ESA Science & Technology - Science & Technology
Latest News
Latest News
Euclid's optical and infrared instruments integrated in spacecraft
The optical and infrared instruments of Euclid, ESA's mission to study dark energy and dark matter in space, have passed their qualification and acceptance reviews and are now fully integrated into the spacecraft's payload module.
Solar Orbiter: turning pictures into physics
Solar Orbiter's latest results show that the mission is making the first direct connections between events at the solar surface and what's happening in interplanetary space around the spacecraft. It is also giving us new insights into solar 'campfires', space weather and disintegrating comets.
Hubble identifies strange exoplanet that behaves like the long-sought "Planet Nine" [heic2021]
The 11-Jupiter-mass exoplanet called HD 106906 b occupies an unlikely orbit around a double star 336 light-years away and it may be offering clues to something that might be much closer to home: a hypothesized distant member of our Solar System dubbed "Planet Nine."
Gaia's new data takes us to the Milky Way's anticentre and beyond
The motion of stars in the outskirts of our galaxy hints at significant changes in the history of the Milky Way. This and other equally fascinating results come from a set of papers that demonstrate the quality of ESA's Gaia Early third Data Release (EDR3), which is made public today.
Hubble captures fading of the Stingray Nebula [heic2020]
Astronomers have caught a rare glimpse of a rapidly fading shroud of gas around an aging star. Archival data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the nebula Hen 3-1357, nicknamed the Stingray nebula, has faded precipitously over just the past two decades.
SOHO's pioneering 25 years in orbit
The ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is celebrating its twenty-fifth launch anniversary.
Latest Announcements
Latest Announcements
SPICA no longer candidate for ESA's M5 mission selection
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS/JAXA) have announced their decision to no longer consider the infrared space observatory, SPICA, as a candidate for the upcoming selection as ESA's 5th medium-class mission in its Cosmic Vision...
Extended operations confirmed for science missions
ESA's Science Programme Committee has confirmed the continued operations of five missions led by ESA's Science Programme: Cluster, Gaia, INTEGRAL, Mars Express, and XMM-Newton, from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022. The SPC also confirmed the Science Programme's contributions to the extended operations of Hinode, Hubble Space Telescope,...
CHEOPS Discretionary Programme is now open
Proposals are invited for the CHEOPS Discretionary Programme, an element of the Guest Observers Programme which enables scientists to propose observations of individual targets that have been discovered, or declared to be of high scientific merit, since the close of AO-1 back in mid-May 2019.
Watch online
Watch online
Replay: Solar Orbiter first image release
Watch a replay of the press briefing from 16 July with Solar Orbiter mission experts, who presented the unique first images from ESA's new Sun-observing spacecraft.
Spotlight on
Spotlight on
Bepi in the sky with stars: photo contest winners announced
These are the winning entries in the photo competition for amateur astronomers who captured the unique event of the European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft's flyby of Earth.
Spacecraft Testing
Spacecraft Testing
#7: All panels delivered for JUICE's solar wings
All ten flight model solar panels for ESA's JUICE spacecraft have been delivered to Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands ready to be integrated into solar wings. The solar panels, with a total area of 85 m², are a key element of the mission, providing the necessary power to run the spacecraft and operate the science instruments.
#6: Start of assembly and integration for JUICE
Despite certain operational difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the assembly and integration of the flight model for ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft has continued with few delays during the first six months of the year.
#1: Euclid completes thermal-vacuum balance tests
This is the first entry in the Euclid Test Campaign Journal, a series of articles covering the main events during testing of the Structural and Thermal Model (STM) and Flight Model (FM) of the spacecraft.
