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M101 is one of the largest galaxies easily visible in the sky. It has a diameter nearly twice that of our own Milky Way Galaxy and is estimated to contain one trillion stars. M101 is in the constellation Ursa Major, and it lies about 25 million light-years away. It is often called the “Pinwheel” galaxy, since it is oriented nearly face-on, so that we can see the full splendor if its spiral arms.
This image of M101 was actually assembled from 51 separate photographs, taken by Hubble Space telescope over 10 years time, from 1994 to 2003, and supplemented with information from ground-based photographs. The resulting image is 16,000 pixels across, making it the largest image of a galaxy recorded to date.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has helped solve the mystery of Mars’ escaping water.
Scientists have discovered that the escape rates of hydrogen and "heavy hydrogen," called deuterium, change rapidly when Mars is close to the Sun. This upended the classical picture that scientists previously had, where these atoms were thought to slowly diffuse upward through the atmosphere to a height where they could escape. Extrapolating the escape rate backwards through time helped the team to understand the history of water on the Red Planet.
These are far-ultraviolet Hubble images of Mars near its farthest point from the Sun, called aphelion, on December 31, 2017 (top), and near its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion, on December 19, 2016 (bottom). The atmosphere is clearly brighter and more extended when Mars is close to the Sun.
Reflected sunlight from Mars at these wavelengths shows scattering by atmospheric molecules and haze, while the polar ice caps and some surface features are also visible. Hubble and NASA’s MAVEN showed that Martian atmospheric conditions change very quickly. When Mars is close to the Sun, water molecules rise very rapidly through the atmosphere, breaking apart and releasing atoms at high altitudes.
[Image description: Split image of two panels stacked vertically. In the left corner of the top image is the label Mars Corona, Hubble Space Telescope. This label pertains to both panels. In the top panel, on a black background, an orange and white orb is surrounded by a small, diffuse, grainy, orange halo. The halo appears to have more material on its left side than its right. Under the orb is the label Aphelion: December 31, 2017. In the bottom panel, on a black background, a larger orange and white orb is also surrounded by a diffuse, grainy, orange halo. This halo is wider than the one in the top panel. The halo appears to have more material on its right side than its left. Under the orb is the label Perihelion: December 19, 2016. In both panels, white, polar ice caps and some surface features are visible.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, J. T. Clarke (Boston University); CC BY 4.0
One example of how the Oxia Planum landing site candidate for the ExoMars 2020 mission is being analysed. The map outlines a boundary that encapsulates the range of possible landing ellipses, with some added margin. The colours represent the variety of surface terrains identified, including plains, channels, impact craters and wind-blown features, for example. It is not a geological map intended for scientific analysis, but rather a tool used to identify different surface textures and where potential hazards may lie.
The narrow ellipses with the black outline mark the most likely landing zones for the extreme case of the very beginning and end of the launch window respectively (the launch dictates the arrival inclination and there are other scenarios in between). The central touchdown point in Oxia Planum is the same regardless of the actual launch date in the 25 July–13 August 2020 launch window.
The background image is from the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Credits: IRSPS/TAS; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'. The congress will open its doors to the general public on 21 September.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is getting ready for launch at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch is scheduled on 18 December.
In this picture, taken on 6 December, the Airbus team is performing final checks before lifting the Souyz Arianespace System for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP-S) and positioning it on the Soyuz Fregat interface ring. The ASAP-S multi-passenger dispenser system will be used to integrate the main passenger, Cheops and the Cubesats into the launcher.
Cheops is ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet’s transit across the star’s disc.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG/JM Guillon
On 22 and 23 November 2022, ESA Member States, Associate States and Cooperating States observers gathered in Paris, France, for the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level (CM22). They discussed how to strengthen Europe’s space sector for the benefit of all - including climate change monitoring and mitigation, secure communications under European control and rapid and resilient crisis response, and the ESA budget for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
Find out more about how the Soyuz catches up with and rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Credits: ESA
This oblique perspective view of Lycus Sulci on 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 wrinkled, ridged terrain lying at the edges of the ‘aureole’ of Olympus Mons, Mars’s tallest and most imposing volcano.
Image description: This tan-coloured patch of Mars's surface is split visually in two on the diagonal from lower left to upper right: the lower half is smooth and largely unmarked, while the top half is wrinkled, ridged, incredibly textured and at higher relief. This textured ground is Lycus Sulci, on the aureole of Olympus Mons.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
The ELA-4 launch zone at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana is currently undergoing reconstruction in preparation for Europe’s Ariane 6 launch vehicle.
In this image you see the construction of the mobile gantry that will house and protect Ariane 6 before launch.
Work platforms will enable engineers to access the vehicle levels to vertically position Ariane 6’s central core directly on the launch table, add two or four boosters depending on the launch configuration, and integrate the fairing that houses the payload.
A mobile gantry gives engineers better access to the launcher, allowing them to make adjustments without moving the rocket back to the assembly building – unlike Ariane 5, which is moved on a table to the pad on launch day.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula is featured in this colourful radar image captured by Copernicus Sentinel-1.
This false-colour image is made up of three separate radar images, acquired a month apart in 2024. Each image has been given a different colour: red for January, green for February and blue for March. When the images are overlaid, the resulting colours represent changes that occurred between the acquisitions.
The predominant green of the February image denotes a lot of snow cover compared to the other months.
The various colours of the rivers and lakes suggest changes in the extent of ice on their surfaces. This is particularly evident on Þingvallavatn lake, in the top right corner, and on the Ölfusá river, which is a bright red snaking line in the bottom right, meaning that in January was frozen.
Grey and white zones represent either built-up areas or patches of land that saw no changes during this time. The large grey area near the centre top of the image is Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital city.
Smooth surfaces reflect the radar signal away from the satellite, so they usually appear dark. The runways at Reykjavik International Airport can be clearly spotted as straight, black lines.
The small town of Grindavik is also visible as a small, white dot near the southwest tip of the peninsula. Grindavik has recently been at risk because of lava from a nearby volcano, which has erupted several times over the last few months.
This multitemporal image allows the changes lava flows to be observed over the acquisition period. The two red areas visible north of the town show the lava fields resulting from eruptions in December 2023 and January 2024. While shades of green and blue around Grindavik show changes that occurred in February and March respectively.
Barriers of soil and rock were built to divert lava away from the town and the Blue Lagoon geothermal structure north of Grindavik. These protective walls are clearly visible as grey, thin lines.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2024), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Explore the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft, the most reliable means of transporting crew to and from the International Space Station.
Credits: ESA
Rollout to the launch pad of the Soyuz rocket with the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft inside, 4 June 2018. The spacecraft will launch ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 6 June.
The 50-m tall Soyuz rocket will propell the astronauts to their cruising speed of around 28 800 km/h. Within 10 minutes of rising from the pad, the trio travelled over 1640 km and gained 210 km altitude. Every second for nine minutes, their spacecraft accelerated 50 km/h on average.
The rocket is rolled to the launch pad on a train, the astronauts are not allowed to see this part of the launch preparation – it is considered bad luck.
This will be Alexander’s second spaceflight, called Horizons. He will also be the second ESA astronaut to take over command of the International Space Station. The Horizons science programme is packed with European research: over 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people on Earth as well as prepare for future space exploration.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The Ariane 6 rocket for flight VA264 that will launch Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts Copernicus Sentinel-5 as part of its instrument package. This picture was taken in front of the mobile gantry – a 90-m-tall rocket hangar on wheels – on 11 August 2025 during the final stages in preparation before liftoff.
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.
MetOp-SG-A1, carries six instruments: a next-generation infrared atmospheric sounder, a microwave sounder, a multispectral imaging radiometer, a novel multiviewing, multichannel, multipolarisation imager, a radio occultation sounder (which is also embarked on the MetOp-SG-B satellites), and the European Commission’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 spectrometer.
Building on the success of the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite, the new Copernicus Sentinel-5 introduces an advanced imaging spectrometer. The first of these cutting-edge instruments, Sentinel-5A, is integrated into MetOp-SG-A1, and will work in synergy with other onboard instruments.
The missions will launch on an Ariane 6 with two boosters. 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. Its modular and versatile design allows it to launch all missions from low-Earth orbit into deep space. Standing over 60 metres tall, Ariane 6 can weigh almost 900 tonnes when launched with a full payload.
Credits: ESA–S. Corvaja
Rollout to the launch pad of the Soyuz rocket with the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft inside, 4 June 2018. The spacecraft will launch ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 6 June.
The 50-m tall Soyuz rocket will propell the astronauts to their cruising speed of around 28 800 km/h. Within 10 minutes of rising from the pad, the trio travelled over 1640 km and gained 210 km altitude. Every second for nine minutes, their spacecraft accelerated 50 km/h on average.
The rocket is rolled to the launch pad on a train, the astronauts are not allowed to see this part of the launch preparation – it is considered bad luck.
This will be Alexander’s second spaceflight, called Horizons. He will also be the second ESA astronaut to take over command of the International Space Station. The Horizons science programme is packed with European research: over 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people on Earth as well as prepare for future space exploration.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft took these images on 30 May 2020. They show the Sun’s appearance at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, which is in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Images at this wavelength reveal the upper atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, with a temperature of around 1 million degrees. EUI takes full disk images (top left) using the Full Sun Imager (FSI) telescope, as well as high resolution images using the HRIEUV telescope.
On 30 May, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, meaning that it was closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before. This allowed EUI to see features in the solar corona of only 400 km across. As the mission continues, Solar Orbiter will go closer to the Sun and this will increase the instrument’s resolving power by a factor of two at closest approach.
Even before this, however, these images reveal a multitude of small flaring loops, erupting bright spots and dark, moving fibrils. A ubiquitous feature of the solar surface, revealed for the first time by these images, have been called ‘campfires’. They are omnipresent minuature eruptions that could be contributing to the high temperatures of the solar corona and the origin of the solar wind.
The colour on this image has been artificially added because the original wavelength detected by the instrument is invisible to the human eye.
Credits: Solar Orbiter/EUI Team (ESA & NASA); CSL, IAS, MPS, PMOD/WRC, ROB, UCL/MSSL
This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows Lowell crater on Mars. This oblique perspective view was generated using a digital terrain model and Mars Express data gathered during orbits 2640, 2662, 2684, 16895, 18910, 18977, and 18984 by the spacecraft’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The ground resolution is approximately 50 m/pixel and the images cover a region from 274.5° to 283° East and 49° to 54.5° South. This image was created using data from the nadir and colour channels of the HRSC. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Webb identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean. This discovery has important implications for the potential habitability of Europa’s ocean. The moon appears mostly blue because it is brighter at shorter infrared wavelengths. The white features correspond with the chaos terrain Powys Regio (left) and Tara Regio (centre and right), which show enhanced carbon dioxide ice on the surface.
[Image description: A blue-and-white sphere against a black background is somewhat reminiscent of the famous “Blue Marble” picture of Earth from space. With fuzzy, diffuse edges, this sphere features darker blue patches in most of the northern hemisphere facing the viewer. One, large, crescent-shaped, white patch extends along the left side of the southern hemisphere facing the viewer, and a larger, blobby, white patch covers the middle latitudes of the right side of the southern hemisphere. Lighter blue regions border these white patches in the south.]
Credits:NASA, ESA, CSA, G. Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), S. Trumbo (Cornell Univ.), A. Pagan (STScI)
This colour-coded topographic view shows part of the Australe Scopuli region of Mars, deep in the planet’s southern hemisphere.
The image was created from data gathered by Mars Express’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 16 June 2022 (orbit 23324). It is based on a digital terrain model of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. Lower parts of the surface are shown in blues and purples, while higher altitude regions are red, as indicated on the scale at the top right.
The ground resolution is approximately 15 m/pixel and the image is centred at about 239°E/84°S. North is to the right.
[Image description: A topography map of a region of Mars colour-coded according to relative heights. The scale goes from red (highest terrain) through yellow, green, blue and purple (lowest terrain).]
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'. The congress will open its doors to the general public on 21 September.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
Sara García Alonso was selected as a member of the ESA Astronaut Reserve in November 2022. She began her Astronaut Reserve training at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) near Cologne, Germany, on 28 October 2024. The programme includes selected modules of ESA’s one-year basic training, typically completed by career astronauts, and equips members of the astronaut reserve with the skills needed to support Europe’s future space exploration and scientific research. Training covers technical and operational skills, spacecraft systems, survival exercises in water and winter conditions, as well as initial spacewalk training.
Credits: ESA - A. Conigli
How methane is created and destroyed on Mars is an important question in understanding the various detections and non-detections of methane at Mars, with differences in both time and location. Although making up a very small amount of the overall atmospheric inventory, methane in particular holds key clues to the planet’s current state of activity.
This graphic depicts some of the possible ways methane might be added or removed from the atmosphere.
One exciting possibility is that methane is generated by microbes. If buried underground, this gas could be stored in lattice-structured ice formations known as clathrates, and released to the atmosphere at a much later time.
Methane can also be generated by reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen (which, in turn, can be produced by reaction of water and olivine-rich rocks), by deep magmatic degassing or by thermal degradation of ancient organic matter. Again, this could be stored underground and outgassed through cracks in the surface. Methane can also become trapped in pockets of shallow ice, such as seasonal permafrost.
Ultraviolet radiation can both generate methane – through reactions with other molecules or organic material already on the surface, such as comet dust falling onto Mars – and break it down. Ultraviolet reactions in the upper atmosphere (above 60 km) and oxidation reactions in the lower atmosphere (below 60 km) acts to transform methane into carbon dioxide, hydrogen and water vapour, and leads to a lifetime of the molecule of about 300 years.
Methane can also be quickly distributed around the planet by atmospheric circulation, diluting its signal and making it challenging to identify individual sources. Because of the lifetime of the molecule when considering atmospheric processes, any detections today imply it has been released relatively recently.
But other generation and destruction methods have been proposed which explain more localized detections and also allow a faster removal of methane from the atmosphere, closer to the surface of the planet. Dust is abundant in the lower atmosphere below 10 km and may play a role, along with interactions directly with the surface. For example, one idea is that methane diffuses or ‘seeps’ through the surface in localized regions, and is adsorbed back into the surface regolith. Another idea is that strong winds eroding the planet’s surface allows methane to react quickly with dust grains, removing the signature of methane. Seasonal dust storms and dust devils could also accelerate this process.
Continued exploration at Mars – from orbit and the surface alike – along with laboratory experiments and simulations, will help scientists to better understand the different processes involved in generating and destroying methane.
Credits: ESA
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst arrived at Cologne airport on the evening of 20 December 2018. He had landed on Earth for the second time earlier in the morning together with NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Prokopiev. Their Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan at 05:02 GMT (11:02 local time). The landing concluded Alexander’s Horizons mission that saw him take over command of the International Space Station during Expedition 57.
The trio’s landing in the Kazakh steppe marked the successful conclusion of over six months in space during which Alexander conducted over 60 European experiments, became the second ever European commander of the International Space Station, welcomed six resupply vehicles, installed the first commercial facility for research in the Columbus laboratory, delivered an important message on climate change for leaders at the COP24 climate change conference, captured real-time footage of a Soyuz launch abort and much, much more.
Horizons was Alexander’s second mission to the International Space Station – the first was Blue Dot in 2014.
Alexander will take his time to readapt to Earth’s gravity supported by ESA’s team of space medicine experts at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. He will also continue to provide ground-based data for researchers to support experiments performed in space.
Credits: ESA–J. Harrod
Artist's impression of Heracles landing on the Moon.
ESA is working with the Canadian and Japanese space agencies to prepare the Heracles robotic mission to the Moon in the mid-to-late-2020s. Using the Gateway as a halfway point, a robotic rover will scout the terrain in preparation for the future arrival of astronauts, and deliver lunar samples to Earth.
This mission offers the best and earliest chance to deliver Moon samples to Earth on NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
Goals also include testing new hardware, demonstrating technology and gaining experience in operations while strengthening international partnerships in exploration.
A small lander with a rover inside weighing around 1800 kg in total will land and be monitored by astronauts from the space gateway. An ascent module will take off from the surface and return to the gateway with samples taken by the rover.
Heracles will demonstrate these technologies and prove their value for humans. Later missions will include a pressurised rover driven by astronauts and an ascent module for the crew to return home.
Communications are key, with satellites providing high-speed networks to operate rovers from orbit, including feeding visuals from cameras, control signals to move the cameras, arms and wheels, and transmitting scientific data.
When the ascent module carrying the sample container arrives, the Gateway’s robotic arm will capture and berth it with the outpost’s airlock for unpacking and transfer of the container to Orion and subsequent flight to Earth with returning astronauts.
Heracles is an international programme to use the Gateway to the fullest and deliver samples to scientists on Earth using new technology that is more capable and lighter than previous missions.
Credits: ESA/ATG Medialab
Rollout to the launch pad of the Soyuz rocket with the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft inside, 4 June 2018. The spacecraft will launch ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 6 June.
The 50-m tall Soyuz rocket will propell the astronauts to their cruising speed of around 28 800 km/h. Within 10 minutes of rising from the pad, the trio travelled over 1640 km and gained 210 km altitude. Every second for nine minutes, their spacecraft accelerated 50 km/h on average.
The rocket is rolled to the launch pad on a train, the astronauts are not allowed to see this part of the launch preparation – it is considered bad luck.
This will be Alexander’s second spaceflight, called Horizons. He will also be the second ESA astronaut to take over command of the International Space Station. The Horizons science programme is packed with European research: over 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people on Earth as well as prepare for future space exploration.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
This image shows a height map of the martian surface, with lowest land in blue and highest in white. Standing at an impressive 22 km, Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the entire Solar System.
The Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) is an interesting region close to the equator. It consists of a series of massive wind-sculpted deposits measuring hundreds of kilometres across and several kilometres high. Found at the boundary between Mars’s highlands and lowlands, the MFF is possibly the biggest single source of dust on Mars, and one of the most extensive deposits on the planet.
[Image description: Map of Mars showing one entire hemisphere. The map is coloured to show the height of the land. Labels indicate the equator (crossing the centre of the hemisphere), Olympus Mons (a high volcano) and the Medusae Fossae Formation (close to the line indicated by the equator label).]
Credits: ESA
New observations of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This image shows the region observed by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). It is stitched together from six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each around 300 square km.
The NIRSpec observations show infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie over 300 km above the clouds of the storm, where light from the Sun ionises the hydrogen and stimulates this infrared emission. In this image, redder colours display the hydrogen emission from these high altitudes in the planet’s ionosphere. Bluer colours show infrared light from lower altitudes, including cloud-tops in the atmosphere and the very prominent Great Red Spot.
Jupiter is distant from the Sun and therefore receives a uniform, low level of daylight, meaning that most of the planet’s surface is relatively dim at these infrared wavelengths – especially compared to the emission from molecules near the poles, where Jupiter’s magnetic field is especially strong. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations that this area would therefore look homogeneous in nature, it hosts a variety of intricate structures, including dark arcs and bright spots, across the entire field of view.
[Image Description: A image of a small area of Jupiter’s atmosphere, shaped like a jagged rectangle. The image is fuzzy and ranges from red to blue in colours, where bluer colours show lower altitudes in Jupiter’s atmosphere, and redder colours show higher altitudes. The image is centred on the Great Red Spot, which stands out as a blue circle.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Melin, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); 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
The first model of a future Ariane booster and Vega rocket stage is rolled out to its test stand at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, 20 March 2025. This rocket motor, called P160C, is destined to be ignited for its first hot-fire test.
P160C is a significant upgrade over the current P120C that is used as a booster on Ariane 6 and as the first stage motor on Vega-C rockets. Packed with over 14 tonnes more solid propellant, the new P160C will provide increased performance, allowing for more or heavier satellites to be launched or farther away in space.
The “P” in its name stands for “Powder”, as the 3.4-m cylinder houses solid propellant. The number 160 designates the 160 tonnes of propellant inside, and the C stands for “Common” as the motor is used on the two launchers.
Over 14 m tall P160C is one meter taller than its predecessor and is also one of the largest single-body solid rocket motors in production.
P160C has enough propellant to keep firing for over 2 minutes on launch – and during its test firing on ground. The rocket motor will be used as boosters for an improved version of the Ariane 6 launcher called “Block 2” as well as in in Vega-C and in the next generation Vega rocket, Vega-E.
P160C is being developed by Europropulsion under contract from ArianeGroup and Avio who are developing the Ariane 6 launcher systems and Vega launcher systems for ESA.
France’s space agency CNES will conduct the static fire test on its rocket engine test stand at Europe’s Spaceport.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Optique video du CSG–S. Martin
After an extraordinary six-week voyage from northern Norway, the iconic Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl has docked in Nice, France, concluding ESA’s 2025 Advanced Ocean Training Course. Braving everything from wild storms to calm seas, students aboard mastered techniques for collecting ocean measurements and harnessed satellite data to unlock insights into our blue planet. Led by experts, this real-world expedition offered more than education – it sparked curiosity and a deeper commitment to understanding and protecting our oceans.
Credits: ESA/Ocean Media Lab
This image of Mercury was captured by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 1 December 2024, as the spacecraft approached its fifth of six gravity assist manoeuvres at the planet.
This view was captured at 11:46 CET by the Mercury Transfer Module’s monitoring camera 2 (M-CAM 2), when the spacecraft was over 51 000 km from the planet’s surface, 3 hours 37 minutes before closest approach. The spacecraft’s minimum distance to the surface of 37 626 km was reached at 15:23:41 CET, when none of the three monitoring cameras could view Mercury.
The monitoring cameras provide black-and-white images at 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. This image has been lightly processed to reduce some banding effects caused by the camera having no mechanical shutter.
When this image was taken, BepiColombo was high over Mercury's northern hemisphere, heading southwards at a speed of 2.8 km/s relative to the planet.
Even at this great distance from the planet, one of the most prominent features of Mercury – a 1550 km-wide impact basin named Caloris Planitia – is visible as a brighter circular feature on the planet's disc. At the time, Caloris was close to local noon. In this view, the north pole of the planet was located on the right, around halfway down the line between day and night.
BepiColombo will pass much closer to Mercury’s north pole during its final flyby of Mercury on 8 January 2025 – its last visit before arriving to enter orbit about the planet in November 2026.
Read more about BepiColombo's fifth Mercury flyby here
Credits: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The crew of Soyuz MS-13 is officially approved for launch following the final pre-launch State Commission meeting and press conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
All three crewmembers have trained extensively for their mission to the International Space Station. The State Commission meeting is the culmination of this training, where senior spaceflight officials review and certify crewmembers for flight.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Roscosmos cosmonaut and Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov will be launched in their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Saturday 20 July. This date coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and marks the start of Luca’s second space mission known as ‘Beyond’.
While in orbit, Luca will support over 50 European experiments and more than 200 international experiments. He is also expected to perform a number of spacewalks to repair the cooling systems of dark matter hunter, AMS-02.
More information about Luca’s Beyond mission is available on the blog. This will be updated throughout his mission, with updates also shared on Twitter via @esaspaceflight.
Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja
Find out more about how the Soyuz catches up with and rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Credits: ESA
An artist's impression of the lunar outpost called the Gateway. The Gateway is the next structure to be launched by the partners of the International Space Station.
During the 2020s, it will be assembled and operated in the vicinity of the Moon, where it will move between different orbits and enable the most distant human space missions ever attempted.
Placed farther from Earth than the current Space Station – but not in a lunar orbit – the Gateway will offer a staging post for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Like a mountain refuge, it will provide shelter and a place to stock up on supplies for astronauts en route to more distant destinations. It will also offer a place to relay communications and can act as a base for scientific research.
The Gateway will weigh around 40 tonnes and will consist of a service module, a communications module, a connecting module, an airlock for spacewalks, a place for the astronauts to live and an operations station to command the Gateway’s robotic arm or rovers on the Moon. Astronauts will be able to occupy it for up to 90 days at a time.
A staging outpost near the Moon offers many advantages for space agencies. Most current rockets do not have the power to reach our satellite in one go but could reach the space Gateway. Europe’s Ariane would be able to deliver supplies for astronauts to collect and use for further missions deeper into space – much like mountain expeditions can stock up refuges with food and equipment for further climbs to the summit.
The Gateway also allows space agencies to test technologies such as electric propulsion where Earth’s gravity would interfere if done closer to home. New opportunities for space research away from Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere are planned for the outpost. Its close position will provide rapid response times for astronauts controlling rovers on the Moon.
Credits: ESA/NASA/ATG Medialab
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of quasar 3C 273. A coronagraph on Hubble blocks out the glare coming from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the quasar. This allows astronomers to see unprecedented details near the black hole: weird filaments, lobes, and a mysterious L-shaped structure, probably caused by small galaxies being devoured by the black hole. Located 2.5 billion light-years away, 3C 273 is the first quasar (quasi-stellar object) ever discovered, in 1963.
[Image description: This is a close-up look at the environment around quasar 3C 273 using Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) coronagraph. A black circle blocks the glare of the quasar. Blue-colored filamentary material can be seen near the black hole at the center of its host galaxy. There’s a blue-white smoke-like feature stretching to the 4 o’clock position, an extragalactic jet launched from the quasar.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, Bin Ren (Côte d’Azur Observatory); CC BY 4.0
This portrait of ESA astronaut Wubbo Ockels by Sharon Zijlstra from her Columbus Series was made in June 2018 using Acrylics/Markers in Black & White on Acid-Free 3D linen with triple-coated primer.
Measurements: 70 x 80 cm (27.5" x 31.5")
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
These images show the nitrogen dioxide plume column enhancements from two power plants in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh power plant 8 uses data based on the 60-m Sentinel-2 UB band, while Riyadh power plant 9, uses data based on the 10-m Sentinel-2 B band. The red triangles mark the centre of the emitted facilities.
Credits: ESA (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020/2021); CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The first of two boosters that will power the Ariane 6 ‘flight model-1’ into orbit this summer was transported on 25 April 2024 from the booster storage facility in Kourou, French Guiana, to the launch zone. Tomorrow, the second booster will be transported from the booster integration building to join it, and soon after operations will begin to connect both the boosters to the rocket’s central core.
Each P120C booster is filled with 142 tonnes of solid rocket fuel, measures 13.5 metres long and is 3.4 metres wide. Without these, Ariane 6 would not leave the ground. Together, the two boosters will provide the majority of the thrust needed to get Europe’s new rocket into space, firing into action for up to 130 seconds, each providing 4500 kN of thrust and getting Europe’s new rocket out to an altitude of about 70 km.
The P120C boosters will fire up seven seconds after the Vulcain 2.1 main stage engine roars into action, getting Ariane 6 off the ground and then, when depleted of fuel, being ejected from the rocket to leave the main stage engine in charge.
The yellow transporter that carries each booster to the launch site is a remarkable vehicle in itself. With 36 aircraft wheels beneath it – two rows of nine wheels on either side – it can carry a mass of up to 250 tonnes (more than a jumbo jet). Because of this symmetry, it can be driven from both sides and can even make crablike movements as it swivels from side to side.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest rocket. A ‘heavy-lift launch vehicle’, it will be able to carry passengers, large and small, into orbit and across the Solar System. Its launch this summer will ensure Europe’s continued independent access to space.
Ariane 6 will be launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. It has been designed for all possible futures – at its core is maximum versatility, able to put any satellite or payload into any orbital path. This first flight will see the Ariane 62 configuration launched into orbit. For more massive payloads, the Ariane 64 model can be chosen, with four boosters and double the extra thrust.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Arianegroup/Optique Vidéo du CSG - S.Martin
ESA astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Matthias Maurer were among the distinguished guests at the official inauguration of LUNA, Europe’s ‘Moon on Earth’ analogue facility, on 25 September 2024 in Cologne, Germany. This innovative facility, operated by ESA and the German Aerospace Agency (DLR), is designed to replicate the lunar surface and will play a crucial role in preparing astronauts for future missions to the Moon, including NASA’s Artemis programme.
LUNA features a 700-square-metre area covered in ‘regolith simulant,’ allowing astronauts and engineers to test space technology, conduct research, and simulate lunar operations in realistic conditions. With this state-of-the-art facility, Europe is at the forefront of space exploration, providing essential insights for upcoming lunar missions and beyond.
Credits: DLR/ESA
This stereoscopic image shows a region of Mars known as Australe Scopuli, in the south polar region of the planet. The area is rich in features resulting from the arrival of spring and the retreat of the ice cap.
The image was generated from data captured by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter on 2 April 2024 (orbit 25569). The anaglyph offers a three-dimensional view when viewed using red-green or red-blue glasses.
Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
On 22 and 23 November 2022, ESA Member States, Associate States and Cooperating States observers gathered in Paris, France, for the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level (CM22). They discussed how to strengthen Europe’s space sector for the benefit of all - including climate change monitoring and mitigation, secure communications under European control and rapid and resilient crisis response, and the ESA budget for the next three years.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2022), taking place from 18 to 22 September at the Paris Convention Centre in Paris, France. A week of lively interactions awaits the world space community, this year under the theme 'Space for @ll'. The congress will open its doors to the general public on 21 September.
Credits: ESA - P. Sebirot
ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite being prepared for environmental tests at IAGB in Ottobrunn, Germany. The photograph shows engineers making the satellite ready for the shaker test which ensures that the satellite will survive liftoff.
The Arctic Weather Satellite is equipped with a 19-channel cross-track scanning microwave radiometer, which benefits from the heritage technology of the Microwave Sounder developed for the MetOp Second Generation satellites. The instrument will provide high-resolution humidity and temperature soundings of the atmosphere in all weather conditions.
The satellite is actually the forerunner of a potential constellation of satellites, called EPS-Sterna, that ESA would build for Eumetsat if this first prototype Arctic Weather Satellite works well.
Credits: ESA–P. Sebirot
This image shows the edge of a layered mound in Burroughs crater on Mars. It is located about 200 km to the northwest of the northernmost edge of the planet’s south polar ice cap.
The image was taken by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and captures a strip of the surface measuring about 25 km x 9 km.
The ‘polar layered deposits’ of Mars, as the ice caps are known, are made of layers upon layers of ice and dust that record how the climate of Mars has evolved in the last few million to hundreds of millions of years.
Many of the impact craters that surround the caps have layered mounds that appear similar to the polar layered deposits, and some, particularly in the north, are known to be composed of nearly pure water ice. Layered mounds, like the one imaged here in Burroughs crater, lie close to the south polar deposits, and have been less studied than the layers of the caps.
They may represent remnant ice deposits from past climates when the extent of the polar layered deposits reached to lower latitudes, or they may have been deposited independently, which would mean that they represent an entirely separate record of climate – perhaps extending further back into the history of the Mars.
This particular image shows heavily eroded layers toward the northwestern edge of the Burroughs crater mound (north is up). In this orientation, the top of the image contains the crater wall outside of the mound, which is about 400 km lower in elevation than the bottom of the image and shows the mound’s surface.
Because the CaSSIS instrument takes stereo pairs of images, the elevation differences – also between the layers – can be studied with the resulting digital terrain model.
The image was taken on 16 December 2018 and is centred at 71.8ºS/114.5ºE.
Credits: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
On 4 October 2025, the European Space Agency has expanded its capability to communicate with scientific, exploration and space safety missions across our Solar System with the inauguration of a new 35-m diameter deep space antenna in New Norcia, Western Australia – the fourth for Estrack, ESA’s satellite tracking network.
The inauguration ceremony was led by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher alongside Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australian Space Agency, and Rolf Densing, ESA Director of Operations, together with Stephen Dawson, the Western Australia Minister for Regional Development, Ports, Science and Innovation, Medical Research and the Kimberley, with Sabine Winton, Western Australia Minister for Education, Early Childhood, Preventative Health and the Wheatbelt, in attendance.
When the new deep space antenna enters service in 2026, it will support ESA’s current flagship missions flown as part of the Agency's scientific, exploration and space safety fleets, including Juice, Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo, Mars Express and Hera, and will be a critical enabler for upcoming missions including Plato, Envision, Ariel, Ramses and Vigil.
Learn more about our new antenna.
Credits: ESA/Fisheye
Stéphane Israel, CEO of Arianespace, and ESA Director General Jan Wörner, sign a framework contract for the procurement of launch services for European Space Agency missions at the Berlin Air and Space Show, on 26 April 2018.
ILA is one of the world’s largest aerospace trade shows, bringing together the international aerospace community, industry, space agencies and trade visitors interested in discovering the latest aerospace developments and new business opportunities.
Credits: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2018
The 9th high-level EU/ESA Space Council, with the theme 'Space as an enabler', took place on Tuesday, 28 May, in the Lex Building of the European Commission in Brussels. Brussels. Ministers discussed European Space Policy, strengthening Europe's role as a global actor in the field of space, and highlighted how research and innovation are a driving force for a more competitive European Union.
Credits: European Union