ESA Science & Technology - News Archive
News archive
News archive
*Please note this event has been postponed until October. Revised details will be provided nearer the time*
Published: 14 May 2018
The spacecraft of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury have arrived safely at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, marking the start of six months of preparation to ready the craft for launch.
Published: 11 May 2018
A high-energy survey of the early Universe, an infrared observatory to study the formation of stars, planets and galaxies, and a Venus orbiter are to be considered for ESA's fifth medium class mission in its Cosmic Vision science programme, with a planned launch date in 2032.
Published: 7 May 2018
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have detected helium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-107b. This is the first time this element has been detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside the Solar System.
Published: 2 May 2018
ESA's Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy.
Published: 25 April 2018
Gaia's first data release was not designed to be a full database with which major scientific discoveries could be made. Instead it was foreseen much more as a set of test data that astronomers could practice on and get ready for the second release from ESA's billion-star surveyor – the one that would feature a billion parallaxes and proper...
Published: 20 April 2018
The first data release of ESA's Gaia satellite provided a surprising number of scientific results. Yet it is nothing but a tease for what is expected from the second data release, scheduled for 25 April.
Published: 20 April 2018
This colourful cloud of glowing interstellar gas is just a tiny part of the Lagoon Nebula, a vast stellar nursery. This nebula is a region full of intense activity, with fierce winds from hot stars, swirling chimneys of gas, and energetic star formation all embedded within a hazy labyrinth of gas and dust.
Published: 19 April 2018
Media representatives are invited to a briefing on the second data release of ESA's Gaia mission, an astrometry mission to map more than one billion stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way. The media briefing is being organised by ESA at the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show in Germany, on Wednesday 25 April 2018.
Published: 19 April 2018
Astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory have probed the gas-filled haloes around galaxies in a quest to find 'missing' matter thought to reside there, but have come up empty-handed – so where is it?
Published: 18 April 2018
The purpose of this Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is to solicit proposals for Community Scientists in the PLATO mission. This AO is open to scientists affiliated with institutes located in ESA Member States. Letters of Intent are due 26 April 2018, 12:00 (noon) CEST. The deadline for proposals is 23 May 2018, 12:00 (noon) CEST.
Published: 11 April 2018
This 4th Announcement of Opportunity, open to scientists affiliated with institutes located in ESA Member States, solicits proposals for participation as Science Planners in the NASA-led IRIS mission. The deadline for proposals has passed.
Published: 9 April 2018
As astronomers worldwide are preparing to explore the second data release of ESA's Gaia satellite, the Data Processing and Analysing Consortium announced just how many sources will be included in the new catalogue, which will be made public on 25 April.
Published: 5 April 2018
While charting the positions of more than a billion stars, ESA's Gaia mission provides all-important information even about the dark patches of the sky where fewer stars are observed. These images, based on Gaia's first data release, are an appetizer to the astronomical riches that will be unleashed with the mission's second release on 25 April.
Published: 3 April 2018
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found the most distant star ever discovered. The hot blue star existed only 4.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This discovery provides new insight into the formation and evolution of stars in the early Universe, the constituents of galaxy clusters and also on the nature of dark matter.
Published: 2 April 2018
A colourful design capturing the essence of ESA's CHEOPS mission, which will measure the size of planets as they cross in front of their parent stars, has been selected for the rocket carrying the satellite into space.
Published: 29 March 2018
An international team of researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories have, for the first time, uncovered a galaxy in our cosmic neighbourhood that is missing most – if not all – of its dark matter.
Published: 28 March 2018
The James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing final integration and testing that will require more time to ensure a successful mission. Following a new assessment of the remaining tasks on the highly complex space observatory, the launch window is now targeted for about May 2020.
Published: 27 March 2018
Meet ESASky, a discovery portal that provides full access to the entire sky. This open-science application allows computer, tablet and mobile users to visualise cosmic objects near and far across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Published: 22 March 2018
Last month, ESA's Gaia satellite experienced a technical anomaly followed by a 'safe mode' event. After thorough examination, the spacecraft was successfully recovered and resumed normal scientific operations, while the mission team keeps investigating the exact cause of the anomaly.
Published: 21 March 2018
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