ESA Science & Technology - News Archive

A series of formal presentations on the 6 medium-class candidate missions in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan was made to a large gathering of Europe's scientific community on 1 December.

A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of part of NGC 7023, or the Iris Nebula, highlights a perfect dust laboratory in the sky.

Herschel spectroscopy takes centre stage today as new spectra, obtained with the SPIRE, PACS and HIFI instruments during the performance verification phase, are released by ESA and the instrument teams.

Access to data from the ESA-NASA SOHO mission has just become easier with the launch of a new SOHO science archive with enhanced capabilities for searching and visualising the vast SOHO data archive.

A Herschel workshop will be held on 17 to 18 December 2009 to present the initial results of the on-going Herschel science demonstration phase (SDP). The workshop will take stock of results achieved to date with the Herschel SDP observations.

A new Hubble image of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4710 is part of a survey that has been conducted to learn more about the formation of bulges, which are a substantial component of most spiral galaxies.

Flight-model units for the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft are undergoing a series of tests to determine their magnetic characteristics. The purpose of the tests is to ensure that the stringent magnetic cleanliness requirements of the LISA Pathfinder mission will be met.

Several of Rosetta's instruments will take advantage of the Earth swingby on 13 November to obtain calibration measurements and perform science observations during a period of several days around closest approach

On 13 November 2009 Rosetta will swing by Earth passing within 2500 km of the surface. This is the last in a series of gravity assists to provide the spacecraft with the required orbital boost to set course for comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The stunning Jewel Box star cluster NGC 4755 is seen in a whole new light, with new images released by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the ESO Very Large Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope

Satellite operations for the CoRoT mission have been extended until 31 March 2013. The decision by the French Space Agency, CNES, and the mission partners, including ESA, was taken on 23 October at a specially convened meeting at the CNES Headquarters in Paris.

The Engineering Test Unit model of NIRSpec has been completed by the prime contractor, EADS Astrium, and is ready to be shipped to NASA for testing.

A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 2623 captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a dramatic collision between a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble our own Milky Way

ESA's SMART-1 team has released new images of the proposed impact site of NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), after the LCROSS team announced a new target last week

ESA's Science Programme Committee has approved the extension of mission operations for XMM-Newton, INTEGRAL, Planck, Venus Express, Mars Express and Cluster, as well as the ESA support to the operations of HST and SOHO

Images obtained during the performance verification phase demonstrate that the 'SPIRE/PACS parallel mode', an important observing mode for the observatory, is delivering the expected performance.

The PRODEX programme and its position within the ESA organisation were presented to the Greek scientific community at the Hellenic Astronomical Conference in Athens, held on 4 September 2009.

A newly released set of Hubble images highlights two galaxies in the Virgo Cluster affected by a process known as "ram pressure stripping", which can result in peculiar-looking galaxies.

The MARSIS radar sounder instrument on board Mars Express, designed to study the ionosphere, surface and sub-surface of Mars, can unexpectedly also double as a magnetometer

Preliminary results from the Planck First Light Survey indicate that the data quality is excellent. This bodes well for the full sky survey that has just begun.