ESA News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Dark Matter in Dwarf Galaxy Tracked Using Stellar Motions

July 11, 2024 — The qualities and behavior of dark matter, the invisible 'glue' of the universe, continue to be shrouded in mystery. Though galaxies are mostly made of dark matter, understanding how it is distributed within a galaxy offers clues to what this ...

First of Its Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

June 24, 2024 — For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to directly image has been captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern ...

Guiding Humanity Beyond the Moon

June 20, 2024 — What actually happens to the human body in space? While scientists and researchers have heavily researched how various factors impact the human body here on Earth, the amount of information available about changes that occur in the body in space is ...

NASA's Webb Opens New Window on Supernova Science

June 10, 2024 — Peering deeply into the cosmos, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is giving scientists their first detailed glimpse of supernovae from a time when our universe was just a small fraction of its current age. A team using Webb data has identified 10 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:31pm EDT

Satellites to Monitor Marine Debris from Space

June 17, 2024 — Detecting marine debris from space is now a reality, according to a new study. Until now, the amount of litter -- mostly plastic -- on the sea surface was rarely high enough to generate a detectable ...

In a Significant First, Researchers Detect Water Frost on Solar System's Tallest Volcanoes

June 10, 2024 — An international team of planetary scientists has detected patches of water frost sitting atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars, which are not only the ...

Galactic Bloodlines: Many Nearby Star Clusters Originate from Only Three 'Families'

June 10, 2024 — Astronomers have deciphered the formation history of young star clusters, some of which we can see with the naked eye at night. The team reports that ...

Researchers Upend Theory About the Formation of the Milky Way Galaxy

June 6, 2024 — Research reveals a shocking discovery about the history of our universe: the Milky Way Galaxy's last major collision occurred billions of years later than previously ...

Planet-Forming Disks Around Very Low-Mass Stars Are Different

June 6, 2024 — Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers studied the properties of a planet-forming disk around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon ...

Mystery of 'Slow' Solar Wind Unveiled by Solar Orbiter Mission

May 28, 2024 — Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the ...

First Pictures from Euclid Satellite Reveal Billions of Orphan Stars

May 23, 2024 — The first scientific pictures from the Euclid satellite mission have revealed more than 1,500 billion orphan stars scattered throughout the Perseus cluster of ...

Iron Fingerprints in Nearby Active Galaxy

May 8, 2024 — After starting science operations in February, Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) studied the monster black hole at the center of galaxy NGC ...

Toward Unification of Turbulence Framework -- Weak-to-Strong Transition Discovered in Turbulence

Apr. 23, 2024 — Astrophysicists have made a significant step toward solving the last puzzle in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence theory by observing the weak to strong ...

Eruption of Mega-Magnetic Star Lights Up Nearby Galaxy

Apr. 24, 2024 — While ESA's satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays -- high-energy photons -- coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray ...

CHEOPS Detects a 'Rainbow' on an Exoplanet

Apr. 5, 2024 — The CHEOPS space telescope is providing new information on the mysterious exoplanet WASP-76b. This ultra-hot giant is characterized by an asymmetry between the amount of light observed on its eastern ...

NASA's Webb Probes an Extreme Starburst Galaxy

Apr. 3, 2024 — A team of astronomers has used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to survey the starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82). Located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, this galaxy ...

'Cosmic Cannibals' Expel Jets Into Space at 40 Percent the Speed of Light

Mar. 27, 2024 — Astronomers have measured the speed of fast-moving jets in space, crucial to star formation and the distribution of elements needed for life. The jets of matter, expelled by stars deemed 'cosmic ...

Tiniest 'Starquake' Ever Detected

Mar. 26, 2024 — An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded, measured by an international team of ...

Two of the Milky Way's Earliest Building Blocks Identified

Mar. 21, 2024 — Astronomers have identified what could be two of the Milky Way's earliest building blocks: Named 'Shakti' and 'Shiva', these appear to be the remnants of two galaxies that ...

Pioneering Muscle Monitoring in Space to Help Astronauts Stay Strong in Low-Gravity

Mar. 20, 2024 — Astronauts have been able to track their muscle health in spaceflight for the first time using a handheld device, revealing which muscles are most at risk of weakening in low gravity conditions. ...

Simulated Microgravity Effects Cause Marked Changes in Gene Expression Rhythms in Humans, Study Finds

Mar. 19, 2024 — Simulated effects of microgravity, created by 60 days of constant bed rest, severely disrupts rhythmic gene expression in humans, according to a new ...

Do Astronauts Experience 'Space Headaches'?

Mar. 13, 2024 — Space travel and zero gravity can take a toll on the body. A new study has found that astronauts with no prior history of headaches may experience migraine and tension-type headaches during long-haul ...

Nasa’s Webb, Hubble Telescopes Affirm Universe’s Expansion Rate, Puzzle Persists

Mar. 11, 2024 — When you are trying to solve one of the biggest conundrums in cosmology, you should triple check your homework. The puzzle, called the 'Hubble Tension,' is that the current rate of the ...

Astronomers Report Oscillation of Our Giant, Gaseous Neighbor

Feb. 20, 2024 — A few years ago, astronomers uncovered one of the Milky Way's greatest secrets: an enormous, wave-shaped chain of gaseous clouds in our sun's backyard, giving birth to clusters of stars ...

Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

Jan. 29, 2024 — The James Webb Space Telescope observed 19 nearby face-on spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light as part of its contributions to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS ...

Astronomers Detect Oldest Black Hole Ever Observed

Jan. 17, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the oldest black hole ever observed, dating from the dawn of the universe, and found that it is 'eating' its host galaxy to ...

NASA Scientists Discover a Novel Galactic 'Fossil'

Jan. 12, 2024 — Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have discovered X-ray activity that sheds light on the evolution of ...

Astronomers Make Rare Exoplanet Discovery, and a Giant Leap in Detecting Earth-Like Bodies

Jan. 11, 2024 — Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion -- shedding light on the formation of planets like ...

NASA's Webb Discovers Dusty 'Cat's Tail' in Beta Pictoris System

Jan. 11, 2024 — Beta Pictoris, a young planetary system located just 63 light-years away, continues to intrigue scientists even after decades of in-depth study. It possesses the first dust disk imaged around another ...

Scientists Measure the Distance to Stars by Their Music

Dec. 15, 2023 — A team of astronomers has used asteroseismology, or the study of stellar oscillations, to accurately measure the distance of stars from the Earth. Their research examined thousands of stars and ...

Tiniest Free-Floating Brown Dwarf

Dec. 13, 2023 — Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot ...

James Webb Space Telescope Detects Water Vapor, Sulfur Dioxide and Sand Clouds in the Atmosphere of a Nearby Exoplanet

Nov. 15, 2023 — Astronomers have used recent observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the nearby exoplanet WASP-107b. Peering deep into the fluffy atmosphere of WASP-107b they ...

Using Eclipses to Calculate the Transparency of Saturn's Rings

Nov. 14, 2023 — A student has measured the optical depth of Saturn's rings using a new method based on how much sunlight reached the Cassini spacecraft while it was in the shadow of the ...

Glow in the Visible Range Detected for the First Time in the Martian Night

Nov. 9, 2023 — Scientists have observed, for the first time in the visible range, a glow on the night side of the planet Mars. These new observations provide a better understanding of the dynamics of the upper ...