News archive

News archive

Timing is critical as launch windows approach
There will be greater tension than usual among engineers and scientists at Europe's spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, in January 2003, as they gather to see ESA's comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta departing on its long journey. If it is to keep its rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen in 2012, Rosetta must lift off on its Ariane-5 launcher no sooner than 03:40 CET on 13 January 2003 and no later than the end of that month.
Published: 5 September 2002
No place for life to hide from Mars Express
Of all missions sent to Mars only one, the Viking 26 years ago, has dared to search for life. Its only conclusive result was that finding proof of extraterrestrial life proved to be much harder than expected. Second attempts never followed. Until now. ESA's Mars Express, the next mission to the Red Planet and the first European one, has an ambitious goal. To be launched in 2003, Mars Express will be the first spacecraft after Viking to search for direct and indirect evidence for past or present life on Mars. This time, scientists are equipped with more knowledge and insight in how to detect Martian life. The chances of success look very good.
Published: 3 September 2002
No rest on the way to the most mysterious of Saturn's moons
After an adventurous 7-year long tour among the planets, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will arrive at Saturn in July 2004. Once there, Cassini will parachute the Huygens probe to Saturn's biggest satellite, Titan. Titan is thought to have an atmosphere similar to the primitive Earth. However, both the probe and the Cassini-Huygens team are not in idle state until 2004. They have plenty of things to keep them busy.
Published: 28 August 2002
Stamp of approval for ESA at AMPHILEX 2002
In the same way as you had the great explorers of the past, ESA's pioneering activities in space make it today's new pioneer. To celebrate this European spirit of adventure, which goes back centuries, ESA is there at this year's international philatelic fair, AMPHILEX 2002. Its large stand will carry the banner 'Discovering The New Frontier'.
Published: 26 August 2002
ESA studies the Sun-Earth climate link
Meteorologists can no longer view the Earth as an isolated system. Both long-term climate changes and day-to-day weather show links with the Sun's activity. Scientists therefore study the nature of those links intensely. With data from ESA's spaceprobes SOHO, Cluster, and Ulysses, we now have the information we need to solve the mystery of how the Sun's activity affects the climate here on Earth. This study is the first step in setting up a new type of weather forecast - the space-weather bulletin.
Published: 23 August 2002
Linking the Earth's climate with the Sun
Published: 23 August 2002
ESA INFO 7-2002: Ferrari red paint competes for an extraordinary qualification
Ferrari has recently faced some tough challenges on the racetrack, but achieving the qualifications that will allow its famous red paint 'Rosso Corsa' to go into space is another story altogether.
Published: 20 August 2002
Landing on a cosmic iceberg.
Landings on other worlds are remarkably difficult to achieve. During the last 40 years, the only objects in the Solar System on which robotic spacecraft have soft-landed have been the Moon, Venus, Mars and near-Earth asteroid Eros. A decade from now, it will be the turn of ESA's pioneering Rosetta spacecraft to land on a comet.
Published: 20 August 2002
SOHO discovers 500th new comet
On Monday 12 August 2002, about 16:05 UT, ESA's SOHO spacecraft spotted its 500th comet as the comet passed close to the Sun.It seems a little strange that SOHO, designed to examine the Sun, should turn out to be the most productive comet finder in the history of astronomy, and by a very wide margin. We interviewed ESA's project scientist for SOHO, Bernhard Fleck, about that.
Published: 15 August 2002
Starquakes reveal stellar secrets
Looking into the interior of the Earth or the Sun is a bit similar to examining a baby in its mother's womb using an ultrasound scan. Light cannot penetrate the area, so we make pictures in these cases using sound waves, which human ears cannot hear. With SOHO, ESA has probed deeply into the Sun using the sound-waves principle, and with great success. The future missions, Solar Orbiter and Eddington, will look inside our Sun and other stars, respectively, in a similar way.
Published: 14 August 2002
Stay up late on Monday for a shooting-stars spectacle
A fantastic, free light show is coming your way very early on Tuesday morning (13 August 2002) in the form of the Perseid meteor shower. This impressive set of shooting stars appears in the skies every August. First recorded as long ago as 36 AD, it is also known as 'the tears of St. Lawrence' after the Roman martyr. This year represents one of your best opportunities to see this phenomenon with the naked eye, with a shooting star appearing every minute until about 03.00 CET on Tuesday morning. The Moon will be only partly visible on Monday night so a dark sky is assured. This makes viewing even easier as long as it is a clear night.
Published: 9 August 2002
One small step ... but only on an hospitable planet!
Around the world, there is renewed interest in sending a manned mission to other planets in our Solar System. What conditions await future astronauts? Space science provides many clues. Before leaving Earth, scientists want to use robotic spacecraft to find out more about the conditions that human travellers will face once they reach some far-off destination. A flotilla of planetary exploration missions is already providing us with invaluable scientific data about other worlds.
Published: 8 August 2002
No bugs please, this is a clean planet!
When packing for a trip towards another planet, there are some things, such as microorganisms, that you do not want to include in your 'luggage'. For example, what if extraterrestial life is finally detected on Mars, and scientists realise afterwards that such life is actually terrestrial?
Published: 30 July 2002
Violent days on the Sun
On Tuesday 23 July 2002 space scientists recorded the largest of four powerful solar flares, all occurring in the space of just eight days.
Published: 26 July 2002
ESA PR 52-2002 A little bit of Ferrari takes off to the Red Planet!
What is the fastest Ferrari's distinctive red paint has ever travelled? Next year it will be 10800 km/h! Mars Express, to be launched in May/June 2003, the first European spacecraft to visit the Red Planet, will be speeding on its way accompanied by the very essence of Ferrari: a sample of its distinctive red paint.
Published: 21 July 2002
A glimpse into the heart of a dying star [heic0209]
An image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows one of the most unusually long planetary nebulae found so far. Scientists think planetary nebulae hold the key to understanding how the Universe became enriched with heavier elements so they study them intensively. It is not well-understood how a perfectly round star can turn into such an unusual-looking nebula.
Published: 18 July 2002
Rosetta passes compatibility test
Students approaching the conclusion of lengthy academic studies will have considerable sympathy with ESA's Rosetta spacecraft as the end-of-course examinations just keep on coming!
Published: 17 July 2002
Venus Express comes into Cosmic Vision
On 11 July 2002, Europe took a step closer to Venus. The ESA Science Programme Committee agreed unanimously to start work on Venus Express. Venus Express will reuse the Mars Express spacecraft design and needs to be ready for launch in 2005.
Published: 15 July 2002
Space delivers the Philosopher's Stone
For centuries, alchemists searched for the Philosopher's Stone - said to turn base metals into gold and hold the secret of eternal life. However, alchemists did not have much success in their quest. Creating an element like gold is an amazing achievement that requires enormous amounts of energy and extreme conditions - like those provided by massive exploding stars in supernovae explosions.
Published: 11 July 2002
Is the Universe older than expected?
An analysis of 13.5 thousand million-year-old X-rays, captured by ESA's XMM-Newton satellite, has shown that either the Universe may be older than astronomers had thought or that mysterious, undiscovered 'iron factories' litter the early Universe.
Published: 9 July 2002
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