European Space Agency

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Côte d'Ivoire in western Africa. View the full article

Video: 00:12:27 The Arctic is experiencing disproportionately higher temperature increases compared to the rest of the planet, triggering a series of cascading effects. This rapid warming has profound implications for global climate patterns, human populations and wildlife. The Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer mission (CIMR) will provide measurements to decision makers with evidence of change and impact in the polar regions – with a focus on the Arctic. The mission has the largest radiometer developed by ESA and will provide high-resolution measurements related to sea ice, the ocean, snow and ice-sheet surfaces. This will be crucial in understanding the evolution of the climate in the polar region. CIMR is one of six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions that ESA is developing on behalf of the EU. The missions will expand the current capabilities of the Copernicus Space Component – the world’s biggest supplier of Earth observation data. This video features interviews with Craig Donlon, CIMR Mission Scientist, Rolv Midthassel, CIMR Payload Manager, Claudio Galeazzi, CIMR Project Manager, Mariel Triggianese, CIMR Satellite Engineering and AIV Manager, and Marcello Sallusti, CIMR System Performance and Operations Manager. In the meantime Craig has changed his role but will retain his position as Mission Scientist. View the full article

Image: Saying goodbye to ERS-2 View the full article

Week in images: 12-16 February 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Today, ESA’s space telescope Euclid begins its survey of the dark Universe. Over the next six years, Euclid will observe billions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Learn how the team prepared Euclid in the months after launch for this gigantic cosmic quest. View the full article

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The Po Valley, nestled in northern Italy, is renowned for its picturesque landscapes and rich agricultural history. However, the region is also grappling with a persistent environmental challenge: air pollution. The unique geographical and meteorological conditions of the Po Valley contribute to fluctuations in air quality – impacting the health of its residents. View the full article

Image: See how the Sun changed between February 2021 and October 2023. As the Sun approaches the maximum in its magnetic activity cycle, we see more brilliant explosions, dark sunspots, loops of plasma, and swirls of super-hot gas. The Sun goes through a cycle of activity that lasts around 11 years. It is caused by the ‘solar dynamo’, the process that generates the Sun’s magnetic field. At the beginning of this cycle (the solar minimum) there is relatively little activity and few sunspots. Activity steadily increases until it peaks (the solar maximum) and then decreases again to a minimum. The most recent solar minimum was in December 2019, just two months before Solar Orbiter launched. The spacecraft’s early views (left) showed that in February 2021 the Sun was still relatively calm. We are now approaching solar maximum, which is expected to occur in 2025. Solar Orbiter’s more recent views, taken during a close approach to the Sun in October 2023 (right), show a striking increase in solar activity. This adds weight to recent theories [paper 1, paper 2] that the maximum could arrive up to a year earlier than expected. Solar Orbiter will help us predict the timing and strength of solar cycles. Although notoriously tricky, this is vital because solar activity can seriously affect life on Earth; extreme eruptions can damage ground-based electricity grids and disable orbiting satellites. The images were taken by Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. They reveal the Sun’s upper atmosphere, which has a temperature of around a million degrees Celsius. EUI helps scientists investigate the mysterious heating processes that occur in the Sun’s outer regions. Since EUI views the Sun in ultraviolet light, which is invisible to human eyes, the yellow colour is added to help us visualise our changing Sun. Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument is led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium. View the full article

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Video: 00:04:36 ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt from Sweden is back to Europe less than 24 hours after his return to Earth. Marcus is back to Cologne, Germany, after spending 20 days in space. He underwent initial medical checks aboard the boat before being flown by helicopter to shore and boarding a plane to Europe. Marcus waved to the people gathered to welcome him on his arrival at the military side of Cologne Bonn Airport. He will spend the next days participating in debriefings, providing samples for scientific evaluation and readapting to Earth’s gravity at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) and the German Aerospace Centre’s (DLR) :envihab facility. Marcus returned to Earth on 9 February at 13:30 GMT/14:30 CET, marking the end of his Muninn mission to the International Space Station. Marcus blasted into space towards the Space Station on 18 January 2024. Marcus’s crewmates from Axiom Mission 3 were Walter Villadei from Italy, Alper Gezeravcı from Türkiye and Michael López-Alegría, representing both USA and Spain as a dual-citizen. During his time on board, Marcus supported nearly 20 European experiments and spent more than 100 hours conducting science and technology demonstrations. Marcus is the first of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space. His mission is supported by ESA and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). Access the related broadcast quality video material. View the full article

Week in images: 05-09 February 2024 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: The SpaceX Crew Dragon ”Freedom” with the Axiom-3 crew inside as they undocked from the International Space Station on 7 February at 14:20 GM/15:20 CET. ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt together with Walter Villadei, Alper Gezeravcı and Michael López-Alegría spent 20 days in space, conducting science and technology demonstrations in a mission that can be described as a sprint. Marcus’s mission to the Space Station is called “Muninn” after one of the ravens of the Norse god Odin, complementing the Huginn mission of Andreas Mogensen, fellow Scandinavian, and ESA astronaut. Marcus was part of the first commercial spaceflight for an ESA astronaut, marking a new era where ESA project astronauts can gain valuable flight experience on short-duration missions. Despite the short time, Marcus conducted more than 20 European experiments during his Muninn mission, including operating robots on Earth from the Space Station and investigating how living in extreme and confined environments affect people’s physical and mental well-being. After a 47-hour trip back to Earth, Marcus and crew splashed down off the coast of Florida, USA, on 9 February at 13:30 GMT/14:30 CET. The picture was taken by ESA astronaut and current commander of the International Space Station, Andreas Mogensen, from inside the Crew Dragon “Endurance”. View the full article

After 20 days in space, ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt returned to Earth today at 13:30 GMT/14:30 CET, marking the end of his Muninn mission to the International Space Station (ISS). View the full article

Image: This wide view from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captures an algae bloom around the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. View the full article

We're joining the global community this weekend in celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. As part of our efforts to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and space enthusiasts, we're featuring three young professionals working with us. Here's a glimpse into the projects they're working on, and stay tuned for their videos on ESA’s Instagram for a peek into a day in their lives at ESA. View the full article

Image: Space centre power cable View the full article

ESA’s very latest laboratory extension is portable in nature: hosted within a standard shipping container, this ESA Transportable Optical Ground Station, ETOGS, can be transported all across Europe as needed, to perform laser-based optical communications with satellites – including NASA’s Psyche mission, millions of kilometres away in space. View the full article

Video: 00:03:08 As part of his Huginn mission, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen tested the Circadian Light experiment in his crew quarters where he sleeps. The light panel was installed above him and is designed to mimic the Sun’s light to give him a better day/night cycle, also known as the circadian rhythm. Made by SAGA Space Architects in Denmark, the light changes colour over the day, turning on in the early morning to wake up Andreas to then turn a whiter colour during the day. Like the sunset, the panel changes into a more reddish colour before turning off for the night. View the full article

Video: 00:01:05 Highlights of the Muninn mission with ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt, from the countdown to launch to his work on the International Space Station. View the full article

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Image: Cool upgrade for deep-space dish View the full article

Throughout its 16-year working life, the second European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2, returned a wealth of information that revolutionised our perspective of our planet and understanding of climate change. As well as leaving a remarkable legacy of data that still continue to advance science, this outstanding mission set the stage for many of today’s satellites and ESA’s position at the forefront of Earth observation. In 2011, ESA retired ERS-2 and began the process of deorbiting – and now it’s time for this pioneering satellite to reenter the atmosphere naturally and start to burn up. View the full article

Image: This false-colour image acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission shows the city of Dubai and its surroundings in the United Arab Emirates. View the full article

Video: 00:01:18 Teams from ESA, France’s space agency CNES and ArianeGroup successfully completed the disconnection and retraction of the Ariane 6 cryogenic systems on 30 January 2024. These operations mark the start of dismantling the Ariane 6 test model to make way for its first launch. The combined test phase for Ariane 6 using propellants is now over and the European rocket is on track for its inaugural launch. The test model that is on the launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, stands 62 m high. It is exactly the same as the ‘production model’ Ariane 6 rockets that will soon be launched, except that its boosters are not tested as part of the complete rocket. For this test, the fuel lines for the upper stage and main stage were disconnected. The yellow arms support the fuel lines that deliver liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the upper stage that is powered by the Vinci orbital engine. Instead of simply disconnecting the lines, the Ariane 6 teams approached the operations as more tests, or rehearsals, allowing the teams another chance to practice ahead of launch. Seconds before a liftoff, the cryogenic fuelling arms retract from the upper part of the rocket, removing the fuelling lines. The main stage is fuelled from the bottom of the rocket and these lines were also disconnected in the test. View the full article

Black holes are like temperamental toddlers. They spill food all the time, but ESA’s XMM-Newton has caught a black hole in the act of ‘flipping over the table’ during an otherwise civilised meal. This act prevents the galaxy surrounding the black hole from forming new stars, giving us insight into how black holes and galaxies co-evolve. View the full article