Preparing for a more powerful space station, building a more fuel-efficient aircraft, and a way to possibly predict solar flares … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
Astronauts Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) will step outside the International Space Station for their first spacewalk to finish work preparing for solar array additions planned for this summer.
The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m. EST (1315 UTC) and will last up to seven hours.
Is there weather on the Moon? Yes, but not the weather you’re used to. The Sun’s solar wind is a type of “space weather” that can have a big impact on the Moon due to its lack of atmosphere. It can also affect all sorts of things like satellites, electronics and communications. Better understanding how space weather interacts with the Moon will be critical as we send #Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface. https://go.nasa.gov/3WmUB69
Producers: Jessica Wilde, Scott Bednar Editor: James Lucas
These are termed “tidal disruption events.” But the wording belies the complex, raw violence of a black hole encounter. There is a balance between the black hole’s gravity pulling in star stuff, and radiation blowing material out. In other words, black holes are messy eaters. Astronomers are using Hubble to find out the details of what happens when a wayward star plunges into the gravitational abyss.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
This video takes the viewer on a journey to NGC 346, one of the most dynamic star-forming regions in nearby galaxies, as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
NCG 346 is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way.
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, ESO, ESA/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey 2, A. Nota, N. Bartmann, M. Zamani Music: Music for the Zoom: Tonelabs – The Red North
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Separating the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus strait is one of the busiest maritime passages in the world, with around 48 000 ships passing through every year. Daily traffic includes international commercial shipping vessels and oil tankers, as well as local fishing and ferries.
The two identical Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites carry radar instruments, which can see through clouds and rain, and in the dark, to image Earth’s surface below. The multi-temporal remote sensing technique combines two or more radar images over the same area to detect changes occurring between acquisitions.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Continuing a collaboration in space exploration, space station research heads back to Earth, and highlighting new science from NASA missions … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
Researchers have confirmed the presence of an exoplanet, a planet that orbits another star, using James Webb Space Telescope for the first time. Formally classified as LHS 475 b, the planet is almost exactly the same size as our own, clocking in at 99% of Earth’s diameter.
Among all operating telescopes, only Webb is capable of characterising the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. The team attempted to assess what is in the planet’s atmosphere by analysing its transmission spectrum. Although the data show that this is an Earth-sized terrestrial planet, they do not yet know if it has an atmosphere.
Webb also revealed that the planet is a few hundred degrees warmer than Earth, so if clouds are detected it may lead the researchers to conclude that the planet is more like Venus, which has a carbon dioxide atmosphere and is perpetually shrouded in thick cloud.
📹 @EuropeanSpaceAgency 🖥️ @NASA , ESA, @canadianspaceagency , L. Hustak
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
At the start of 2023 the European Space Agency ESA is happily looking forward to another year filled with a host of thrilling new missions, cutting edge science and the continued effort to guarantee independent access to space for Europe. We will see the first images of the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite, the launch of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, and of Euclid and another Sentinel-1 satellite launch. It will also be the year of Ariane 6 which will make its inaugural flight and the first Dane in space, Andreas Mogensen will return to the ISS as the new astronaut-candidates commence their training. Near the end of the year the second Space Summit will further cement ESA’s ambitions for Space in Europe.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Just think about the amount of food and water that a crew of astronauts would need to go all the way to Mars, as well as all the mental, physiological, and, most importantly, radiation risk challenges. How about we avoid all of those issues by putting the astronauts to sleep?
The main problem is that humans don’t hibernate. Astronauts would have to take a drug to induce hibernation and enter sleeping pods, quiet environments with low lights, high humidity, kept at temperatures below 10°C.
Hibernation not only promises to benefit astronauts in space, but it may also offer new potential applications for patient care on Earth.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Global sea levels are rising as a result of human-caused global warming, with recent rates being unprecedented over the past 2,500-plus years. NASA JPL’s sea level rise expert Ben Hamlington explains how our warming planet is causing sea levels to rise.
Nicaragua is the largest republic in Central America and is often referred to as ‘the country of lakes and volcanoes’ because of its many lakes, lagoons and a string of some 40 volcanoes stretching northwest to southeast along the Pacific coast.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
The Orion spacecraft is back in Florida after Artemis I, a direct deposit on Mars, and an insightful mission comes to an end. These are a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
The Purposeful Passengers consist of one manikin and two phantoms that flew aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission in order to collect important data that will prepare astronauts for future Artemis missions.
The manikin was used to study vibrations and accelerations during the flight and was named Commander Moonikin Campos after NASA held a public naming contest in June 2021. The name “Campos” is a dedication to Arturo Campos, a Mexican-American electrical engineer who worked for NASA’s Johnson Space Center and contributed to the rescue of the Apollo 13 mission and crew.
Two of the most distant galaxies seen to date have been captured by Webb in the outer regions of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744. The galaxies are not inside the cluster, but many billions of light-years behind it.
One of the galaxies existed only 450 million years after the Big Bang while the other one existed 350 million years after the Big Bang.
Both galaxies are seen really close in time to the Big Bang which occurred 13.8 billion years ago.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Why is Venus called Earth’s evil twin? The two planets actually have a lot in common, but somewhere along the way Venus and Earth took two very different paths. NASA Director of Planetary Science, Dr. Lori Glaze, explains how Venus became a hot, hellish, and unforgiving place.
Recently, Andreas Mogensen, now getting ready for his ‘Huginn’ mission to the ISS in 2023, stopped by ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, to meet with some of the experts who keep our satellites flying.
Andreas usually works at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as an ISS ‘capcom’, and we don’t often see him in Europe. A few months back, while returning to Germany for some training at ESA’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne, we seized the opportunity to ask him if he’d like to stop over in Darmstadt for a look behind the scenes at mission control, and he immediately answered, ‘yes’!
Andreas’ studied aeronautical engineering with a focus on ‘guidance, navigation and control of spacecraft’ and we thought he’d be delighted to meet with the teams at mission control doing precisely that sort of work for our robotic missions.
We figured he’d also enjoy meeting colleagues from our Space Safety programme, especially the ones working on space debris and space weather, as these are crucial areas that influence the daily life of astronauts on the ISS.
Andreas met with Bruno Sousa and Julia Schwartz, who help keep Solar Orbiter healthy and on track on its mission to gather the closest-ever images of the Sun, observe the solar wind and our Star’s polar regions, helping unravel the mysteries of the solar cycle.
He also met with Stijn Lemmens, one of the analysts keeping tabs on the space debris situation in orbit, and Melanie Heil, a scientist helping ESA understand how space weather and our active Sun can affect missions in orbit and crucial infrastructure – like power grids – on ground.
We hope you enjoy this lively and informative day at mission control as much as Andreas and the teams at ESOC did!
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
With this Timelapse captured from the ISS by our astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the entire ESA family wants to wish you a peaceful, safe and exciting year 2023!
May the new year be full of grand adventures and opportunities!
We’ll keep bringing the wonders of the universe and Earth to the palm of your hands 😉
📹 @EuropeanSpaceAgency / @NASA – S. Cristoforetti
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
It’s New Year’s Eve day and our Earth from Space hosts, Chiara and Jorge, share some traditions of their home countries.
In Italy, people eat lentils on the last dinner of the year to bring good fortune and in Spain people eat one grape with each chime of the clock at midnight making a wish.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
2022 was a year of many ‘firsts’ for space in Europe, seeing the first European female International Space Station commander, the launch of the first Vega-C rocket, the launch of the first Artemis mission working to bring humans back to the Moon, and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope among many other success stories and lessons learned.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Is there life on Mars? No, we have never discovered life on the Red Planet, but we have found lots of evidence that suggests Mars could have once supported life in its ancient past. There’s even a chance that Mars could be habitable beneath its surface. NASA astrobiologist Heather Graham explains more.
Three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion were captured in a single snapshot by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The progenitor star exploded more than 11 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than a fifth of its current age of 13.8 billion years.
📹 @EuropeanSpaceAgency
📸 @NASA, ESA, STScI, Wenlei Chen (UMN), Patrick Kelly (UMN), Hubble Frontier Fields
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
As Mars orbits around our Sun, time on the Red Planet is measured in years. However, there are some significant differences between a year on Mars and a year on Earth. Let’s look at some similarities and differences between a year on the two planets.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
The hopes of a new generation of astronomers were riding in the nosecone of the ESA-provided Ariane 5 rocket that had just disappeared into the clouds above Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
One year after this historic launch, Webb has already delivered groundbreaking data and breathtaking images. Here are the top 5 images for our Instagram community.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
In Rovaniemi, the Arctic Circle runs through Santa Claus Village, located eight kilometres north of the city centre. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude where the sun can stay continuously below or above the horizon for 24 hours – these phenomena are known as the Midnight Sun in the summer and the Polar Night in the winter.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
In 2022, we launched our mega Moon rocket for the first time – sending the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon, we kicked off a new era in astronomy with record-breaking new imagery from the Webb Space Telescope, we moved an asteroid in humanity’s first ever planetary defense demonstration and much more. Here’s a look back at those and other things we did, this year @NASA!
While Webb and other space telescopes, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, have previously revealed isolated ingredients of this heated planet’s atmosphere, the new readings provide a full menu of atoms, molecules, and even signs of active chemistry and clouds. The latest data also give a hint of how these clouds might look up close: broken up rather than as a single, uniform blanket over the planet.
📹 @EuropeanSpaceAgency
📸 @NASA, ESA, @canadianspaceagency , J. Olmsted (STS)
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio are conducting a spacewalk on Thursday, Dec. 22, to install new rollout solar arrays to upgrade the station’s power system. This spacewalk is the second of a pair this month to install the solar arrays and is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 UTC), when the astronauts switch on their spacesuit battery packs. The spacewalk is expected to last about seven hours. Rubio (wearing the suit with red stripes) and Cassada (wearing the unmarked suit) are part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission, which arrived at the station on Oct. 6, 2022. This is the third spacewalk for both astronauts.
The spacewalk originally scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 21, was postponed when the International Space Station conducted a Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver at 8:42 a.m. EST. The decision to conduct the maneuver was based on tracking data that showed a close approach to station of a fragment of Russian Fregat-SB upper stage debris. The crew was never in any immediate danger.
What happens to old satellites? Currently, they either burn up safely upon reentry into the atmosphere or they remain in space. But NASA is working on new technology that could make spaceflight more sustainable by refueling or upgrading satellites in space, greatly expanding their lifespans.
Here’s more about the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) Mission: https://go.nasa.gov/3FtsBHV
Producers: Jessica Wilde, Scott Bednar Editor: Matthew Schara
Our alien friend Paxi went to visit ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on board the International Space Station during his Alpha mission. Thomas explains the difference between natural satellites – moons orbiting planets – and artificial satellites – human-made machines orbiting a space object.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
2022 was a year of many ‘firsts’ for space in Europe, seeing the first European female ISS commander, the launch of the first Vega-C rocket, Solar Orbiter’s first close encounter with our home star, the launch of the first Artemis mission working to bring humans back to the Moon, and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Let’s take a look at the highlights and accomplishments of the European Space Agency during 2022.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
On Dec. 7, 1972, NASA astronauts Harrison Schmitt, Eugene Cernan, and Ronald Evans lifted off on Apollo 17—the final mission of the Apollo program. Cernan and Schmitt landed on the Moon on Dec. 11, spending three days on the lunar surface before rejoining Evans in orbit and returning to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 19.
Apollo 17 was the most recent mission to land humans on the Moon—and our next one isn’t far away. As our Artemis missions prepare to return humans to the Moon and build a sustainable lunar presence, join us for a look back at Apollo 17.
Italy has declared a state of emergency after a devastating landslide ripped through the island of Ischia on 26 November. More than 10 people have lost their lives after the landslide destroyed houses and swept cars into the sea. Satellite data shows the extent of the damage and the Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been activated to provide flood maps from space to help responders deal with the crisis.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
In this week’s edition of the Earth from Space video programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Watch with NASA as we launch an international mission to understand the Earth’s water like never before.
SWOT, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, will survey nearly all water on the Earth’s surface for the first time. Tracking how water levels rise and fall over time, SWOT will study ocean features at ten times the resolution of current technologies and measure more than a million lakes and rivers around the globe.
The observations we make with SWOT will help scientists improve flood forecasts, build better models for monitoring droughts, and make more precise predictions for rising sea levels. SWOT is a collaborative effort by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency.
SWOT is scheduled to lift off at 6:46 a.m. EST (1146 UTC) Friday, Dec. 16 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. NASA’s live launch coverage begins at 6 a.m. (1100 UTC).
Our alien friend Paxi went to visit ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on board the International Space Station during his Alpha mission. Thomas explains microorganisms on Earth and in space.
We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Where did our Moon come from? Over the years, there have been several theories, but most scientists think it’s likely that a Mars-sized object smashed into Earth, creating what we now see in the sky.
The first Meteosat Third Generation Imager (MTG-I1) satellite lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 13 December at 21:30 CET.
From geostationary orbit, 36,000 km above the equator, this all-new weather satellite will provide state-of-the art observations of Earth’s atmosphere and realtime monitoring of lightning events, taking weather forecasting to the next level. The satellite carries two completely new instruments: Europe’s first Lightning Imager and a Flexible Combined Imager.
MTG-I1 is the first of six satellites that form the full MTG system, which will provide critical data for weather forecasting over the next 20 years. In full operations, the mission will comprise two MTG-I satellites and one MTG Sounding (MTG-S) satellites working in tandem.
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We are Europe’s gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.