 2016, contained the position on the sky of more than a billion stars, as well as the distance and motions of about two million stars. Astronomers worldwide are now looking forward to the next data release, planned for 25 April, which will include the distance and motions for the full sample of stars, greatly extending the reach of the previous survey.
So far, Gaia data have been used to study only the most nearby regions of star formation, within several hundred light-years of us. With the new data, it will be possible to investigate in great detail regions that are much farther away, like the Orion star-forming complex, located some 1500 light-years from us, and to estimate the 3D distribution not only of stars but also of the dusty dark clouds where stars are born.
More on Gaia's view of dark interstellar clouds
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. Also known as M57 and NGC 6720, it is both relatively close to Earth at roughly 2,500 light-years away.
This new image provides unprecedented spatial resolution and spectral sensitivity. For example, the intricate details of the filament structure of the inner ring are particularly visible in this dataset.
There are some 20,000 dense globules in the nebula, which are rich in molecular hydrogen. In contrast, the inner region shows very hot gas. The main shell contains a thin ring of enhanced emission from
carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Roughly ten concentric arcs are located just beyond the outer edge of the main ring. The arcs are thought to originate from the interaction of the central star with a low-mass companion orbiting at a distance comparable to that between the Earth and the dwarf planet Pluto. In this way, nebulae like the Ring Nebula reveal a kind of astronomical archaeology, as astronomers study the nebula to learn about the star that created it.
[Image description: This image of the Ring Nebula appears as a distorted doughnut. The nebula’s inner cavity hosts shades of blue and green, while the detailed ring transitions through shades of orange in the inner regions and pink in the outer region. The ring’s inner region has distinct filament elements.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow, N. Cox, R. Wesson
Ariane 5 parts are coming together in the launch vehicle integration building for the launch of Webb from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
The Ariane 5 core stage is 5.4 m diameter and 30.5 m high. On 6 November it was taken out of its shipping container and raised vertical.
At launch it will contain 175 t of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants. With its Vulcain 2 engine it provides 140 t of thrust. It also provides roll control during the main propulsion phase. This rolling manoeuvre will ensure that all parts of the payload are equally exposed to the sun which will avoid overheating of any elements of Webb.
Two boosters followed. They are 3 m in diameter and 31 m high. This week they will be positioned on the launch table and then anchored to the core stage. Engineers will then carry out mechanical and electrical checks. Each booster contains 240 t of solid propellant, together they will provide 1200 t of thrust which is 90 percent of the thrust at liftoff.
On the countdown to launch, the Vulcain 2 engine is ignited first. A few seconds later, when it reaches its nominal operating level, the two boosters are fired to achieve a thrust of about 1364 t at liftoff.
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 - P.Baudon
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The lenticular galaxy NGC 6684 bathes this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in a pale light. Captured with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, this lenticular galaxy is around 44 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pavo. Pavo — whose name is Latin for peacock — is a constellation in the southern sky and one of four constellations collectively known as the Southern Birds.
Lenticular galaxies like NGC 6684 (lenticular means lens-shaped) possess a large disc but lack the prominent spiral arms of galaxies like the Andromeda Galaxy. This leaves them somewhere between elliptical galaxies and spiral galaxies, and lends these galaxies a diffuse, ghostly experience. NGC 6684 also lacks the dark dust lanes that thread through other galaxies, adding to its spectral, insubstantial appearance.
The data in this image were captured during a census of the nearby Universe entitled Every Known Nearby Galaxy which aims to observe all galaxies within 10 megaparsecs (32.6 million light-years) that the telescope has not already visited. Before this programme began Hubble had observed roughly 75% of these nearby galaxies, and completing this census will reveal insights into the stars making up a wide variety of galaxies, in a wide variety of environments.
[Image Description: A galaxy, large and occupying most of the view from the centre. The whole galaxy is made of smooth, diffuse light. The galaxy is surrounded by a smoky grey halo. Many stars shine around the galaxy, on a black background.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully; CC BY 4.0
TO THE READER
This book, SPACE PILOTS, is the second of a series on Adventure in Space. This series is the story of the rocket age in which Man will pierce the atmosphere and conquer the open space beyond it. This age is going to come much sooner than most people realize, and some of you who read this will take an active part in it. Here you will learn about the people who will fly the rocket ships.
Some of you may be among those who will be trained for this task. – Willy Ley
Slices from the edge of Mars reveal a layered atmosphere of delicate complexity. A European spacecraft has captured a luminous mille-feuille of dust enveloping the Red Planet in unprecedented detail.
ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter keeps gathering information from its orbit around Mars to understand its ancient past and potential habitability. The spacecraft was cruising over the southern highlands of Terra Cimmeria, some 400 km above the martian surface, when it recorded this composite of five vertical images on 21 January 2024. Towards the bottom is Mars; at the top, space.
The kaleidoscope of light and colour is composed of the highest resolution images of the atmosphere above the limb of Mars ever obtained. Mars’s limb is the curved edge of the planet, the apparent boundary where its surface meets space. Observing a planet's limb can reveal details about the hazy edge of its atmosphere.
The spacecraft was in the shadow of Mars, looking towards a veil of dust backlit by sunlight at dusk. From this vantage point, the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) aboard could reveal fine layers of cloud and dust scattered throughout the atmosphere. The five images, each covering a slice of the atmosphere 3.6 km wide, show tens of layers ranging from 15 to 55 km of altitude. Each slice pictured is 200 km apart from each other.
Subtle changes in colour indicate that particles become smaller at higher altitude. “Our observations, especially the colour, provide unique insight into the particle radius at each altitude in the atmosphere. Shape and composition could also play a role. This stuff is wild,” says Nicolas Thomas, CaSSIS Principal Investigator from the University of Bern and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances on 19 September 2025.
The many layers of ice particles and dust show evidence of a restless atmosphere. These particles scatter sunlight when interacting with solar and planetary radiation.
At 40 km and above Mars’s surface, the CaSSIS camera shows layers of fine particles which may include small ice grains in this cold part of the atmosphere. Below 40 km, the layers probably consist mostly of dust lifted from the surface.
The result of this atmospheric recipe can also vary depending on the season on the Red Planet. Dust storms, and hence the quantity of particles in the atmosphere, vary by region and time of year. “The lack of understanding of the vertical distribution of particles in the atmosphere is one of the key questions about the climate of present-day Mars,” explains Nicolas.
Images of the martian limb have been obtained previously by Mars Express, but this is the first time that researchers have received pictures with a much finer spatial resolution of 18 metres per pixel. These unique CaSSIS observations of the limb will now be carried out once a month.
The team is building an extensive database with these types of images to crack the recipe behind Mars’s atmospheric mille-feuille. “This wealth of information will support the detailed analysis ahead,” adds Nicolas.
Since 2018, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has been returning spectacular images of the surface and providing the best inventory of atmospheric gases, as well as mapping the planet’s surface for water-rich locations.
Credits: ESA/TGO/CaSSIS
Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – has launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time).
MetOp-SG-A1 is the first in a series of three successive pairs of satellites. The mission as a whole not only ensures the continued delivery of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years, but also offers enhanced accuracy and resolution compared to the original MetOp mission – along with new measurement capabilities to expand its scientific reach.
This new weather satellite also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission to deliver daily global data on air pollutants and atmospheric trace gases as well as aerosols and ultraviolet radiation.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s heavy launcher and a key element of ESA’s efforts to ensure autonomous access to space for Europe’s citizens. Ariane 6 has three stages: two or four boosters, and a main and upper stage. For this flight, VA264, the rocket was used in its two-booster configuration.
Credits: ESA - S.Corvaja
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over part of the Great Rift Valley, Kenya.
This valley is part of the Gregory Rift, an eastern branch of the East African Rift, which is being caused by the separation of the Somali plate from the Nubian plate. Major tectonic and volcanic activity have shaped the distinctive landscape of the Great Rift Valley which runs through Kenya from north to south.
The dramatic landscape contains the Cherangani Hills and forests to the west, a chain of volcanoes, of which some are still active, escarpments and jewel-like lakes.
Lake Baringo, one of the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, is visible at the top of the image. With a surface area of 130 sq km and an elevation of around 970 m, the lake has an average depth of around 5 m and it is one of the two freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley – the other being Lake Naivasha (not visible).
This lake has no visible outlet; its waters are thought to seep into lavas at its northern end – where the rocky shore contrasts with the alluvial flat on its southern border.
Baringo is dotted with several small islands. Its largest is visible in the centre of the lake and is called Ol Kokwe (also known as the Meeting Place). It is an extinct volcano with several hot springs. A great variety of birds inhabit Lake Baringo, which is also home to hippopotamuses and crocodiles.
South of Lake Baringo lies Lake Bogoria – a saline, alkaline lake. The long and narrow lake has an area of around 30 sq km and is around 10 m deep. Lake Bogoria provides refuge for the lesser flamingo, with a population of around 1 to 1.5 million, and also supports more than 300 waterbird species. The lake is a designated Ramsar site and is also part of the Lake Bogoria National Reserve.
The lake is famous for geysers and hot springs along the bank of the lake – some of which can erupt up to 5 m high. The lake’s stable water level makes it highly important during times of drought.
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, captured on 13 March 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
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst gave his last press conference in Europe ahead of his June launch to the International Space Station for the Horizons mission today.
Over 150 members of the press attended the event at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne to discuss Horizon’s science goals.
On Alexander’s busy six-month schedule in space are over 65 experiments investigating human cells, airway health, lighter weight materials and technology that will pave the way for lunar exploration.
Alexander remarked on how proud he was to be conducting research that is advancing medicines and vaccinations on Earth as well as human exploration of deep space. He is looking forward to returning to the Columbus laboratory, Europe’s gateway to space research and home to European astronauts, to continue this important work.
During the second half of the Horizons mission Alexander will serve as the Space Station commander. This is the second time a European will hold this leadership role. ESA astronaut Frank de Winne was the first in 2009.
“With the Horizons mission, I want to make people realise that there is always a chance to go beyond their personal horizons, doing something that they have never done before. For me, becoming the Space Station commander for the first time was a learning experience and something that I had to work hard for. It might be scary at the beginning, but then you grow into that position. And at the end, you realise that it was much easier than you thought.”
Watch a replay of the media event here (mostly in German). Follow Alexander via his blog and on social media and learn more about the Horizons mission in this online brochure.
Credits: ESA–I. Kapusniak
The Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew lifts off to the International Space Station atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on 25 June at 02:31 EDT, local time (07:31 BST/08:31 CEST).
ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski travels to his new home in space in the Dragon spacecraft. Sławosz is part of Axiom Mission 4 alongside Peggy Whitson (USA), Shubhanshu Shukla (India) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary).
During their journey on the Dragon spacecraft to the orbital outpost Sławosz and Tibor will serve as mission specialists, Shubhanshu will be the crew’s pilot and Peggy will be commander.
The Polish project astronaut is the second of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space. Sponsored by the Polish government and supported by ESA, the Polish Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MRiT), and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the mission will include an ambitious technological and scientific programme with several experiments led by ESA and proposed by the Polish space industry. The mission, known as Ignis will officially begin once Sławosz enters the Station.
Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski was selected in November 2022 as a member of the ESA astronaut reserve and joined ESA as a project astronaut on 1 September 2023 for training familiarisation at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
Follow Sławosz’s journey on the Ignis website, check our launch kit and connect with him on his Instagram and X accounts.
Credits: ESA - S.Corvaja
For Ariane 5 VA250, ESA invited well-known space launch photographers from the US, John Kraus and Trevor Mahlmann, to join regular ESA and Arianespace photographers, with amazing results: this one is by John Kraus.
Credits: J.Kraus
A cylindrical hull stands out in this shot taken during the latest spacewalk for maintenance and science on the International Space Station. Several platforms grow from it like tentacles reaching out for direct access to the vacuum of space, or to an unobstructed view of Earth.
This engineering and scientific shiny marvel is the Columbus laboratory circling our planet at 28 800 km/h and 400 km above our heads.
On 11 February 2008, 17 years ago today, Columbus became ESA’s largest single contribution to the International Space Station and the first permanent European research facility in space
The 7 m long, 4.5 m wide module has since been used to run experiments on everything from cold plasma technology to 3D printing metals and to probing astronauts’ bodies and brains. Inside and out, it provides the microgravity environment and facilities for researchers to test technology and study phenomena that cannot be observed on Earth.
Research conducted on this versatile laboratory has the dual purpose of advancing human spaceflight capabilities and improving the quality of life on Earth. Studying the driving factors of bone loss in astronauts, for example, could help physicians treat patients suffering from osteoporosis.
Columbus houses as many disciplines as possible in a small volume, from astrobiology to metallurgy and psychology – over 250 experiments have been carried out in this remarkable facility, with many more to come.
Inside this workspace are 10 racks, each roughly the size of a phone booth. Each rack can host autonomous and independent laboratories, complete with power and cooling systems. Researchers on Earth can control and monitor experiments in the European Columbus laboratory by relaying commands and experiment data directly from their workplaces.
The Columbus Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich, Germany, is the direct link to European experiments and astronauts in orbit.
The next Europeans to visit the lab will be ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski in 2025, while ESA astronauts Sophie Adenot and Raphaël Liégeois will travel to the Space Station in 2026.
Take a virtual 360-degree tour of the module.
Credits: NASA
This image shows a portion of the landing ellipse (circled) for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which is expected to land within Jezero crater on 18 February 2021. The complete landing ellipse is 7.7 x 6.6 km, and is centered on an ancient river delta near the rim of Jezero that could hold clues about whether or not Mars was able to harbour life at some point during its ancient past. Jezero crater itself was once the site of a lake, and Perseverance will explore this region looking for signs of fossilized microbial life.
The image was taken by the CaSSIS camera on the ESA-Roscosmos Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter as part of an imaging campaign of the rover's future neighbourhood
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Part of the Italian island of Sardinia is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
With an area of about 24 090 sq km, Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily. It is situated about 200 km west of the Italian peninsula, a similar distance north of Tunisia, and is separated from the French island of Corsica by just 12 km.
The area pictured here covers a section of the province of Sassari in the northwestern part of the island, with the Sardinian Sea to the west and the Gulf of Asinara to the north.
The urban agglomeration of the city of Sassari can be seen as a brown and grey area near the centre of the image, about 10 km inland from the northern coast. Sassari lies at about 225 m above sea level on a wide plateau that slopes down towards the Gulf of Asinara. The city is surrounded by a green belt of agricultural fields and olive plantations.
The seaport serving Sassari is Porto Torres, lying on the coast along the Gulf of Asinara. The gulf is named after Asinara Island, visible at the northwest tip of the gulf. Once home to one of Italy’s top-security prisons, Asinara Island is now a protected marine and wildlife reserve.
Zooming in, it's interesting to note how the waters within the gulf appear calm compared to the rough waters of the open sea to the west, where distinct wave patterns can be clearly identified. The white colour all along the western coastline is caused by the big waves crashing against the rocky cliffs.
Moving south, two bays are visible at the bottom of the image: the smaller bay of Porto Conte and the larger bay of Alghero. Here, the city of Alghero extends along the coast, while the port of Fertilia lies at the northern end of the bay. The runways of the Alghero-Fertilia Airport can be spotted just inland from Fertilia.
In the area between Alghero, Sassari and Porto Torres lies the plain of Nurra. Covering a surface of about 700 sq km, Nurra is the second-largest plain on the island, dominated in the image by agricultural fields, with a large section devoted to vineyards.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This view was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. It shows a bird’s-eye view of Acheron Fossae, an extensive system of rifts and valleys on Mars.
The valley floors are relatively smooth, having been filled by a slow, viscous flow of ice-rich rock, a lot like the rock glaciers we see here on Earth.
ALT-text: A perspective view of Acheron Fossae on Mars
Image description: A perspective rendering of Acheron Fossae created from Mars Express stereo data. The view shows a wide expanse of orange-coloured faulted terrain with smooth valley floors and gently curving lines resembling river channels. The image mimics a top-down aerial view, emphasizing the depth and scale of the rift system.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
SpaceX Crew-2 with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet arrive at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on 16 April 2021.
French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is returning to the International Space Station on his second spaceflight. The mission, which is called Alpha, will see the first European to launch on a US spacecraft in over a decade. Thomas is flying on the Crew Dragon, alongside NASA astronauts Megan MacArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide.
The Crew-2 launch is scheduled for 22 April at 11:11 BST/12:11 CEST.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja