Space News & Blog Articles

Image: Captured on 7 May 2024, this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows part of New Zealand’s North Island.

ESA is releasing a new set of full-colour images captured by the space telescope Euclid. Follow a broadcast of the reveal on Thursday 23 May at 11:00 BST / 12:00 CEST.

Explore this mission kit to learn more about EarthCARE – ESA’s new mission that will shed new light on the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth’s climate.

Press Release N° 24–2024

Image: Hera plus one: enter the CubeSat

Wildfire season has arrived in full force in Canada, prompting evacuation orders and alerts in several towns in British Columbia and Alberta due to the danger of uncontrolled blazes.

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.

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Over the weekend of 10–12 May 2024, Earth was struck by the largest solar storm in more than a decade. While many of us enjoyed colourful auroras lighting up Earth’s protective atmosphere, spacecraft had to endure being buffeted by incredibly strong solar winds and electromagnetic radiation.  

Are you ready for the greatest story ever told? Launched in France on 25 April 2024, Space Odyssey is the first complete history of space in graphic novel form. Drawing on the latest scientific and historical sources, it tells the story of the men and women who pioneered humankind's journey into space.

Week in images: 06-10 May 2024

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image features salt flats and lakes in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes Mountains.

The upcoming launch of the Φsat-2 mission is a prime example of the pioneering work that ESA does in the field of AI in Earth observation.

Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of a rocky planet atmosphere outside our Solar System.

Image: Where space weather starts

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They say it takes a village to raise a child. To launch a rocket, we have the combined expertise and passion of Space Team Europe. Aline Decadi is one of many making the first Ariane 6 launch possible and has been interviewed as part of a series highlighting some of the people that make up this dream team.

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about 3Cat-4, then see who else is flying first.

Teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are currently engaged in intensive preparations for the critical ‘Launch and Early Orbit’ phase of the agency's EarthCARE satellite.

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As we approach the launch of ESA’s EarthCARE mission, we caught up with some of the scientists, engineers and experts behind the mission.