News archive

News archive

After a decade-long journey chasing its target, ESA's Rosetta has today become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration.
Published: 6 August 2014
On 6 August, after a decade-long journey through space, ESA’s Rosetta will become the first spacecraft in history to rendezvous with a comet. Follow the event marking this momentous occasion at ESA's Spacecraft Operations Centre at Darmstadt, Germany.
Published: 4 August 2014
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has made its first temperature measurements of its target comet, finding that it is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.
Published: 1 August 2014
With the incredible images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's nucleus grabbing most of the attention over the last few weeks, we shouldn't forget about the comet's coma.
Published: 31 July 2014
Following extensive in-orbit commissioning and several unexpected challenges, ESA's billion-star surveyor, Gaia, is now ready to begin its science mission.
Published: 29 July 2014
ESA's Venus Express spacecraft has climbed to a new orbit following its daring aerobraking experiment, and will now resume observations of this fascinating planet for at least a few more months.
Published: 28 July 2014
In this week's images, taken on 20 July from a distance of 5500 km, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's largest features are beginning to stand out in the OSIRIS narrow angle camera view.
Published: 24 July 2014
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have mapped the mass within a galaxy cluster more precisely than ever before. Created using observations from Hubble's Frontier Fields observing programme, the map shows the amount and distribution of mass within MCS J0416.1-2403, a massive galaxy cluster.
Published: 24 July 2014
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have probed the extreme outskirts of the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. The galaxy's halo of stars has been found to extend much further from the galaxy's centre than expected and the stars within this halo seem to be surprisingly rich in heavy elements.
Published: 21 July 2014
This week's images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko reveal an extraordinarily irregular shape. We had hints of that in last week's images and in the unscheduled previews that were seen a few days ago, and in that short time it has become clear that this is no ordinary comet.
Published: 17 July 2014
A new analysis of data from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has revealed that comet 2012/S1 (ISON) stopped producing dust and gas shortly before it raced past the Sun and disintegrated.
Published: 16 July 2014
ESA’s first small Science Programme mission is ready for construction. The implementation phase has started, meaning that the spacecraft has gone from selection to implementation in less than 18 months.
Published: 11 July 2014
After a month surfing in and out of the atmosphere of Venus down to just 130 km from the planet's surface, ESA's Venus Express is about to embark on a 15 day climb up to the lofty heights of 460 km.
Published: 11 July 2014
ESA's XMM-Newton observatory has helped to uncover how the Universe's first stars ended their lives in giant explosions.
Published: 11 July 2014
The Universe is filled with objects springing to life, evolving and dying explosive deaths. This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a snapshot of some of this cosmic movement.
Published: 10 July 2014
What a difference a week can make. Even in the six days since the last image, the shape of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is becoming much more apparent, although still heavily pixelated.
Published: 10 July 2014
Rosetta's scientific imaging system OSIRIS is slowly but surely resolving comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in its narrow angle camera (NAC), giving the first tantalising hints of its shape.
Published: 3 July 2014
The scientific community is invited to submit proposals for participation to the Cassini-Huygens mission through the Participating Scientists (PS) programme. This Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is issued jointly by ESA, NASA, and ASI. A brief statement of work is due on 28 July 2014; the full proposal is due on 26 September 2014.
Published: 1 July 2014
Astronomers using ESA's Herschel space observatory to probe the turbulent beginnings of a Sun-like star have found evidence of mighty stellar winds that could solve a puzzling meteorite mystery in our own back yard.
Published: 1 July 2014
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has found that comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is releasing the equivalent of two small glasses of water into space every second, even at a cold 583 million kilometres from the Sun.
Published: 30 June 2014
29-Mar-2024 04:44 UT

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