European Space Agency

Video: 00:06:15 English From 7 to 11 April, ESA's Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati, ESRIN, hosted the 2025 edition of ESA School Days, welcoming almost 1400 young students. The event kicked off with primary school students (4th and 5th grades) visiting during the first three days, followed by secondary school students on the final two days. Throughout the week, 35 schools from across Italy engaged in presentations and laboratories, delving into the diverse space activities conducted at ESA’s establishment. This initiative, which included contributions from ESERO Italia and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), aims to inspire and engage the next generation of STEM students by sharing knowledge about space and the European Space Agency. Italian Dal 7 all'11 aprile, ESRIN, il Centro per l'Osservazione della Terra dell'ESA a Frascati, ha ospitato l'edizione 2025 degli ESA School Days, accogliendo quasi1 400 giovani studenti. L'evento ha preso il via con la visita degli studenti delle scuole primarie (classi quarte e quinte) durante i primi tre giorni, seguiti dagli studenti delle scuole secondarie nei due giorni finali. Per tutta la settimana, 35 scuole da tutta Italia si sono cimentate in presentazioni e laboratori, approfondendo la loro conoscenza delle diverse attività spaziali condotte presso lo stabilimento dell'ESA. L'iniziativa, che ha visto il contributo di ESERO Italia e dell'Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), mira a ispirare e coinvolgere la prossima generazione di studenti STEM condividendo le conoscenze sullo spazio e sull'Agenzia Spaziale Europea. View the full article

Image: This very high-resolution image captures the Egyptian city of Giza and its surrounding area, including the world-famous Giza Pyramid Complex. View the full article

Satellite observations show that sea-surface temperatures over the past four decades have been getting warmer at an accelerated pace. View the full article

Registrations are now open for the European Space Agency’s Living Planet Symposium (LPS) – one of the largest Earth observation conferences in the world. The event will take place on 23–27 June 2025 in Vienna, Austria. View the full article

Each year, cutting-edge technologies developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for its complex missions and scientific discoveries find new life in applications used to benefit Earth and improve our daily lives. From 9–13 April, ESA was guest of honour at the 50th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva in Switzerland with more than 1000 inventions, which attracted 30 000 visitors from the public. ESA showcased its new technologies and applications that have been invented for space missions and patented for use in and outside the space arena. View the full article

Image: Sombrero Galaxy View the full article

With the launch of ESA’s Biomass satellite scheduled for 29 April, preparations at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, have reached a key milestone. The satellite has now been sealed inside the protective fairing of the Vega-C rocket – now hidden from view, the satellite is almost ready for its journey into space. View the full article

Video: 00:02:14 On 12 March 2025, ESA’s Hera spacecraft soared just 5000 km above Mars and passed within 300 km of its distant moon, Deimos. Captured by Hera’s 1020x1020 pixel Asteroid Framing Camera, this video sequence offers a rare view of the red planet and its enigmatic moon. The original greyscale images have been colour-enhanced based on known surface features. View the full article

Image: Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 (MIRI image) View the full article

Week in images: 07-11 April 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:09:17 Meet Aleš Svoboda— A skilled pilot with over 1500 flight hours, Aleš holds a PhD in aircraft and rocket technology and has commanded Quick Reaction Alerts. From flying high to training underwater, he’s always ready to take on new challenges—now including astronaut reserve training with ESA. In this miniseries, we take you on a journey through the ESA Astronaut Reserve, diving into the first part of their Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) near Cologne, Germany. Our “ARTists” are immersing themselves in everything from ESA and the International Space Station programme to the European space industry and institutions. They’re gaining hands-on experience in technical skills like spacecraft systems and robotics, alongside human behaviour, scientific lessons, scuba diving, and survival training. ESA’s Astronaut Reserve Training programme is all about building Europe’s next generation of space explorers—preparing them for the opportunities of future missions in Earth orbit and beyond. This interview was recorded in November 2024. You can listen to this episode on all major podcast platforms. Keep exploring with ESA Explores! View the full article

The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton is playing a crucial role in investigating the longest and most energetic bursts of X-rays seen from a newly awakened black hole. Watching this strange behaviour unfold in real time offers a unique opportunity to learn more about these powerful events and the mysterious behaviour of massive black holes. View the full article

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows part of one of the world’s natural wonders – the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea off the east coast of Queensland, Australia. Zoom in to explore this image at its full resolution or click on the circles to learn more. The Great Barrier Reef extends for nearly 2300 km and covers an area of more than 344 000 sq km, approximately the size of Italy. It is the largest living organism on Earth and the only living thing the naked eye can see from space. Despite its name, the Great Barrier Reef is not a single reef, but an interlinked system of about 3000 reefs and 900 coral islands, divided by narrow passages. An area of biodiversity equal in importance to tropical rainforests, the reef hosts more than 1500 species of tropical fish, 400 types of coral, hundreds of species of bird and seaweed and thousands of marine animals, including sharks, barracuda and turtles. In recognition of its significance the reef was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. The section of reef seen here is the southern part off the coast of the Shire of Livingstone in Central Queensland. Part of the mainland and the islands surrounding the coast are visible in the bottom left corner. The tan-coloured sea along the coasts is due to sediment in the water. A chain of small coral islands can be seen scattered across the centre of the image. The blue hues of the coral contrast with the dark waters of the Coral Sea. Part of the reef is covered by clouds dominating the upper part of the image. The clouds form a surprisingly straight line, also visible as a distinct shadow cast over the islands below. Coral reefs worldwide suffer regular damage due to climate change, pollution, ocean acidification and fishing. Furthermore, they are increasingly under threat from coral bleaching, which occurs when the algae that makes up the coral die, causing it to turn white. This phenomenon is associated with increased water temperatures, low salinity and high sunlight levels. While these coral reefs are ecologically important, they are difficult to map from survey vessels or aircraft because of their remote and shallow location. From their vantage point in space, Earth-observing satellites such as Copernicus Sentinel-2, offer the means to monitor the health of reefs across the globe. View the full article

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Marking a major milestone in the preparation of ESA’s Biomass satellite for its scheduled 29 April liftoff, experts have completed the critical and hazardous process of fuelling the satellite. View the full article

Image: New ESA invention tested in a chamber of no echoes View the full article

This new snapshot from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express deftly captures the two distinct faces of Mars: ridged and rugged versus smooth and unmarked. View the full article

The first of the new generation of MetOp satellites, MetOp-SG Satellite-A, together with the instrument for the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission, are now ready to be shipped to their launch site. But before the last leg of their terrestrial journey, they were on display to the media at Airbus’s facilities in Toulouse, France. View the full article

Image: Smile meets Maxwell View the full article

Europe’s space industry gathered at the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands on 3–4 April to gain insights into the future of space in Europe. View the full article

Week in images: 31 March - 04 April 2025 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Video: 00:08:54 Meet Amelie Schoenenwald— biotechnologist, business expert, and PhD in structural biology. Whether in the lab or the great outdoors, she thrives in extreme environments, ready to embrace the adventure of ESA’s Astronaut Reserve. In this miniseries, we take you on a journey through the ESA Astronaut Reserve, diving into the first part of their Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) near Cologne, Germany. Our “ARTists” are immersing themselves in everything from ESA and the International Space Station programme to the European space industry and institutions. They’re gaining hands-on experience in technical skills like spacecraft systems and robotics, alongside human behaviour, scientific lessons, scuba diving, and survival training. ESA’s Astronaut Reserve Training programme is all about building Europe’s next generation of space explorers—preparing them for the opportunities of future missions in Earth orbit and beyond. This interview was recorded in November 2024. Learn more about Amelie’s favourite space mission. You can listen to this episode on all major podcast platforms. Keep exploring with ESA Explores! View the full article

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows us what is left of the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world. View the full article

Image: This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases NGC 346, a dazzling young star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Small Magellanic Cloud is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located 210 000 light-years away in the constellation Tucana. The Small Magellanic Cloud is less rich in elements heavier than helium — what astronomers call metals — than the Milky Way. This makes conditions in the galaxy similar to what existed in the early Universe. Although several images of NGC 346 have been released previously, this view includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory. NGC 346 is home to more than 2500 newborn stars. The cluster’s most massive stars, which are many times more massive than our Sun, blaze with an intense blue light in this image. The glowing pink nebula and snakelike dark clouds are the remnant of the birthplace of the stars in the cluster. The inhabitants of this cluster are stellar sculptors, carving out a bubble from the nebula. NGC 346’s hot, massive stars produce intense radiation and fierce stellar winds that pummel the billowing gas of their birthplace and begin to disperse the surrounding nebula. The nebula, named N66, is the brightest example of an H II (pronounced ‘H-two’) region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. H II regions are set aglow by ultraviolet light from hot young stars like those in NGC 346. The presence of the brilliant nebula indicates the young age of the star cluster, as an H II region shines only as long as the stars that power it — a mere few million years for the massive stars pictured here. [Image description: A star cluster within a nebula. The background is filled with thin, pale blue clouds. Parts are thicker and pinker in colour. The cluster is made up of bright blue stars that illuminate the nebula around them. Large arcs of dense dust curve around, before and behind the clustered stars, pressed together by the stars’ radiation. Behind the clouds of the nebula can be seen large numbers of orange stars.] View the full article

Image: A chance alignment in Lupus View the full article