European Space Agency

© ESA; data: A. Fedorova et al (2021)

Where did Mars’ water go?

ESA’s Mars Express finds that atmospheric water loss is accelerated by seasonal change and dust storms.

(c) ESA/NASA-L.Parmitano

(c) Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA

Suez Canal traffic jam seen from space

The enormous Ever Given container ship, wedged in Egypt’s Suez Canal, is visible in new images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.

The giant container ship ran aground in the canal on 23 March on its journey from China to the Netherlands. The image on the left, captured on 21 March, shows routine maritime traffic in the canal with vessels visible every 2 to 3 km. The image on the right, captured on 25 March, shows the 400 m-ship blocking the canal.

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) is a new ESA planetary exploration mission currently under construction and development at different sites across Europe. This is the third episode of a series, in which we take the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry, space technology and planetary science community around the JUICE mission.

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) is a new ESA planetary exploration mission currently under construction and development at different sites across Europe. This is the second episode of a series, in which we take the viewer behind the scenes of the European space industry, space technology and planetary science community around the JUICE mission. 

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) is a new ESA planetary exploration mission currently under construction and development at different sites across Europe. Planned for launch in 2022 and arrival at Jupiter in 2029, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

(c) ESA / UNOOSA

The millions of fragments of debris in orbit today are the direct result of 'fragmentation events' in the past. Of the 550 events known to date, those caused by propulsion have created the greatest amount of space debris.

(c) ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

This spectacular dune field sits in the centre of Lomonosov crater, deep in the northern hemisphere of Mars (65ºN, 351ºE). It was imaged by the CaSSIS camera on the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 2 December, 2020. The image was taken as part of a campaign to track the evolution of the dune field throughout the year.

(c) NASA–Bill Stafford

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will serve as commander of the International Space Station towards the end of his second mission, called Alpha, currently slated to begin on 22 April this year. 

(c) ESA/GCP/UPV/EHU Bilbao

Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud

When spring arrives in southern Mars, a cloud of water ice emerges near the 20-kilometre-tall Arsia Mons volcano, rapidly stretching out for many hundreds of kilometres before fading away in mere hours.

Image sequences were captured between 20 October and 1 November 2018 and represent a daily cycle of the cloud.

Watch the replay of the virtual press event in which ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet talks about his upcoming ‘Alpha’ mission to the International Space Station.

(c) ESA/Hubble & NASA, V. Antoniou – Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

NGC 2336 is the quintessential galaxy — big, beautiful and blue — and it is captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The barred spiral galaxy stretches an immense 200 000 light-years across and is located approximately 100 million light years away in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe).

Paolo Ferri is past Spacecraft Operations Manager (SOM) for Rosetta and is now ESA's Head of Mission Operations at the European Space Operations Centre, ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany.

(c) ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team - Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC4826 — a spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). This galaxy is often referred to as the “Black Eye”, or “Evil Eye”, galaxy because of the dark band of dust that sweeps across one side of its bright nucleus.

NGC4826 is known by astronomers for its strange internal motion. The gas in the outer regions of this galaxy and the gas in its inner regions are rotating in opposite directions, which might be related to a recent merger. New stars are forming in the region where the counter rotating gases collide.>

(c) ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

This false colour image of Moni crater on Mars shows spectacular colour contrasts, which are representative of compositional differences and are visible thanks to CaSSIS's colour filters, the camera on board the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Along the rim of the crater, dark blue basaltic sand caps the lighter, cyan bedrock exposures (possibly low-calcium pyroxene). The yellowish material present in and around the crater is the characteristic martian iron oxide dust, which in true colour would look slightly reddish. On the walls of the crater small gullies that trap basaltic sand can be seen.

(c) Thales Alenia Space

ExoMars rover model testing science mode

The Rosalind Franklin ‘ground test model’ being commanded for the first time via the Rover Operations Control Centre, in Turin, Italy. The rover is situated on a tilt table and is pictured here with its drill box inclined. As part of recent system verification tests, the replica rover was commanded to deploy its drill with a dummy sample onboard, transporting it to the Analytical Laboratory Drawer.