European Space Agency

Image: Part of southern Italy is featured in this wintery image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. View the full article

ESA Impact 2023 – Quarter 1 Welcome to this edition of ESA Impact, an interactive publication covering stories and images from the first quarter of 2023. View the full article

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Video: 00:15:59 The Making of Juice series takes the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry, space technology and planetary science communities around ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission. Juice has a state-of-the-art science payload comprising remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. This episode focuses on the remote sensing instruments, which will study the atmosphere of Jupiter and the surfaces and exospheres of the icy moons. Juice’s camera (JANUS) will image Jupiter’s clouds and geological features on the moons in high resolution. The Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer (MAJIS) will observe cloud features and atmospheric constituents on Jupiter, and will characterise ices and minerals on the icy moon surfaces. The Sub-millimeter Wave Instrument (SWI), will investigate the temperature structure, composition and dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere, and the exospheres and surfaces of the icy moons. A UV imaging spectrograph (UVS) will characterise the composition and dynamics of the exospheres of the icy moons, study the Jovian aurorae, and investigate the composition and structure of the planet's upper atmosphere. The documentary includes interviews with (in order of appearance) Leigh Fletcher, Juice interdisciplinary scientist, Cecilia Tubiana, JANUS operation manager, Randy Gladstone, UVS principal investigator, Emma Bunce, J-MAG and UVS co-investigator, Francois Poulet, MAJIS principal investigator, Giuseppe Piccioni, MAJIS co-principal investigator, Paul Hartogh, SWI principal investigator, Miriam Rengel SWI co-investigator. Access the other episodes of 'The Making of Juice’ Credits: Produced for ESA by Lightcurve Films. View the full article

ESA space telescopes have observed the brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen. Data from this rare event could become instrumental in understanding the details of the colossal explosions that create gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). View the full article

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Video: 00:12:07 The Making of Juice series takes the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry, space technology and planetary science communities around ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission. Juice has a state-of-the-art science payload comprising remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. This episode focuses on the in situ instruments, which will study the particle, magnetic, radio and plasma environment in the Jupiter system. A magnetometer (J-MAG) equipped with sensors will characterise the Jovian magnetic field and its interaction with that of Ganymede, and will study the subsurface oceans of the icy moon. The Particle Environment Package (PEP) comprises a suite of sensors to characterise the plasma environment of the Jupiter system and the icy moons. The Radio and Plasma Wave Investigation (RPWI) will characterise the radio emission and plasma environment of Jupiter and its icy moons. A radiation monitor (RADEM) will also track how much radiation the spacecraft is being exposed to, while also being used for science. The documentary includes interviews with (in order of appearance) Norbert Krupp, Juice interdisciplinary scientist and co-investigator of the PEP instrument, Michele Dougherty, principal investigator of J-MAG, Jan-Erik Wahlund, principal investigator of RPWI, Patrícia Gonçalves, team leader for RADEM, and Stas Barabash, principal investigator of PEP. Access the other episodes of 'The Making of Juice’ Credits: Produced for ESA by Lightcurve Films. Additional camera by Manuela Baroni. Original music by William Zeitler. View the full article

An international team of researchers has used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to measure the temperature of the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b. The measurement is based on the planet’s thermal emission: heat energy given off in the form of infrared light detected by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The result indicates that the planet’s dayside has a temperature of about 500 kelvins (roughly 230°C), and suggests that it has no significant atmosphere. View the full article

The two spacecraft forming ESA’s Proba-3 mission for precise formation flying in orbit are now complete. All the instruments and sensors allowing them to manoeuvre to millimetre scale precision relative to one another have been integrated aboard, and the pair are fully wrapped in multi-layer insulation – ready to be tested in simulated space conditions. View the full article

At its 315th session on 22 and 23 March 2023, the ESA Council approved a series of nominations and extensions of contracts for ESA directors: View the full article

Week in images: 20-24 March 2023 Discover our week through the lens View the full article

Image: ESA in miniature View the full article

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features the diverse landscape surrounding Monterrey, the capital of the northeast state of Nuevo León, Mexico. View the full article

Ever since its launch in 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer, keeping an eye on the ever-changing atmospheres of the largely gaseous outer planets. And it’s an unblinking eye that allows Hubble’s sharpness and sensitivity to monitor a kaleidoscope of complex activities over time. Today new images are shared of Jupiter and Uranus. View the full article

Video: 01:03:07 Watch the replay of the media information session to hear about further transformation measures and ambitious, new ideas for space exploration following ESA's 315th Council, taking place in the freshly renovated ESA HQ Nikis building in Paris. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair Anna Rathsman will cover the following topics: the implementation steps of the results of CM22, including the transformation of ESA to be fit for the future, the Space Summit planned for November 2023, as well as the public release of certain official ESA documents. Moreover, the final report and recommendations of the “HLAG”, the High Level Advisory Group for Exploration, will be presented and discussed. Further ESA Programme progress reports will be given e. g. on: Earth Observation, Space Safety/Operations, Space Transportation, Planetary Sciences, etc. View the full article

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Video: 00:02:20 In the week of 13-17 March 2023, more than 1400 students attended the ESA School Days event at ESRIN, the ESA Centre for Earth Observation located in Frascati, near Rome, Italy. The students and their teachers, coming from Lazio and other Italian regions, discovered more about ESA and the projects it is involved in, thanks also to creative hands-on labs, a visit to the Earth observation multimedia centre and the launch of rocket models. During the full-day visit, the focus was on themes such as Earth observation, satellites in orbit, ESA launch programmes, asteroid tracking, and how space exploration and ESA’s activities benefit daily life. Italian: Nella settimana del 13-17 marzo 2023, più di 1400 studenti hanno preso parte all’evento ESA School Days a ESRIN, il Centro ESA per l’Osservazione della Terra situato a Frascati, vicino Roma. È stata questa un’occasione, per gli studenti e per i loro insegnanti provenienti dalle scuole del Lazio e di altre regioni italiane, per conoscere meglio l’ESA e scoprire i numerosi progetti spaziali in cui l’Agenzia è coinvolta, grazie anche ai laboratori creativi, alla visita al centro multimediale di Osservazione della Terra e al lancio di razzo modelli. Nel corso della visita di un giorno sono stati approfonditi temi quali Osservazione della Terra, satelliti in orbita, programmi di lancio dell’ESA, ricerca e monitorraggio di asteroidi, e come l’esplorazione dello spazio e le attività dell’ESA portino beneficio alle attività quotidiane qui sulla Terra. View the full article

The videos of the first Moon landing with astronauts bouncing around the lunar surface are looking like a lot of fun - but jumping around on the Moon could also be good for astronaut's muscles, bones and the cardiorespiratory system. View the full article

Video: 00:03:03 After five years of intensive refurbishment works, the Headquarters of the European Space Agency has reopened its doors on rue Mario Nikis in Paris, France. As flexible as it is ultra-modern, ‘ESA HQ Mario Nikis’ is the very embodiment of a European organisation at the cutting edge of high technology and is resolutely open to the city it calls home. View the full article

Join us to hear about ambitious new ideas for space exploration from ESA's 315th Council, taking place in the freshly renovated ESA HQ Mario Nikis building in Paris. View the full article

ESA's Gaia mission has been collecting data on millions of space objects like stars and asteroids to build an extensive cosmic record. Now, to take it up a notch, it needs your eyes. View the full article

ESA Impact – March 2023 Council edition Welcome to the March Council edition of ESA Impact, an interactive showcase of the best images and videos since the last Council meeting View the full article

Video: 00:03:03 Explore the fascinating landing site of NASA’s Perseverance rover in this fly-through video, featuring new views of Jezero crater and its surroundings from ESA’s Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The video begins by panning around Jezero crater, which can be seen in the centre background surrounded by textured and cratered terrain. The crater moves into the foreground roughly halfway through, when an outflow channel can be seen snaking away from the crater wall and towards the camera perspective. Two inflow channels (Neretva Vallis and Sava Vallis, found on the western-northwestern rim of Jezero) then become visible; the most prominent of these branches out into the crater to form an ancient fan-shaped river delta that was the landing site for Perseverance. The Mars Express data come courtesy of the spacecraft’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), which has been capturing full-colour, high-resolution snapshots of Mars since 2004 and has mapped over 90% of the planet’s surface. This wealth of information has been essential in the assessment and selection of safe, scientifically useful landing sites on Mars for missions to the planet – including Perseverance, a rover carried to Mars by NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. Perseverance landed in Jezero crater in February 2021. The diverse rocks, materials, features and mineralogy found in and around Jezero crater tell the story of Mars’ complex geological history. The roughly 45-km-wide crater is found on the border between the ancient region of Terra Sabaea – which contains rocks of up to 4.1 billion years old – and the younger Isidis Planitia basin, which formed via asteroid impact. Jezero sits next to an intriguing system of faults known as Nili Fossae and a prominent area of volcanism named Syrtis Major, where lava flowed some three billion years ago. The wall of Jezero is breached by three valleys that were once rivers of flowing water; the crater is a so-called ‘open basin lake’ in that water once flowed both into and out of the crater, a type of basin that is especially promising in the hunt for life on Mars. Bringing Mars to Earth Missions such as Mars Express have made truly significant discoveries about our planetary neighbour from orbit, while lander and rover missions, like ESA's upcoming Rosalind Franklin rover, give an up-close look at the planetary surface. However, to dig further into the sophisticated science of Mars, we need to bring samples back to Earth and explore them in laboratories, which are prohibitively expensive, complicated and heavy to send to another planet in their entirety. Sample return missions will be more advanced than any robotic missions that have gone before and will revolutionise our understanding of both the Red Planet and the Solar System. This video shows the very region of Mars from which we will soon return samples. ESA and NASA are developing the collaborative Mars Sample Return Campaign, on which the Perseverance rover is already hard at work. The rover is caching samples of rock, soil and atmosphere in tubes that will be collected by a follow-up mission in the 2030s. ESA is providing a Sample Transfer Arm that will pick up the tubes and transfer them to a NASA-led rocket for launch into orbit around Mars. ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter will then ‘catch’ the samples and return them to Earth, making it the first interplanetary spacecraft to capture samples in orbit and make a return trip between Earth and Mars. Read more about ESA’s ambitions for Mars exploration. More information and a virtual hiking tour through Jezero crater is available from Freie Universität Berlin, whose Planetary Science and Remote Sensing working group created this video. Creating the video This video comprises merged data from two instruments: HRSC and CTX. The HRSC data are in the form of the camera’s Mars Chart (HMC30), which provides seamless coverage of imagery and topography across the entire region, and an accompanying digital terrain model, which provided the information needed for the images to be generated in three dimensions. Atmospheric effects – dust, clouds and haze – are added for artistic effect but are not photorealistic, with the haze starting to build up at a distance of 200 km. The CTX data comprise 33 images that have been processed using the HMC30 as a reference for colour and brightness, with a resolution of up to 5 m per pixel. Each second of the movie contains 50 frames. The vertical exaggeration is three-fold. Video credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin & NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/) View the full article

The final instalment of the sixth assessment report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been released today. The report warns that the planet has already warmed 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, resulting in more frequent and intense extreme weather events that are causing increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world. The report includes a greater contribution of Earth observation data than its previous iterations in providing the physical evidence of Earth’s changing climate system – from sea-level rise, growing greenhouse-gas emissions and melting sea ice. View the full article

Image: A close up of an Ariane 5 rocket surrounded by scaffolding. In the centre of the Ariane 5 is the sticker showing the artwork (blue background with Jupiter, three icy moons, Earth and Juice. All are smiling and Jupiter is holding Juice in its hands). Below the artwork is an ESA logo and the Juice mission patch (a round design with an outline of the spacecraft). View the full article