ESO Top News
Week in images: 13-17 May 2024
Week in images: 13-17 May 2024
Discover our week through the lens
What does EarthCARE mean to me?
A new satellite called EarthCARE launching later this month will provide unprecedented data on clouds and aerosols, contributing to our understanding of climate change. As we approach its launch, join us as we delve into the minds of some of the individuals who have contributed to EarthCARE over the years.
The mission will shed new light on the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth’s temperature.
This video features interviews with: Dave Donovan, Senior Scientist at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Robin Hogan, Senior Scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Ulla Wandinger, Senior Scientist at Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Alain Lefebvre, Retired Project Manager of EarthCARE at ESA, Hajime Okamoto, Director, Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Bjoern Frommknecht, EarthCARE Mission Manager at ESA, Edward Baudrez, Scientific Assistant at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Thorsten Fehr, EarthCARE Mission Scientist at ESA, Pavlos Kollias from Stony Brook University – McGill University and Dirk Bernaerts, EarthCARE Project Manager at ESA.
Follow the EarthCARE launch campaign blog for more updates.
Electromagnetic Levitator turns ten
This summer marks the ten-year anniversary of the electromagnetic levitation facility on the International Space Station.
Earth from Space: New Zealand’s North Island
EarthCARE mission kit
Explore this mission kit to learn more about EarthCARE – ESA’s new mission that will shed new light on the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth’s climate.
Canada’s wildfire season begins
Wildfire season has arrived in full force in Canada, prompting evacuation orders and alerts in several towns in British Columbia and Alberta due to the danger of uncontrolled blazes.
Hazardous smoke from the fires has also triggered air quality alerts in Canada and the northern US. Satellite technology, including the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite and ESA’s Fire Atlas, plays a crucial role in monitoring these wildfires.
Webb detects most distant black hole merger to date
An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to find evidence for an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.
SOHO’s view of the 11 May 2024 solar storm
Over the weekend of 10–12 May 2024, Earth was struck by the largest solar storm in more than a decade. While many of us enjoyed colourful auroras lighting up Earth’s protective atmosphere, spacecraft had to endure being buffeted by incredibly strong solar winds and electromagnetic radiation.
Positioned between the Sun and Earth, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) caught the entire solar outburst on camera. The Sun can be seen spewing out clouds of particles, with an extremely large burst sent to Earth on 11 May. The bright spots on the left and right are Jupiter and Venus.
This video was taken by SOHO’s LASCO instrument, a coronagraph made up of a telescope with a disc blocking the centre of view. By blocking out the direct light coming from the Sun, the instrument can see light from the surrounding corona.
SOHO is not the only ESA spacecraft studying solar activity and space weather. ESA’s Directorates of Science, Human and Robotic Exploration, Earth Observation, Operations, and Technology, Engineering and Quality all have missions and/or other activities directly connected with this topic. Together, they form the ESA Heliophysics observatory or more musically, ESA’s Heliophysics Orchestra.
A cosmic chronicle
Are you ready for the greatest story ever told? Launched in France on 25 April 2024, Space Odyssey is the first complete history of space in graphic novel form. Drawing on the latest scientific and historical sources, it tells the story of the men and women who pioneered humankind's journey into space.
The spacecraft control centre of the future
Week in images: 06-10 May 2024
Week in images: 06-10 May 2024
Discover our week through the lens
Earth from Space: Bolivian salt lakes
AI in Earth observation: a force for good
The upcoming launch of the Φsat-2 mission is a prime example of the pioneering work that ESA does in the field of AI in Earth observation.
But when it comes to AI, hopes and fears abound in equal measure. In this interview, ESA’s Rochelle Schneider sets the record straight on how this transformational technology is improving access to crucial information on the state and future of our planet.
Webb hints at atmosphere around rocky exoplanet
Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of a rocky planet atmosphere outside our Solar System.