Space News & Blog Articles

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

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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.

For decades, satellites have played a crucial role in our understanding of the remote polar regions. The ongoing loss of Antarctic ice, owing to the climate crisis, is, sadly, no longer surprising. However, satellites do more than just track the accelerating flow of glaciers towards the ocean and measure ice thickness.

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This image shows Webb’s recent observation of the asteroid 2024 YR4 using both its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Data from NIRCam shows reflected light, while the MIRI observations show thermal light.

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Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?

Biomass

Read the latest edition of ESA Impact

Image: Biomass cleared for fuelling

Launched just seven months ago, ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has been proving how the New Space approach can accelerate the development of missions capable of delivering detailed temperature and humidity profiles for short-term weather forecasts.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus to design and build the landing platform for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover. In 2028, ESA will launch this ambitious exploration mission to search for past and present signs of life on Mars.

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Meet Arnaud Prost—aerospace engineer, professional diver, and member of ESA’s Astronaut Reserve. From flying aircraft to getting a taste of spacewalk simulation, his passion for exploration knows no bounds.

Week in images: 24-28 March 2025

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For over a decade, ESA’s Gaia mission has mapped our galaxy with stunning precision—rewriting the story of the Milky Way. As its mission enters a new phase, we look back at its most groundbreaking discoveries.

The first image from a new Italian Earth observation satellite mission was published today: a high-resolution image of a strip of the Italian peninsular showing the city of Rome at a resolution of 2.66 metres. This is three times higher than the resolution currently available for systematic acquisition over Italy.

Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captures the striking landscape surrounding the Waza National Park in Cameroon.

Two spacecraft flying as one – that is the goal of European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission. Earlier this week, the eclipse-maker moved a step closer to achieving that goal, as both spacecraft aligned with the Sun, maintaining their relative position for several hours without any control from the ground.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.

Image: Spying a spiral through a cosmic lens (Webb telescope image)

Using the unique infrared sensitivity of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers can examine ancient galaxies to probe secrets of the early Universe. Now, an international team of astronomers has identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in an unexpectedly early time in the Universe’s history. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.