The Solar Orbiter On Its Journey to the Sun

The Solar Orbiter project, a collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, has begun a critical new stage of the mission after the probe's first close encounter with the Sun.

The Cheops space telescope is ready to study exoplanets

Cheops (Characterising Exoplanet Satellite), the satellite for the study of the exoplanets of the European Space Agency (Esa), has passed the exams and now it is ready to go to work. 

BepiColombo mission is heading to Mercury

Scientists are still preparing for the crucial fly-by of Earth by the joint European–Japanese BepiColombo mission to Mercury on 10 April, despite COVID-19 quarantine.

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter launched

A NASA-supplied Atlas 5 rocket launched the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft 9 February, kicking off an innovative mission to study the Sun in unprecedented detail, complementing close-in observations by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.

ESA's CHEOPS mission Just Launched Successfully

CHEOPS stands for the Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite. It’s a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, with 10 other EU states contributing. Its mission is not to find more exoplanets, but to study the ones we already know of.

New Study Suggests The Universe Is a Closed Sphere

Years of observational data, cosmological models and physics suggest the Universe is flat. However, a recent study suggests that the Universe is actually curved and closed, like an inflating sphere.

Europe is Working On a Reusable Space Transport System: Space Rider

The European Space Agency is developing its own reusable spacecraft. Space Rider will be an un-crewed vehicle with high-tech capabilities that will provide access to space for scientific and commercial enterprises.

Eating your veggies, even in space

Norwegian researchers are developing the self-contained planters that will allow astronauts to grow food in space. They have just completed an experiment that involved growing lettuce for space.

Gaia data reveals previously unseen ‘ghost’ galaxy near Milky Way

Scientists studying data from the ESA Gaia spacecraft have discovered a previously unknown dwarf galaxy lurking just outside the Milky Way, an extremely low-density swarm of stars two thirds the size of Earth’s galaxy.

The Milky Way Devoured Another Galaxy 10 Billion Years Ago

More precisely, the Milky Way collided with the second galaxy, absorbing many of its stars and spiraling out a chaotic tangle of stellar matter — birthing new stars and altering the orbits of others.

Ariane 5 launches two satellites on 7-year voyage to Mercury

The project is only the second, after NASA’s MESSENGER mission, to attempt putting a spacecraft into orbit around the solar system’s innermost planet and is one of the most technically challenging missions.

Matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light

Astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light, located in the center of the billion-light year distant galaxy PG211+143.

Martian Dust Storm as it was Just Getting Going

The ESA recently released stunning photos of a Martian storm front, which were acquired by the Mars Express orbiter in April of 2018.

Every Tiny Speck of Light in This Image Is a Galaxy

To help us grok the immensity of the cosmos, the European Space Agency has released a remarkable image of space in which every point is an entire galaxy.

1.7 billion suns in most detailed star catalogue ever

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft has produced the most accurate star catalogue ever assembled, including high-precision measurements of the brightness and positions of some 1.7 billion stars.