News archive

News archive

Rosetta fuelled for the journey of a lifetime
Just as motor vehicles need fuelling before long journeys, so spacecraft require full tanks before they set off to visit other worlds. But whereas a typical car may carry 40 or 50 litres of petrol and then be refuelled after travelling a few hundred kilometres, there are no filling stations in space.
Published: 17 December 2002
First light for Europe's virtual observatory
Imagine you are an astronomer with instant, fingertip access to all existing observations of a given object and the opportunity to sift through them at will. In just a few moments, you can have information on all kinds about objects out of catalogues all over the world, including observations taken at different times.
Published: 16 December 2002
Announcement of Opportunity for the Venus Express mission
Announcement of Opportunity for the selection of Co-Investigators for the PFS and VIRTIS experiments to be flown on the Venus Express mission.
Published: 12 December 2002
ESA PR 79-2002 ESA presents Integral's first images
Integral, the European Space Agency's gamma-ray satellite, has taken its first images and collected its first scientific data. These 'first-light' images confirm that Integral is working superbly. Everyone involved with the project is highly satisfied with its performance so far.
Published: 10 December 2002
Beagle 2 delivery for integration on Mars Express
The Mars Express prime contractor and the Mars Express ESA Project Manager have agreed the final delivery date for the Beagle 2 Mars lander with the Beagle team.
Published: 9 December 2002
Rosetta disk goes back to the future
What have a comet-chasing spacecraft, a 2200-year-old volcanic rock and a global language archive got in common? The answer: not only are all of themnamed 'Rosetta', but all three offer a bridge through time, creating anenduring link across the millennia.
Published: 3 December 2002
SOHO and the 2002 total eclipse
On 4 December 2002, the Moon will pass in front of our Sun, giving us a total solar eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes between the Sun and the observer. This happens when the shadow cone of the Moon intersects the surface of the Earth, and is observable by anyone within this shadow zone.
Published: 3 December 2002
When more data can mean more fun
When more data can mean more fun
Published: 3 December 2002
When more data can mean more fun
Tomorrow's spacecraft will be capable of generating more data than they can transmit to Earth. In some cases, this could be more data than can even be comfortably handled by today's computational methods. What benefits are there for us in this flood of data?
Published: 2 December 2002
No shortage of mysteries on Venus
What kind of mysteries and scientific intrigue await the European Space Agency's Venus Express once it has left Earth for its nearest planetary neighbour in 2005? A closer inspection promises to reveal a planet that is hugely different from our own despite a few similarities.
Published: 27 November 2002
Driving force behind Mars Express
The Ferrari Red Paint will not be the only thing breaking all speed records when it hurtles towards the Red Planet on-board the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003. The spacecraft itself has already broken some speed records of its own. Mars Express is the fastest-built satellite of its type in the history of space engineering.
Published: 21 November 2002
Review Board gives green light for Rosetta
With less than two months to launch, ESA's Rosetta comet chaser is undergoing final preparations at Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Confidence is high after the green light was given by the Rosetta Mission Flight Readiness Review Board on 13 November 2002.
Published: 20 November 2002
Missing link found between supernovae and black holes [heic0211]
A nearby black hole, hurtling like a cannonball through the plane of our Milky Way, has provided possibly the best evidence yet that stellar-mass black holes are made in supernova explosions. This black hole is streaking across space at a rate of 400 000 kilometres per hour - 4 times faster than the average velocity of the stars in the galactic neighbourhood. What has made it move so fast? The most likely 'cannon' is the explosive kick of a supernova, one of the Universe's most titanic events.
Published: 17 November 2002
Moon slips into Earth's shadow
A full moon at night is a joyful sight. As you gaze skywards tonight, however, the Moon is going to look even more interesting than usual. Have a look and see for yourself! Tonight there will be a so-called penumbral eclipse, as the Moon slips into the Earth's shadow. Although not as dramatic as a total eclipse of the Moon, tonight's eclipse will be the clearest that we will see this year. It will be visible from Europe at 02:46 CET.
Published: 17 November 2002
ESA's shortcut to a comet
Night owls across Europe, get ready. On the night of 18-19 November 2002, you may see a spectacular sky show. As tiny particles in Comet 55/P Tempel-Tuttle's tail enter Earth's atmosphere, they will pierce through it, heating up, and finally explode. Welcome to one of the most spectacular natural fireworks displays of the year: a meteor shower called the Leonids.
Published: 13 November 2002
Set your own course for the stars
To get around, satellites sailing through space use the same tools that ancient mariners used to navigate the inhospitable oceans - the stars. ESA's SMART-1 mission will test special software that will soon allow spacecraft to calculate and adjust their course all by themselves.
Published: 11 November 2002
ESA PR 69-2002 XMM-Newton closes in on space's exotic matter
A fraction of a second after the Big Bang, all the primordial soup of matter in the Universe was 'broken' into its most fundamental constituents. It was thought to have disappeared forever. However scientists strongly suspect that the exotic soup of dissolved matter can still be found in today's Universe, in the core of certain very dense objects called neutron stars.
Published: 5 November 2002
No more doubts about ESA's Venus Express!
Yesterday, ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) gave the final go-ahead for the Venus Express mission. The SPC, which met on 4 and 5 November 2002, unanimously confirmed its strong will to bring the mission to realisation. Furthermore, the Committee endorsed and agreed on a solution to the financial issues that had still cast serious doubts on the mission.
Published: 5 November 2002
Everyone wants gamma-ray eyes!
Even before ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory was launched, astronomers were competing to win time to use this state-of-the-art observatory. The Integral Science Operations Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, received hundreds of excellent proposals. ESA expects Integral to revolutionise the way we think about the violent Universe. Understandably, everyone wants to play a part in that process.
Published: 28 October 2002
Success for Rosetta's transatlantic link
With less than three months to go before Rosetta lifts off from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, engineers from ESA, Alenia and Astrium are working feverishly to ensure that Europe's comet chaser meets its narrow launch window in January 2003.
Published: 28 October 2002
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