Space News & Blog Articles

Image: New Galileo station goes on duty

Week in images: 17-21 July 2023

Video: 00:05:00

ESA’s wind mission Aeolus is coming home. After five years of improving weather forecasts, the satellite will return in a first-of-its-kind assisted reentry. At ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Germany, mission control will use the satellite’s remaining fuel to steer Aeolus during its return to Earth.

Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image highlights the colours of autumn over the southern part of New York state in the US.

Astronomers taking advantage of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s extraordinary sensitivity have discovered a swarm of boulders that were possibly shaken off the asteroid Dimorphos when NASA deliberately slammed the half-tonne DART impactor spacecraft into Dimorphos at approximately 22 500 km per hour. DART intentionally impacted Dimorphos on 26 September 2022, slightly changing the trajectory of its orbit around the larger asteroid Didymos.

Image: 3D-printed bend-based mechanism

The Italian region of Emilia-Romagna was devastated by severe floods in May 2023, claiming lives and displacing thousands of people, resulting in an estimated €8.8 billion in damages. With the region still grappling with the aftermath, satellites have been instrumental in assessing the damages of the affected areas.

Image: Dividing Earth and Moon

For the first time, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains at redshift ~ 7 [1], which is roughly equivalent to one billion years after the birth of the Universe [2]. Similar observational signatures have been observed in the much more recent Universe, attributed to complex, carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It is not thought likely, however, that PAHs would have developed within the first billion years of cosmic time.

ESA's Mars Express has revisited an old favourite: the distinctive and fascinating Mawrth Vallis, one of the most promising locations on Mars in our search for signs of life.

Video: 00:45:00

After completing its mission in orbit, ESA’s wind mission Aeolus will soon reenter Earth's atmosphere. Currently orbiting 320 km above, Aeolus is being kept in orbit with its remaining fuel. This fuel is running out, and the satellite will soon succumb to Earth’s atmosphere and gravity.  

Fuelled largely by climate change, our planet is being subjected to environmental changes that are having an unprecedented global impact on humans, animals and plants. Shockingly, in certain locations these changes are occurring at a rate never before witnessed.

Image: Infographic: ESA Technology CubeSats, the first 10 years

Week in images: 10-14 July 2023

After almost five years, ESA’s Aeolus wind satellite has completed its mission. Now, you can listen to the Life of Aeolus – an incredible wind orchestral piece that has been composed using data spanning Aeolus’ entire life in orbit around Earth.

Image: Lunar solar power satellite

Image: Reminiscent of an artist’s pallet, this striking false-colour image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission features Lake Abbe in northeast Ethiopia.

Isn’t it strange that when satellites run out of fuel or a single component breaks down, we just discard them? ESA and European industry have joined forces to make sure that our satellites can live on.