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.

Read more

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

The last members of the European Antarctic crew said goodbye to the research station Concordia after spending a year in Antarctica.

Every year Concordia hosts a crew of up to 16 people coordinated by ESA and Concordia partners, supplied by universities and research institutions from across Europe. It is a joint French-Italian inland Antarctic research station run by the French Polar Institute and Italian Antarctic Programme.

Going to Concordia station means living in one of the world’s most extreme environments. During the Antarctic winter, the crew endures four months of complete darkness as the sun disappears from the beginning of May and is not seen again until late August. The station is located at around 3200 metres altitude, which means the crew must live with a third less oxygen than is available at sea level. The temperatures can drop to –80°C in the winter, with a yearly average temperature of –50°C and the nearest human beings are stationed 600km away at the Russian Vostok base, making Concordia more remote than the International Space Station.

Despite all these hardships, a European crew spends a year there living in isolation in these extreme conditions that give the ideal opportunity to conduct scientific research into human psychology and physiology.

Dr Sascha Freigang was the ESA-sponsored medical doctor of the DC19 team, meaning the 19th crew to spend the winter at Dome-C, where the Concordia station is. During his winter-over in Antarctica, Sascha shared his experience of his time at the research station in a blog series; read his last entry here.

"Although Concordia is a very special place and truly isolated and remote, it becomes a normal home during the winter and the life here feels quite normal. Maybe it can be described as somewhat simpler, with less daily choices about what to do, where to go and so on around here."

Credits: ESA/IPEV/PNRA-S. Freigang

Portrayed in this image by ESA’s Herschel observatory is NGC 1097, a barred spiral galaxy located some 50 million light-years from us, in the southern constellation Fornax, the Furnace.

The blue regions sprinkled across the galaxy’s two spiral arms are sites of intense star formation. There, the energy from newborn stars has heated up the dust interspersed in the interstellar gas, making it glow at the far-infrared and submillimetre wavelengths probed by Herschel.

The dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 1097A, a small satellite of NGC 1097, can be seen as the fuzzy blue blob in the top right, halfway between the two spiral arms.

The bright core of the NGC 1097, surrounded by a glowing ring where most of the galaxy’s prodigious star formation is taking place, conceals a supermassive black hole about a hundred million times the mass of our Sun. This black hole is devouring matter from its vicinity, causing the galactic core to shine brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio waves.

This galaxy was discovered – and originally identified as a nebula – in the late 18th century in optical observations by William Herschel, the astronomer after whom the observatory is named. Despite the source’s location in the southern sky, it was still visible a few degrees above the horizon at the site in England where Herschel made his observations.

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

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet Jupiter in a color composite of ultraviolet wavelengths.

The Great Red Spot appears red to the human eye, however in this ultraviolet image it appears darker because high altitude haze particles absorb light at these wavelengths. The reddish, wavy polar hazes are absorbing slightly less of this light due to differences in either particle size, composition, or altitude.

The data used to create this ultraviolet image is part of a Hubble proposal that looked at Jupiter’s stealthy superstorm system.

Hubble has a long history of observing the outer planets. From the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts to studying Jupiter's storms, Hubble's decades-long career and unique vantage point provide astronomers with valuable data to chart the evolution of this dynamic planet.

Hubble’s ultraviolet-observing capabilities allow astronomers to study the short, high-energy wavelengths of light beyond what the human eye can see. Ultraviolet light reveals fascinating cosmic phenomena, including light from the hottest and youngest stars embedded in local galaxies; the composition, densities, and temperatures of the material between stars; and the evolution of galaxies.

This is a false-color image because the human eye cannot detect ultraviolet light. Therefore, colors in the visible light spectrum were assigned to the images, each taken with a different ultraviolet filter. In this case, the assigned colors for each filter are: Blue: F225W, Green: F275W, and Red: F343N.

Credits: NASA, ESA, M. Wong (University of California - Berkeley), G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America); CC BY 4.0

Preparing the Eutelsat Quantum satellite for transport from the S5B facility to the Final Assembly Building (BAF) and the hoist onto the Ariane 5 launcher, at Europe's Space Port in Kourou, French Guyana on 21 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 - M. Pedoussaut

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

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

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

The celestial object that is displayed in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 7496, a galaxy located over 24 million light-years away in the constellation Grus (The Crane). NGC 7496 is a dusty spiral galaxy with a bar of stars stretching across its centre. Adding to its intrigue is an active galactic nucleus: a supermassive black hole that feasts on gas at the very heart of the galaxy.

Astronomers have observed NGC 7496 at wavelengths from radio to ultraviolet in order to study the galaxy’s active galactic nucleus, dust clouds, and star formation. Hubble first observed this galaxy as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) programme. This programme has enlisted the abilities of several powerful astronomical observatories, including the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), the Very Large Telescope, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, in addition to Hubble. NGC 7496 was the first galaxy in the PHANGS sample that Webb observed.

Each of these observatories offers a different perspective on this well-studied galaxy. With its unique ultraviolet capabilities and fine resolution, Hubble’s view reveals young star clusters bursting with high-energy radiation. Hubble’s observations of NGC 7496 help to reveal the ages and masses of these young stars, as well as the extent to which their starlight is blocked by dust.

A previous Hubble image of NGC 7496 was released in 2022. Today’s image incorporates new data that highlight the galaxy’s star clusters, which are surrounded by glowing red clouds of hydrogen gas. Astronomers collected these data in order to study nebulae like those that massive stars leave behind when they explode as supernovae and those from which newborn stars are made.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy featuring a bright, glowing core that is crossed by a horizontal bar of yellowish light. Spiral arms emerge from each end of this bar and wrap around it, creating a disc that is stretched out to the right. Some areas, mostly along the arms, glow pink where stars are forming in nebulae. Webs of dark reddish dust also follow the arms. A star in our galaxy shines prominently, off to the right.]

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team; CC BY 4.0

The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over southern Siberia and the world’s largest freshwater lake: Lake Baikal.

Imaged on 14 March 2017, this deep lake is covered by ice. The entire lake is typically covered between January and May and in some places the ice can be more than 2 m thick.

Holding around 23 000 cubic km of water, Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world. It contains about 20% of the world’s fresh surface water, which is more than all of the North American Great Lakes put together. Baikal water is extraordinarily clean, transparent and saturated with oxygen. The high transparency is thanks to numerous aquatic organisms purifying the water and making it similar to distilled water.

At 25 million years old, this remarkable lake is also the oldest in the world. It is known as the Galapagos of Russia because its age and isolation have produced rich and unusual water wildlife, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science. Occasionally, new species are discovered and it has been estimated that we know of only 70–80% of all the species inhabiting the lake. For these reasons, in 1996 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The lake is surrounded by mountain-taiga landscapes, which are also protected to preserve their natural state.

This image 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

Ice capping the northern hemisphere terrain of Mars slowly recedes as summer progresses, revealing the underlying surface.

This scene was captured by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter as it flew over the ice-coated Korolev crater on 1 November 2019. Korolev crater is an 80 km-wide crater in the northern latitudes of Mars that contains a massive ice sheet in its centre – this image focuses on one of the crater walls.

At this time, it was mid-summer in the northern hemisphere of Mars: the carbon dioxide ice cover had retreated, revealing the permanent water ice deposits much more clearly, along with details of surfaces previously covered in ice.

The image is centred at 164.90ºE/72.02ºN and was taken on 1 November 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.

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

As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, a new image series has been shared throughout April to revisit stunning Hubble targets that were previously released. New images of NGC 346, the Sombrero Galaxy, and the Eagle Nebula have already been published. Now, ESA/Hubble is revisiting the star cluster Messier 72 (M72) with new data and image processing techniques.

M72 is a particularly special target because it was the first image ever published in the ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week series, on 22 April 2010. For fifteen years, the ESA/Hubble team has been publishing a new Hubble image every Monday for everyone to enjoy. This has resulted in nearly 800 images being added to the vast Hubble image archive over the years.

M72 is a collection of stars, formally known as a globular cluster, located in the constellation Aquarius roughly 50 000 light years from Earth. The intense gravitational attraction between the closely packed stars gives globular clusters their regular, spherical shape. Roughly 150 clusters such as this have been discovered in the Milky Way galaxy.

The striking variety in the colour of the stars in this image of M72, particularly compared to the original image, results from adding ultraviolet observations to the previous visible-light data. The colours indicate groups of different types of stars. Blue stars are those in the cluster that were originally more massive, and have now reached hotter temperatures after burning through much of their hydrogen fuel; the bright red objects are lower-mass stars that have now become red giants. Studying these different groups help astronomers to understand how globular clusters, and the galaxies they were born in, initially formed.

Pierre Méchain, a French astronomer and colleague of Charles Messier, discovered M72 in 1780. It was the first of five star clusters that Méchain would discover while assisting Messier. It was recorded as the 72nd entry in Messier’s famous collection of astronomical objects, and the object is also one of the most remote clusters in the catalogue.

The ESA/Hubble science outreach team invites members of the public as well as all scientists who have had (or will have) approved Hubble observing time to contact us if you feel you have aesthetically appealing yet visually informative image data that could be featured in this series!

[Image Description: A cluster of many thousands of bright stars. In the centre most of the stars are blue, while this centre is surrounded by a thick shell of yellower stars, seen in differing sizes according to their position in the spherical star cluster. They spread out beyond the edges of the image, becoming smaller and more sparse only at the corners. A distant spiral galaxy is also visible in the very corner.]

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Sarajedini, G. Piotto, M. Libralato; CC BY 4.0

The Vega-C Zefiro 40 second stage has now been transferred to and integrated at the Vega Launch Zone (Zone de Lancement Vega) ZLV at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on 4 May 2022.

On the wave of Vega’s success, Member States at the ESA Ministerial meeting in December 2014 agreed to develop the more powerful Vega-C to respond to an evolving market and to long-term institutional needs.

Vega-C increases performance from Vega’s current 1.5 t to about 2.2 t in a reference 700 km polar orbit, covering identified European institutional users’ mission needs, with no increase in launch service and operating costs.

The participating states in this development are: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Credits: ESA - M. Pedoussaut

This spectacular image shows a region called G35.2-0.7N, which is known as a hotbed of high-mass star formation. The kind of stars that form here are so massive that they will end their lives as destructive supernovae. However, even as they form they greatly impact their surroundings. At least one B-type star — the second most massive type — lurks within the region pictured here, and a powerful protostellar jet that it is launching towards us is the source of the spectacular light show. The image was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is mounted on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and the region G35.2-0.7N lies around 7200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquila.

This beautiful picture was assembled using data that were collected primarily for very specific research purposes, as are many of the Hubble Pictures of the Week. The research conducted using these data included measuring the extent of ionisation in the jets being blasted out of the protostar buried within G35.2-0.7N. Ionisation is a process by which atoms or molecules become charged, often because they are in such a high-energy environment that they have lost some of their electrons (the tiny negatively charged particles that orbit nuclei in atoms and molecules). Protostellar jets are enormous collimated beams of matter that are ejected from protostars. Collimated simply means that the matter is ejected in parallel (column-like) streams, which in turn means that the jets do not spread out much, but extend out very far in relatively straight lines.

The visual result of the ejected matter is the glorious display visible in this image. Much of the nebula is dark, with light being blocked from Hubble’s view by the rich dust clouds that produce these massive stars. Near the very centre can be seen the location of the star and the jet of material it is emitting. The small, bright orange streak there is a cavity in the dust carved out by the ferocity of the jet as it streams towards us. By breaking through its dusty cocoon, the jet reveals light from the protostar, but there is still so much dust that the light is “reddened” to a fiery orange. The massive protostar lies at the very lower-left tip of this cavity.

[Image Description: A nebula with stars. Dense clouds of dust and gas cover the left-hand side and a filament crosses the centre horizontally. Billowing streams of gas and dust in various colours emerge from around the centre. The very centre of the image is permeated with glowing orange regions. Many blue stars with cross-shaped spikes lie in the foreground, and small point-like stars are visible beyond the clouds.]

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Fedriani, J. Tan; CC BY 4.0

The Netherlands is featured in this false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. This image was processed in a way that included the near-infrared channel, which makes vegetation appear bright red.

Amsterdam, the capital city of the country, is visible towards the top of the image, on the edge of the IJmeer lake. The city’s complex network of canals can be seen in the image, and the city is said to have over 1000 bridges.

Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands and is visible in the lower left, along the banks of the New Meuse River, which divides the municipality into its northern and southern parts. Rotterdam’s port is the largest port in Europe, stretching over 40 km in length and covering over 10 000 hectares.

The Hague is north of the port, visible along the North Sea coast. The Hague is home to the Dutch seat of government, and the city also hosts the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

To the north of The Hague is the coastal town of Noordwijk, home to ESA's European Space Technology Research Centre (ESTEC). ESTEC is ESA’s technical centre where new missions are designed, their industrial development is managed and, in some cases, the spacecraft and instruments are tested.

On Sunday 6 October, ESTEC is hosting its annual Open Day, where it will open its doors and give general public the chance to meet astronauts, space experts and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of ESA’s largest establishment. The Open Day is now fully booked.

The theme of this year’s event is ESA to the Moon – where Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers will be joined by pioneering Apollo astronauts Walt Cunningham, who flew on the first crewed Apollo mission, and Rusty Schweickart, who was the first person to fly the Lunar Module and use an Apollo lunar spacesuit for a spacewalk.

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

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The region imaged by ESA’s Mars Express on 19 May 2022 is outlined in the smaller of the two white boxes, during orbit 23219 (larger white outline).

Explore this region with high resolution imagery

Credits: NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team

At approximately 3000 sq. m in area, ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is already the largest satellite testing establishment in Europe. Now it has grown even bigger, with the formal opening of a new 350 sq. m environmentally-controlled cleanroom beside it.

Formally known as the ‘FV’ cleanroom, it was declared open with a formal ribbon cutting by Marco Massaro, Head of ESA’s Estates and Facilities Management Division; Paulien van Essen, Regional Manager of lead builder Heijmans and Torben Henriksen, Head of ESTEC and ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

“This is the most beautiful cleanroom we have on site,” commented Director Henriksen. “In our Test Centre there has been a shortage of cleanrooms for quite some time, especially with some programmes being based here for long durations – BepiColombo was here for some time, along with the Galileo satellites. So the need for expansion was clear.

“To start with an engineering model of the Smile satellite from China will soon be housed here, as well as several Galileo satellites. The construction process took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, so it was a long journey to get to this point, but I’d like to thank Heijmans for their diligent work.”

Most of the time the ESTEC Test Centre has multiple test items within its walls simultaneously. Complex planning and traffic management are necessary to ensure every project get access to the facility they need at the time they need it. So sufficient room is needed to accommodate the different satellites and allow their movement between test facilities.

The FV clean room will also host the ESTEC Test Centre’s sensitive micro-vibration measurement facilities, which are used to characterise the very low vibration generated by mechanisms mounted aboard satellites, made possible by a large seismic block beneath the building.

The next step will be to construct a corridor linking the FV cleanroom with the environmentally controlled main Test Centre building.

Credits: ESA-G. Porter

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

From Earth, we always look towards the Sun's equator. This year, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission broke free of this ‘standard’ viewpoint by tilting its orbit to 17° – out of the ecliptic plane where the planets and all other Sun-watching spacecraft reside. Now for the first time ever, we can clearly see the Sun’s unexplored poles.

This image shows Solar Orbiter's view of the Sun's south pole on 23 March 2025. It was taken by the spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, which captures the ultraviolet light sent out by the million-degree gas in the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona).

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Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA. Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument is led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Germany.

[Image description: Photograph of the bottom half of the Sun, with a highlighted square region around the Sun's south pole. Taken in ultraviolet light, the image shows the hot gas in the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, glowing yellow as it extends outwards in threads and loops from the Sun.]

Credits: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team, D. Berghmans (ROB); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite takes us along the lower reaches of the brown, sediment-rich Uruguay River. Here, the river forms the border between Argentina and Uruguay and is the site of the Esteros de Farrapos e Islas del Río Uruguay wetlands.

Composed of lagoons, swamps and 24 islets, the Esteros are a haven for wildlife, protected as a national park and included on the List of Wetlands of International Importance of the Ramsar Convention.

This wetland system is home to 130 species of fish, 14 species of amphibian, 104 species of bird – a quarter of all birds found in Uruguay – and 15 species of mammal, including the maned wolf, the largest canid (meaning dog-like) species in South America.

A tourist attraction and a waterway for transport, the Esteros also play an important role in regulating flood levels and maintaining water quality, as well as safeguarding the banks of the Uruguay River from erosion.

Visible to the lower left – its built structures shown in grey-white – is the Argentinian town of Gualeguaychú. On the eastern shore of the Uruguay River is the Uruguayan city of Fray Bentos, an important national harbour, famous for a plant that once exported corned beef around the world. Now inactive, this sprawling industrial complex has become a World Heritage Site.

The dark green area to the east of the Esteros is devoted to forestry, an important industry for the region. A pulp mill is located close to Fray Bentos.

Sentinel-2 is a two-satellite mission to supply the coverage and data delivery needed for Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. The mission’s main instrument has 13 spectral bands, and is designed to provide images that can be used to distinguish different types of vegetation and monitor plant growth.

This image, acquired on 17 August 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 cutout from the new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope short-wavelength infrared image of the Orion Nebula shows bright 'fingers' of gas racing away from an explosion that occurred roughly 500 to 1000 years ago in the heart of a dense molecular cloud behind the nebula, perhaps as two young massive stars collided. The dense cloud is called Orion Molecular Cloud 1 and lies to the northwest of the visible Trapezium stars in Orion.

The fingers are predominantly red, indicating emission from molecular hydrogen gas that has been shocked by the immense energy pouring out from the explosion site. Near the tips of some of the fingers, the emission turns green due to hot iron gas and even white in some cases where the gas is at its hottest. Further down, the fingers seem mostly turbulent, but in some places, the flow appears laminar.

The Orion Nebula lies roughly 1300 light-years from Earth in the so-called 'sword' of the constellation of Orion the Hunter, and the image shows a region that is 4 by 2.75 light-years in size.

Image description: The image shows a series of red fingers of shocked molecular gas expanding from the bottom of the image towards the top and top right. Each of the fingers comprises a series of bright arcs of emission like bow waves, expanding behind tips, the latter often appearing green. There are many stars spread across the image with the characteristic eight spikes due to diffraction in the optics of Webb, and there is a foreground haze of wisp blue clouds due to the Orion Nebula, which lies in front of the fingers.

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NASA, ESA, CSA / Science leads and image processing: M. McCaughrean, S. Pearson, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Using Hubble Space Telescope data spanning approximately 90 days (between December 2023 and March 2024) when the giant planet Jupiter was approximately 740 million kilometres from the Sun, astronomers measured the Great Red Spot’s size, shape, brightness, colour, and vorticity over one full oscillation cycle. The data reveal that the Great Red Spot is not as stable as it might look. It was observed going through an oscillation in its elliptical shape, jiggling like a bowl of gelatin. The cause of the 90-day oscillation is unknown.

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[Image description: Eight Hubble images showing Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. The GRS appears as a bright red oval in the middle of cream-coloured cloud bands. The images trace changes in the GRS’s size, shape, brightness, colour, and twisting, over a period of 90 days between December 2023 and March 2024.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC); CC BY 4.0

SpaceX Crew-2 Walkout from NASA's Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, and departure to launch pad 39A with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on 23 April 2021 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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 23 April 2021 at 05:49 EDT / 11:49 CEST.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

The distorted spiral galaxy at the centre, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at the left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow.

The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing ‘fireworks’, or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars per year for a few million years. For the Penguin, research has shown that about 100 to 200 stars have formed per year. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of the same size) forms roughly six to seven new stars per year.

This gravitational shimmy also remade the Penguin’s appearance. Its coiled spiral arms unwound, and gas and dust were pulled in an array of directions, like it was releasing confetti. It is rare for individual stars to collide when galaxies interact (space is vast), but the galaxies’ mingling disrupts their stars’ orbits.

Today, the Penguin’s galactic centre looks like an eye set within a head, and the galaxy has prominent star trails that take the shape of a beak, backbone, and fanned-out tail. A faint, but prominent dust lane extends from its beak down to its tail.

Despite the Penguin appearing far larger than the Egg, these galaxies have approximately the same mass. This is one reason why the smaller-looking Egg hasn’t yet merged with the Penguin. (If one was less massive, it may have merged earlier.)

The oval Egg is filled with old stars, and little gas and dust, which is why it isn’t sending out ‘streamers’ or tidal tails of its own and instead has maintained a compact oval shape. If you look closely, the Egg has four prominent diffraction spikes — the galaxy’s stars are so concentrated that it gleams.

Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy at top right. It may look like a party crasher, but it’s not nearby. Cataloged PGC 1237172, it lies 100 million light-years closer to Earth. It is relatively young and isn’t overflowing with dust, which is why it practically disappears in Webb’s mid-infrared view.

The background of this image is overflowing with far more distant galaxies. This is a testament to the sensitivity and resolution of Webb’s infrared cameras.

Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.

[Image description: Two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. At left is NGC 2937, nicknamed the Egg for its appearance. At right is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin for its appearance. The latter’s beak-like region points toward and above the Egg.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; CC BY 4.0

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins on 18 April 2022.

Collectively known as Crew-4, the astronauts flew in from Houston, Texas, and will spend the next week in quarantine before being launched to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

When they arrive at the Station, Samantha’s Minerva mission will officially begin. This is the second long-duration space mission for Samantha who first flew to the orbital outpost in 2014 for her Italian Space Agency ASI-sponsored mission Futura.

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

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

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

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

A ‘do not touch’ directive applies to both a Matisse painting and this Matiss experiment on board the International Space Station.

Designed to test the antibacterial properties of hydrophobic (or water-repelling) surfaces on the Station, the sample holders of the upgraded Matiss-2.5 experiment have done their work for roughly a year on board and are now back on Earth for analysis.

Bacteria are a big problem in space as they tend to build up in the constantly-recycled atmosphere of the Space Station. For the six astronauts living in humanity’s habitat in space, keeping the Station clean is an important part of their life to avoid bacteria and fungus. Every Saturday is cleaning day, when the whole crew wipe surfaces, vacuum and collect waste.

Matiss or Microbial Aerosol Tethering on Innovative Surfaces in the international Space Station, driven by French space agency CNES, in collaboration ENS de Lyon and CEA-Leti, and commissioned in 2016 by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, examines the performance of five advanced materials in preventing illness-causing microorganisms from settling and growing in microgravity.

The experiment consists of plaques each containing the five materials to be tested plus a glass control surface. The units are open on the sides to let air flow naturally through and collect any bacteria floating past.

The first set of the Matiss experiment, known as Matiss-1, provided some baseline data points for researchers. Four sample holders were set up in three different locations within the European Columbus laboratory, where they remained for six months.

Once these samples were returned to Earth, researchers characterised the deposits formed on each surface and used the control material to establish a reference for the level and type of contamination expected over half a year.

A continuation of the experiment, known as Matiss-2, saw four identical sample holders containing three different types of material installed in a single location in Columbus. This study aimed to better understand how contamination spreads over time across the hydrophobic and control surfaces. The upgraded Matiss-2.5 aimed to study how contamination spreads, this time spatially, across the hydrophobic surfaces using patterned samples.

The materials are a diverse mix of advanced technology – from self-assembly monolayers and green polymers to ceramic polymers and water-repellent hybrid silica. The smart materials should stop bacteria from sticking and growing over large areas, and effectively making them easier to clean and more hygienic – but which one works best?

Understanding the effectiveness and potential use of these materials will be essential to the design of future spacecraft, especially those carrying humans father out in space.

The findings could also lead to the development and greater use of antimicrobial surfaces on elevator buttons and door handles, in bars, on public transport and in other high-traffic areas.

Credits: ESA

A supernova and its host galaxy are the subject of today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. The galaxy in question is LEDA 132905, which is situated in the constellation Sculptor. Even at over 400 million light-years away, LEDA 132905’s spiral structure is faintly visible, as are patches of bright blue stars.

The bright white dot directly in the centre of the image, between the bright centre of the galaxy and its faint left edge, is a supernova named SN 2022abvt. SN 2022abvt was discovered in late 2022, and Hubble observed the explosion about two months later. This image was constructed from data collected to study Type Ia supernovae, which occur when the exposed core of a dead star ignites in a sudden, destructive burst of nuclear fusion. Researchers are interested in this type of supernova because they can be used to measure precise distances to other galaxies.

The Universe is a big place, and supernova explosions are fleeting. How is it possible to be in the right place at the right time to catch a supernova when it happens? Today, most supernovae are discovered by robotic telescopes that continuously scan the night sky. But some are still found the old-fashioned way, by careful observers who take repeated images of the sky and search for changes. SN 2022abvt was spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS. As the name suggests, ATLAS was designed to track down the faint, fast-moving signals from asteroids close to Earth. In addition to searching out asteroids, ATLAS also keeps tabs on objects that brighten or fade suddenly, like supernovae, variable stars and galactic centres powered by hungry black holes.

[Image Description: In the exact centre a supernova is seen as a small but bright blue dot. It lies atop a spiral galaxy, close to the glowing centre and next to some bright patches of blue stars in the galaxy. A small number of more minor galaxies are visible around the comparatively large spiral as small glowing discs, while further distant galaxies are seen as mere orangish spots and smudges, all on a black background.]

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz); CC BY 4.0

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 30 November with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. At the time, the comet was about 286 million km from Earth. Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. As a result, background stars appear as streaks of light.

Hubble previously observed 3I/ATLAS in July, shortly after its discovery, and a number of observatories have since studied the comet as well. Observations are expected to continue for several more months as 3I/ATLAS heads out of the solar system.

Go here for the latest updates and FAQs related to comet 3I/ATLAS.

[Image description: A bright white point sits at the centre of the image, surrounded by a large, soft blue glow that fades gradually into a dark background. Thin, faint streaks appear diagonally across the image, suggesting motion or stars in the distance. The overall effect is of a luminous object in space, radiating light against a deep, dark backdrop.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI); CC BY 4.0

Ariane 6 launches to the sky on 9 July 2024.

Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, it is designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission.

Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja

An orange pouch and a yellow cable are paving the way for missions to the Moon. By monitoring space radiation and enabling faster communications, the Dosis-3D experiment and the Columbus Ka-band or ColKa terminal, respectively, are providing the insights needed to enable safer missions father out in space.

Orange Dosis-3D pouches are everywhere in the Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station. A series of active and passive dosimeters, they measure space radiation inside the module as well as how it penetrates the Space Station’s walls.

Radiation levels in space are up to 15 times higher than on Earth. As soon as humans leave the protective shield that is Earth’s atmosphere, space radiation becomes a serious concern.

The Columbus module is monitored by 11 passive dosimeters. The dosimeters are about the size of a pack of playing cards and attach to the walls of Columbus with Velcro. The detectors record how much radiation has been absorbed in total during the period they are in space.

This experiment has been monitoring radiation levels for a number of years and after each six-month crew rotation, the detectors are replaced to record changes in radiation.

In addition to the passive detectors, Dosis-3D uses active dosimeters that measure fluctuations in radiation levels over time. Data from all Station partners is shared to create as complete a picture of space radiation as possible.

Dosimeters will also be flown on the Gateway, the next human habitat to be built in the vicinity of the Moon, to generate a more accurate assessment of radiation in lunar orbit.

Meanwhile, the ColKa communications terminal visible in this image, will connect the Columbus module to the European Data Relay System satellites in geostationary orbit that transfer data via European ground stations. ColKa was installed during a recent spacewalk and began commissioning this week. It will enable faster uplink and downlink speeds between the European segment of the Space Station and European researchers on the ground.

The know-how gained from designing, building and running ColKa could potentially be used in exploring farther from Earth in the Gateway around the Moon. ESA will supply the ESPRIT module for communications, scientific experiments, and refuelling for the international lunar outpost.

These ambitious plans require reliable navigation and telecommunication capabilities to succeed. Building these independently would be costly, complex and inefficient.

If this work were outsourced to a consortium of space companies that could put a constellation of satellites around the Moon, each individual mission would become more cost-efficient.

As part of an initiative called Moonlight, ESA is now conducting deep analyses of the planned lunar missions and further developing possible solutions, both technical and business-related, to provide telecommunications and navigation services for the Moon.

Credits: ESA/NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope captured in exquisite detail a face-on view of a remarkable-looking galaxy. NGC 5335 is categorized as a flocculent spiral galaxy with patchy streamers of star formation across its disk. There is a striking lack of well-defined spiral arms that are commonly found among galaxies, including our Milky Way. A notable bar structure slices across the center of the galaxy. The bar channels gas inwards toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Such bars are dynamic in galaxies and may come and go over two-billion-year intervals. They appear in about 30 percent of observed galaxies, including our Milky Way.

[Image description: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope takes up the majority of the view. At its center is a milky yellow, flattened oval that extends bottom left to top. Within the oval is a bright central region that looks circular, with the very center the brightest. In the bright central region is what looks like a bar, extending from top left to bottom right. Around this is a thick swath of blue stars speckled with white regions. Multiple arms wrap up and around in a counterclockwise direction, becoming fainter the farther out they are. Both the white core and the spiral arms are intertwined with dark streaks of dust. The background of space is black. Thousands of distant galaxies in an array of colors are speckled throughout.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI; CC BY 4.0

This view of the Idaeus Fossae region of Mars 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 the flat-topped rocky outcrops – mesas – that dominate part of this terrain.

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[Image description: A yellow-brown Martian surface with a fractured, rugged terrain. Large plate-like sections appear broken and shifted, creating dark, uneven ridges. Several circular impact craters of different sizes are scattered across the scene, including a prominent crater near the top left with steep walls and a shadowed interior. The landscape looks dry, dusty, and barren, with subtle shading that highlights its rough texture.]

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

This serene spiral galaxy hides a cataclysmic past. The galaxy IC 758, shown here in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week, is situated 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

In this Hubble image captured in 2023, IC 758 appears peaceful, its soft blue spiral arms curving gently around its hazy barred centre. But in 1999, astronomers spotted a powerful explosion in this galaxy: the supernova SN 1999bg. SN 1999bg marked the dramatic end of a star far more massive than the Sun.

It’s not yet known how massive this star was before it exploded. Researchers will use these Hubble observations to measure the masses of stars in SN 1999bg’s neighbourhood, which will help them estimate the mass of the star that went supernova. The Hubble data may also reveal whether SN 1999bg’s progenitor star had a companion, which would give additional clues about the star’s life and death.

A supernova represents more than just the demise of a single star — it’s also a powerful force that can shape its neighbourhood. When a massive star collapses, triggering a supernova, its outer layers rebound off its shrunken core. The explosion stirs the interstellar soup of gas and dust out of which new stars form. This interstellar shakeup can scatter and heat nearby gas clouds, preventing new stars from forming, or it can compress them, creating a burst of new stars. The cast-off layers also become ingredients for new stars.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy with a generally soft and slightly faint appearance. It glows most brightly around the pale yellow bar across its centre. It has two spiral arms which wrap around the centre, quickly broadening out to join a wide, faint circular halo around the galaxy. Glowing, sparkling patches in the disc show stars forming in nebulae. Behind the galaxy, distant galaxies appear as orange dots on a black background.]

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

Major elements of the Ariane 5 rocket to launch the James Webb Space Telescope arrived safely in Kourou, French Guiana from Europe on 3 September 2021.

The rocket’s fairing, upper stage and core stage have been unloaded from the MN Toucan vessel at Pariacabo harbour and transported by special convoy to Europe’s Spaceport about 3 km away from the wharf.

Webb will be stowed folded inside the fairing built by RUAG Space in Emmen, Switzerland. This ogive-shaped fairing at the top of Ariane 5 is 5.4 m in diameter and over 17 m high. Made of carbon fibre-polymer composite, this structure will protect Webb from the thermal, acoustic, and aerodynamic stresses at liftoff on the ascent to space.

Ariane 5’s upper stage is built by ArianeGroup in Bremen, Germany. It gives Ariane 5 the flexibility to deploy scientific payloads to a highly precise second Lagrangian injection orbit. Its HM7B engine burns 14.7 t of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant to deliver 6.6 t of thrust. It provides attitude control during the ascent and the separation of Webb. The Vehicle Equipment Bay, ‘the brain’, autonomously controls the whole vehicle and transmits all key flight parameters to the ground station network.

The cryogenic core stage, built by ArianeGroup in France, is 5.4 m diameter and 30.5 m long and unfuelled weighs more than 14 tonnes. At liftoff, its Vulcain 2 engine burns 175 t of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants to provide 140 t of thrust. It also provides roll control during the main propulsion phase.

At Europe’s Spaceport these Ariane 5 parts will be checked and prepared for assembly and integration before the mating of Webb on its top.

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.

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace

The MTG-I1 team in Kourou is performing daily tests to prepare the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite for its upcoming launch in December.

Once in geostationary orbit, this new satellite, which carries two new extremely sensitive instruments, promises to further bolster Europe's leadership in weather forecasting.

Credits: ESA

This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The Webb image exquisitely captures Uranus’s seasonal north polar cap, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap. Uranus’s dim inner and outer rings are also visible in this image, including the elusive Zeta ring – the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet.

This Webb image also shows nine of the planet’s 27 moons. They are the blue dots that surround the planet’s rings. Clockwise starting at 2 o’clock, they are: Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita. The orbits of these moons share the 98-degree tilt of their parent planet relative to the plane of the Solar System.

One day on Uranus is about 17 hours, so the planet’s rotation is relatively quick. This makes it supremely difficult for observatories with a sharp eye like Webb to capture one simple image of the entire planet – storms and other atmospheric features, and the planet’s moons, move visibly within minutes. This image combines several longer and shorter exposures of this dynamic system to correct for those slight changes throughout the observing time

[Image description: The planet Uranus on a black background. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the centre, then fades into blue as it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Unlike Saturn’s horizontal rings, the rings of Uranus are vertical and so they appear to surround the planet in an oval shape. There are nine blueish white dots scattered around the rings.]

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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The Christmas tree is up at ESA’s ESTEC technical heart in the Netherlands, seen here reflected in the main mirror of a tenth scale model of the NASA-ESA-CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

The Christmas tree’s lights will have taken about 15 billionths of a second to travel to this multi-segment mirror, but the actual JWST’s 6.5 m mirror will observe cosmic sights from far further away.

Scheduled for launch by Ariane 5 in 2021, JWST is designed to collect almost six times more light than the current Hubble Space Telescope, peering back in infrared to the era of the first galaxies in the Universe and hunting out planets around other stars.

Credits: ESA–G. Porter

The turquoise waters southeast of the Kuwaiti island of Failaka are captured in this image acquired by the Φsat-2 mission.

Failaka is about 20 km off Kuwait’s coast at the head of the Persian Gulf. The various colours in the water come from a combination of wind patterns over the region and sediment in the water surrounding the island.

Throughout the year, wind blows sand and dust from soil disposal activities towards the Gulf – and the particles become sediment in the water around Failaka. The island’s position in the path of the prevailing wind creates the swirling patterns that appear in hues of blue and green in the image.

This Φsat-2 true-colour image was acquired on 25 March 2025, during the satellite’s nine-month commissioning phase after its launch in August 2024. Commissioning was concluded in the second quarter of this year and the satellite is now delivering scientific data.

Orbiting at an altitude of 510 km, Φ-sat-2 is a cubesat that generates images using seven multispectral bands, from visible to near-infrared, with a ground sampling distance of about 5 m. This type of remote-sensing instrument is particularly useful for environmental monitoring, land management and mapping.

The mission was designed with the purpose of demonstrating and testing the use of onboard Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Earth observation. This image shows some of the mission’s AI capabilities, such as inspecting the images to determine the presence of the ocean, the absence of clouds and autonomously detect and classify vessels. The small, bright red feature visible at the bottom of the image is a commercial ship.

The same AI application can also establish whether or not a given scene (or area) of marine traffic requires further monitoring or investigation. Other AI applications on board are used to compress satellite images, to detect marine pollution and wildfires and to identify and analyse disaster areas, for example zones affected by earthquakes or floods, and convert satellite images into street maps that can be used by emergency response teams.

Credits: ESA