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DUKAS_131620017_EYE
The Shetland Islands
The Shetland Islands, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, are featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image.
Zoom in to see this image at its full 10 m resolution or click on the circles to learn more about the features in it.
Lying roughly 100 km north of the Scottish mainland, the Shetland Islands separate the Atlantic Ocean on the west from the North Sea to the east. The archipelago comprises around 100 islands and islets, with fewer than 20 of them inhabited. The islands cover an area of around 1468 sq km and have a rugged coastline approximately 2700 sq km long.
The largest island, known as the Mainland, has an area of around 900 sq km, making it the third-largest Scottish island. The next largest are Yell, Unst and Fetlar, which lie in the north, as well as Bressay and Whalsay, which lie to the east. Lerwick, located on Mainland, is the capital and largest settlement of the archipelago.
The most striking feature in this week’s image, captured on 1 July 2021, is the vivid, turquoise-coloured bloom visible to the east of the islands. This type of bloom is slightly different to the harmful cyanobacteria often visible around the Baltic Sea. In the absence of any known samples being analysed, it is assumed that it is a coccolithophore bloom – a type of microscopic marine algae living in the upper layer of the sea. Like all phytoplankton, coccolithophores contain chlorophyll and have the tendency to multiply rapidly near the surface.
In large numbers, coccolithophores periodically shed their tiny scales called ‘coccoliths’ into the surrounding waters. These calcium-rich coccoliths turn the normally dark water a bright, milky-turquoise colour. Although invisible to the eye, in large quantities, they are easy to spot in satellite imagery. These types of algae play a huge role in the ocean uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, as their shells sink to deeper ocean depths after they die, storing carbon in the process.
This year’s edition of
Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO / eyevine -
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Drilling on Mars-like terrain
Drilling on Mars-like terrain. ESAÕs Rosalind Franklin twin rover on Earth has drilled down and extracted samples 1.7 metres into the ground Ð much deeper than any other martian rover has ever attempted.
The first samples have been collected as part of a series of tests at the Mars Terrain Simulator at the ALTEC premises in Turin, Italy. The replica, also known as the Ground Test Model, is fully representative of the rover set to land on Mars.
The Rosalind Franklin rover is designed to drill deep enough, up to two metres, to get access to well-preserved organic material from four billion years ago, when conditions on the surface of Mars were more like those on infant Earth.
Rosalind FranklinÕs twin has been drilling into a well filled with a variety of rocks and soil layers.
The drill was developed by Leonardo, while Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for ExoMars 2022. The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos.
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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In the heart of the furnace
This jewel-bright image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 1385, a spiral galaxy 68 million light-years away from Earth, which lies in the constellation Fornax. The image was taken with HubbleÕs Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is often referred to as HubbleÕs workhorse camera, thanks to its reliability and versatility. It was installed in 2009 when astronauts last visited Hubble, and 12 years later it remains remarkably productive.Ê NGC 1385Õs home Ñ the Fornax constellation Ñ is not named after an animal or an ancient God, as are many of the other constellations. Fornax is simply the Latin word for a furnace. The constellation was named Fornax by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, a French astronomer who was born in 1713. Lacaiile named 14 of the 88 constellations that are still recognised today. He seems to have had a penchant for naming constellations after scientific instruments, including Atlia (the air pump), Norma (the ruler, or set square) and Telescopium (the telescope).
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Vega soars to space
On 16 August 2021, Vega lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on flight VV19 to deliver into two separate Sun-synchronous orbits the Earth observation satellite Pléiades Neo-4 and four auxiliary payloads: SunStorm, RadCube and LEDSAT developed through ESA, and BRO-4.
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Pyongyang photo mapping
Pyongyang photo mapping. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is spending six months on the International Space Station as part of his second mission "Alpha". In his free time, like many astronauts, he enjoys looking out of the Cupola windows at Earth. This collage of pictures shows Pyongyangm the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), made from around 40 pictures mapped together, digitally rotated and assembled into this large collage. The images were taken on 15 August 2021 at around 00:04 GMT.
Thomas asked to have the series of highly zoomed-in pictures aligned into this collage to show the area in detail. The International Space Station flies at roughly 400 km altitude so Thomas uses the longest lenses available onboard.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Algeria forest fires
Since 9 August, several forest fires have been blazing across northern Algeria, as seen in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image captured on 12 August 2021. The most affected areas are near Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, around 150 km east of the capital Algiers. In response to the recent fires in northern Algeria, the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service was activated. Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Sentinel-2C arrives at IABG for testing
Engineers at Airbus Defence and Space in Friedrichshafen, Germany, have spent the last 4 months completing the build-up of the Sentinel-2C satellite by integrating its all-important multispectral imager instrument, and have now transported it to IABG’s facilities in Ottobrunn for a series of exhaustive tests that will run until the end of 2021. The programme includes a range of mechanical tests that simulate the noise and vibrations of liftoff, tests that check that the satellite deploys its solar wing correctly, other tests that place the satellite under the extreme temperature swings it will experience in space, and electromagnetic compatibility tests to measure radio frequency radiation levels generated by the satellite and to verify the correct operation of the satellite equipment under this environment. Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Wildfires ravage Greek island of Evia
Parts of the Mediterranean and central Europe have experienced extreme temperatures this summer, with wildfires causing devastation in both Turkey and Greece. The blaze on Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, is one of the worst hit with fires having burned down large forested areas, homes and businesses – forcing thousands to evacuate by sea to save their lives. This false-colour Copernicus Sentinel-2 image was captured yesterday on 11 August, and has been processed in a way that included the near-infrared channel which is usually used to highlight vegetation (visible in bright red). The image shows the extent of the burned area (visible in shades of brown and green) in the northern part of the island which has suffered the most damage, with an estimated 50 000 hectares lost. Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Film and cultures
Film and cultures.
Samples of the Biofilms experiment are headed to the International Space Station on the SpaceX CR23 cargo resupply mission this weekend to help maintain astronaut and material safety in space.
A common piece of advice of the past 18 months has been to make sure you wash your hands thoroughly. This is because microorganisms are easily spread across common surfaces like door handles and light switches, and it is no less true in space. The Space Station is, after all, a lab as well as a home to astronauts. It is especially important to keep this environment safe for the long-term health of astronauts and equipment on board.
Funded by ESA and developed by the Chair of Functional Materials at Saarland University and the Working Group for Aerospace Microbiology at German Aerospace Center DLR, Biofilms will test the antimicrobial properties of laser-structured metal surfaces such as steel, copper and brass under microgravity conditions.
But what is biofilm? When growing on surfaces, bacteria can ooze a mixture of microbial structures such as proteins and lipids. The biofilm is what makes microbes resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants. Left to grow, biofilm can be hard to clean and can erode surfaces, especially metals.
To combat microbial growth, Biofilms will test the growth of bacteria such as human skin-associated bacteria Staphylococcus capitis with a novel approach. The innovation of the experiment lies in the structured surfaces of common metals. Using Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP) to add texture to the surfaces, researchers will study how well microbes grow (or not) on copper, metal and steel. Findings could help prevent microbial contamination in space.
Researchers performed a dry run of the experiment on Earth and all parameters, including hardware provided by Kayser Italia, checked out. The experiment will soon take centeCredit: ESA / eyevine
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DUKAS_128136989_EYE
Rise and shine
After four months of darkness, it is finally time to rise and shine for the crew at Concordia Research Station in Antarctica. The most-welcome Sun finally made its appearance on 11 August and ESA-sponsored medical doctor Nick Smith was not about to miss it.
For nine months Nick and his fellow crew mates have been living and working in one of the most isolated, confined and extreme environments on Earth, with no way in or out of the Station during the winter-over period.
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Seeing quintuple
Clustered at the centre of this image are six luminous spots of light, four of them forming a circle around a central pair. Appearances can be deceiving, however, as this formation is not composed of six individual galaxies, but only three: to be precise, a pair of galaxies and one distant quasar. These galaxies were imaged in spectacular detail by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which was installed on Hubble in 2009 during Hubble Servicing Mission 4, Hubble’s final servicing mission. The WFC3 was intended to operate until 2014, but 12 years after it was installed it continues to provide both top-quality data and fantastic images, such as this one. The central pair of galaxies in this image are genuinely two separate galaxies. The four bright points circling them, however, are actually four separate images of a single quasar (known as 2M1310-1714), an extremely luminous but distant object. The reason behind this “seeing quadruple” effect is a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing occurs when a celestial object with an enormous amount of mass — such as a pair of galaxies — causes the fabric of space to warp such that the light travelling through that space from a distant object is bent and magnified sufficiently that humans here on Earth can observe multiple magnified images of the far-away source. The quasar in this image actually lies further away from Earth than the pair of galaxies. The light from the quasar has been bent around the galaxy pair because of their enormous mass, giving the incredible appearance that the galaxy pair are surrounded by four quasars — whereas in reality, a single quasar lies far beyond them!Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Calm above the storm in
Auroras make for great Halloween décor over Earth, though ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet snapped these green smoky swirls of plasma from the International Space Station in August. Also pictured are the Soyuz MS-18 “Yuri Gagarin” (left) and the new Nauka module (right).
The Station saw quite some aurora activity that month, caused by solar particles colliding with Earth’s atmosphere and producing a stunning light show.
Fast forward to October and space is quite busy.
On 9 October the Sun ejected a violent mass of fast-moving plasma into space that arrived at Earth a few days later. The coronal mass ejection (CME) crashed into our planet’s magnetosphere and once again lit up the sky.
CMEs explode from the Sun, rush through the Solar System and while doing so speed up the solar wind – a stream of charged particles continuously released from the Sun’s upper atmosphere.
While most of the solar wind is blocked by Earth’s protective magnetosphere, some charged particles become trapped in Earth’s magnetic field and flow down to the geomagnetic poles, colliding with the upper atmosphere to create the beautiful Aurora.
While the view outside the Space Station is mesmerising, the astronauts inside are busy with science and prepping for the next crew’s arrival later this month.
Thomas will welcome fellow ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, currently scheduled to launch to the Space Station on Halloween.
In the meantime, Thomas has taken over command of the Space Station and is busy completing more science ahead of the end of mission Alpha and his return to Earth.
The astronauts have taken up space farming lately, tending to New Mexico Hatch Green Chili peppers in the name of science. A few investigations are looking into different aspects of plant behaviour in microgravity.
Tending to the body via exercise is also standard practice on the Space Station. The crew performed cycles of experiments looking into immersive exercise practices as well as the fa
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Smoke billows from fires in Turkey
Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission on 30 July 2021, this image shows smoke billowing from several fires along the southern coast of Turkey. Turkey has been battling deadly wildfires since last week. Over the weekend, tourists and local residents had to be evacuated from Bodrum and Marmaris, with some fleeing by boat as the flames crept closer to the shoreline. Southeast Europe is currently experiencing extremely high temperatures. Greece is reported to be expecting an all-time European record today of 47°C. The heatwave, the result of a heat dome, has seen temperatures reach above 40°C in many areas, and meteorologists expect the weather will continue this week, making it the most severe heatwave since the 1980s.
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Crater trio
This image was taken on 22 March 2021 in the Lunae Planum region [16.74°N, 300.9°E] of Mars by the CaSSIS camera on the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).
This region is known to be covered by large lava deposits probably from the nearby Tharsis Montes volcanoes. In this image three medium-sized impact craters take centre stage, with many smaller impacts pockmarking the scene. Zooming into the larger craters it is possible to see layers in the inner rim that could represent the successive accumulation of lava flows in this area.
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Iberian peninsula
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this picture of the Iberian Peninsula from the International Space Station.
Thomas shared this image on his social media channels with the caption: "It is 12 October Spain’s national day, and here’s the whole of the Iberian peninsula in one picture, including Spain and its neighbouring Portugal, from the strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic coast to the Pyrenees. I had to use the wide-angle lens to get this though, maybe it is cheating?"
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Final mating of the Flexible Combined Imager to the satellite
Following the completion of the first flight model of the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) in July 2021, the instrument has now been successfully mounted onto the protoflight platform.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Soyuz and MLM over aurora
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this picture of the Soyuz and MLM orbiting over Earth during an aurora show from the International Space Station.
Thomas shared this image on his social media channels with the caption: "Space weather is actually a real thing! Amongst others ESA can predict when aurora are more likely to occur. Space weather is important as it predicts solar events and their effects on satellite orbits and space operations. Just like with normal weather we cannot change it, but we can prepare for outbursts of space weather."Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Portrait of a swirling galaxy
The spiral galaxy IC 1954 takes centre stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy, which lies approximately 45 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Horologium (The Clock), boasts a bright central bar and lazily winding spiral arms threaded with dark clouds of dust. This portrait of IC 1954 was captured with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, and is one of a set of observations designed to take advantage of some telescope teamwork. Hubble observed groups of young stars in nearby galaxies at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths while the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array — a ground-based radio telescope — gathered data on star-forming discs and clouds of cold gas. Combining the two sets of observations allowed astronomers to join the dots and understand the connections between young stars and the clouds of cold gas which give rise to them. These observations also lay the groundwork for future observations with the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, which will peer into nearby galaxies and observe the earliest phases of star formation.
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Ariane 6 Launch vehicle assembly building
The Ariane 6 core and upper stages will be integrated horizontally inside the launch vehicle assembly building and prepared for rollout to the launch zone. The building is 20 m tall, 112 m long and 41 m wide, some 1 km from the launch zone.
Horizontal integration lowers the cost of facilities and launcher integration while offering a higher level of flexibility and growth potential and allowing easier access to the whole rocket. Overall, the improved Ariane 6 approach to integration and operations will reduce the duration of a launch campaign from months to weeks.
Credit: ESAÐS. Corvaja / eyevine
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Malé, the Maldives
MalŽ, the Maldives.The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over MalŽ Ð the capital and most populous city in the Republic of Maldives.
The Republic of Maldives consist of a chain of around 1200 small coral islands that are grouped into clusters of atolls Ð scattered across 90 000 sq km of ocean. A number of these little islands can be seen in the image, with the turquoise colours depicting clear, shallow waters dotted by coral reefs which contrasts with the dark colours of the Indian Ocean.
MalŽ, located at the southern edge of the North MalŽ Atoll, can be easily spotted in the right of the image. The island is small enough to walk around in approximately one hour, with most sights concentrated on its northern shore. MalŽ is both a trade and tourist centre, connected with Sri Lanka and India by steamship lines, with several vessels visible in the image.
With a population of more than 200 000 and an area of around eight sq km, MalŽ is one of the most densely populated cities in the world with the city covering almost the entire island.
With more than 80% of the MaldivesÕ land standing less than one metre above average sea level, the Maldives has the lowest terrain of any country in the world. This makes the archipelago particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise.
In response to this rising threat, the Maldives is working on enhancing the resilience of the countryÕs islands, which includes constructing the artificial island of Hulhumale Ð visible northeast of the airport island of HulhulŽ.
The island has been constructed by pumping sand from the seafloor onto a submerged coral platform, that rises around 2 m above sea level. The reclaimed land provides some much-needed space, and will also help meet the industrial and commercial development of the MalŽ region.
Satellite data have shown that the global ocean has risen, on average, 3 mm a year o (FOTO: DUKAS/EYEVINE)
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Jupiter mission passes space vacuum test
Jupiter mission passes space vacuum test.
ESAÕs Juice mission to Jupiter has successfully endured a month of space-like conditions inside the Large Space Simulator, the largest vacuum chamber in Europe.
At 10 m wide and 15 m high, the Large Space Simulator (LSS) is big enough to accommodate an upended London double decker bus. It is part of ESAÕs ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands, the largest satellite testing facility in Europe.
The flight model of the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, was exposed to vacuum a billion times lower than standard seal level pressure, along with representative temperature extremes the spacecraft will encounter on its journey to Jupiter, ranging from 250¡C to -180 ¡C.
The LSSÕs artificial Sun simulator recreated the searing sunlight Juice will experience during its 88-month cruise phase, which will include a flyby of Venus. Liquid nitrogen circulating through the walls of the chamber mimicked the chill of deep space.
After a month of round-the-clock monitoring, the chamber doors were opened on 15 July. Next the spacecraft will return to Airbus Defence and Space in France, for final preparations for its launch next year.
Once in the Jovian system Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons Ð Ganymede, Callisto and Europa Ð with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments.
The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant exoplanets now known to orbit other stars.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Ariane 5 soars to space
On 30 July 2021, Ariane 5 flight VA254 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites Star One D2 and Eutelsat Quantum into their planned transfer orbits.
Flight VA254 was the 110th Ariane 5 mission.
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Ariane 5 transfer
Ariane 5 transfer.
Ariane 5 transfer on 29 July 2021 from the final assembly building to the launch pad in preparation for flight VA254 with Star One D2 and Eutelsat Quantum at EuropeÕs Spaceport in French Guiana. Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Squabbling Galactic Siblings
A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes centre stage in this latest Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system Ñknown as Arp 195Ñ is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe. Observing time with the Hubble Space Telescope is extremely valuable, so astronomers don't want to waste a second. The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a computer algorithm which allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between longer observations. This image of the clashing triplet of galaxies in Arp 195 is one such snapshot. Extra observations such as these do more than provide spectacular images Ñ they also help to identify promising targets to follow up with telescopes such as the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Hubble’s View of Ganymede in 1996
This image presents JupiterÕs moon Ganymede as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 1996. Located over 600 million kilometres away, Hubble can follow changes on the moon and reveal other characteristics at ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths. Astronomers have now used archival datasets from Hubble to reveal the first evidence for water vapour in the atmosphere of JupiterÕs moon Ganymede, the result of the thermal escape of water vapour from the moonÕs icy surface.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Pirs undocking
Pirs undocking.
The Pirs docking compartment left the Space Station after 20 years of service and burned up safely in the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean on Monday. Its departure made room for the new science module Nauka and the European Robotic Arm.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this picture of the Progress spacecraft and Pirs module leaving the Station during his Alpha mission. He said: "ItÕs not every day that you see a piece of the Station being taken away. We pitched the International Space Station 90 degrees, and so we flew belly first, to help out with the manoeuvre. Pyotr and myself tried to capture some photos and videos of this important moment in the Station's history. Quite a strange feeling to see a part of your ship fly away. A couple of hours later and we had front row seat to the fireball that was going to be DC1Õs last act." Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Proton with Nauka and ERA on the launch pad
Proton with Nauka and ERA on the launch pad.
The European Robotic Arm (ERA) is set for launch on a Proton rocket to the International Space Station on 21 July at 16:58 CEST. Intensive preparations for launch readiness continue from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, at launch pad 200.
The first robot that can ‘walk’ around the Russian part of the orbital complex will be launched with the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, also known as 'Nauka'. (FOTO: DUKAS/EYEVINE)
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Space suspense
Space suspense.
It has been an emotional time Ð years of delays, a tense countdown, a mighty launch and then hiccups in orbit for RussiaÕs science module ÔNaukaÕ together with its travelling companion, the European Robotic Arm (ERA).
The duo is destined to upgrade the International Space Station with a new research facility and a walking robot upon their arrival tomorrow, 29 July. ÔNaukaÕ, also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), is the largest space lab ever launched into space by Russia.
Philippe Schoonejans, project manager of the robotic arm for ESA, took this picture a few kilometres away from the launch pad while the Proton-M rocket soared into the sky from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on 21 July. He was not alone Ð a dozen colleagues from ESA and the European space industry witnessed the historic launch.
ÒWhat an incredible power and what a rattling noise. First, I saw it go and only later the sound came and I felt my shirt move! It was a very emotional moment to see the ERA going into space,Ó he recalls.
Philippe sighed with relief after waiting 14 years for a liftoff that kept being pushed back. Both Nauka and ERA have had a history of delays and programmatic challenges along the way. And yet again, adversity insisted in being part of the journey to the International Space Station.
As expected, Nauka deployed its solar panels and antennas about 13 minutes after launch, and the eight-day journey to the Space Station began.
However, soon after missing telemetry was reported at the mission control centre in Moscow, Russia. The glitch was detected when the spacecraft did not complete its first burn, aimed at raising its orbit.
During the whole week, flight engineers have been busy running critical propulsion tests and carrying out orbital corrections.
As if this were not enough, the uncertainty was inten (FOTO: DUKAS/EYEVINE)
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ESA signs contract with Avio for Vega-E
ESA signs contract with Avio for Vega-E.
A contract worth Ä118.8 m for the preparation of Vega-E was signed at ESAís establishment in Frascati, Italy, by Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA Director of Space Transportation and Giulio Ranzo, CEO at Avio. This will further increase the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of Europeís Vega launch system beyond 2025.
Prime contractor, Avio, with partners will further define the launcher system and its subsystems as well as the preliminary design of the Vega-E launch pad and the associated infrastructure at Europeís Spaceport in French Guiana.
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Back in the Dragon for a while
Back in the Dragon for a while.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and part of the crew inside the Dragon spacecraft on 21 July 2021.
Thomas shared this image on his social media channels with the caption: "A good day to take our spacecraft for a spin! Just a short trip around the block, to re-dock to the zenith Space Station port and free up the forward parking spot for upcoming spacecraft, yes, thereís a lot of traffic up here! It felt good to put on our spacesuits and leave the International Space StationÖ just for a little while, itís not time to go home just yet."Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Cosmic Lens Flare
The centre of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is framed by the tell-tale arcs that result from strong gravitational lensing, a striking astronomical phenomenon which can warp, magnify, or even duplicate the appearance of distant galaxies. Gravitational lensing occurs when light from a distant galaxy is subtly distorted by the gravitational pull of an intervening astronomical object. In this case, the relatively nearby galaxy cluster MACSJ0138.0-2155 has lensed a significantly more distant quiescent galaxy — a slumbering giant known as MRG-M0138 which has run out of the gas required to form new stars and is located 10 billion light years away. Astronomers can use gravitational lensing as a natural magnifying glass, allowing them to inspect objects like distant quiescent galaxies which would usually be too difficult for even Hubble to resolve. This image was made using observations from eight different infrared filters spread across two of Hubble’s most advanced astronomical instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3. These instruments were installed by astronauts during the final two servicing missions to Hubble, and provide astronomers with superbly detailed observations across a large area of sky and a wide range of wavelengths.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Revisiting Hubble’s 31st Anniversary Snapshot
This Picture of the Week showcases a new view of the star AG Carinae, which was the target of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space TelescopeÕsÊ31st anniversary imageÊin April 2020. The ESA/Hubble team has applied new processing techniques to HubbleÕs 2020 observations of the star, as well as to others made inÊ2014, to create this stunning new image. You can compare the two versions of AG Carinae online by using the slider tool on the image above.This giant star is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. The star is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust Ñ a nebula Ñ that is shaped by the powerful winds emanating from the star. The nebula is about five light-years wide, equal to the distance from here to our nearest star, Alpha Centauri. This new view of AG Carinae also includes data from one of the early observations of the target, captured by Hubble'sÊWFPC2Êinstrument in May of 1994. That dataset has allowed the ESA/Hubble image team to recover details of the central bright star, as long exposures taken recently with Hubble's newerÊWFC3Êinstrument had to overexpose the central star in order to capture fainter details of the surrounding nebula.Ê Additionally, this new view integrated six sharpening techniques that were carefully applied to further enhance details of the ionised hydrogen and ionised nitrogen emissions in the nebula (seen here in reds) and reflected near ultraviolet light (seen here in blues).Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Revisiting Hubble’s 31st Anniversary Snapshot
This Picture of the Week showcases a new view of the star AG Carinae, which was the target of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space TelescopeÕsÊ31st anniversary imageÊin April 2020. The ESA/Hubble team has applied new processing techniques to HubbleÕs 2020 observations of the star, as well as to others made inÊ2014, to create this stunning new image. You can compare the two versions of AG Carinae online by using the slider tool on the image above.This giant star is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. The star is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust Ñ a nebula Ñ that is shaped by the powerful winds emanating from the star. The nebula is about five light-years wide, equal to the distance from here to our nearest star, Alpha Centauri. This new view of AG Carinae also includes data from one of the early observations of the target, captured by Hubble'sÊWFPC2Êinstrument in May of 1994. That dataset has allowed the ESA/Hubble image team to recover details of the central bright star, as long exposures taken recently with Hubble's newerÊWFC3Êinstrument had to overexpose the central star in order to capture fainter details of the surrounding nebula.Ê Additionally, this new view integrated six sharpening techniques that were carefully applied to further enhance details of the ionised hydrogen and ionised nitrogen emissions in the nebula (seen here in reds) and reflected near ultraviolet light (seen here in blues).Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Hubble Returns to Science Operations
These early snapshots demonstrate the return of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to full science operations, following correction of a computer anomaly aboard the spacecraft. Normal science observations were restarted on July 17, at 1:18 pm EDT. Among the early targets are globular star clusters in other galaxies and aurorae on the giant planet Jupiter, in addition to a look at bizarre galaxies. These two peculiar galaxies are part of a program led by Julianne Dalcanton of the University of Washington in Seattle, to survey oddball galaxies scattered across the sky. LEFT — ARP-MADORE2115-273 is a rare example of an interacting galaxy pair in the southern hemisphere. These Hubble observations provide Hubble's first high-resolution glimpse at this intriguing system, which is located 297 million light-years away. Astronomers had previously thought this was a "collisional ring" system due to the head-on merger of two galaxies. The new Hubble observations show that the ongoing interaction between the galaxies is far more complex, leaving behind a rich network of stars and dusty gas. RIGHT — ARP-MADORE0002-503 is a large spiral galaxy with unusual, extended spiral arms, at a distance of 490 million light-years. Its arms extend out to a radius of 163,000 light-years, making it three times more expansive than our Milky Way Galaxy. While most disk galaxies have an even number of spiral arms, this one has three.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Satellites map floods in western Europe.
Satellites map floods in western Europe.
Record rainfall has caused swollen rivers to burst their banks and wash away homes and other buildings in western Europe – leading to more than 90 casualties and over 1000 people missing. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission are being used to map flooded areas to help relief efforts.
The German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were among the worst hit by the torrential rainfall, with water levels rising in the Rhine River, as well as the Walloon Region in Belgium. The storms and high waters have also battered neighbouring Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
This radar image uses information from two separate acquisitions captured by the Sentinel-1 mission on 3 July and 15 July 2021, and it shows the extent of the flooding in red. Radar images acquired before and after flooding disasters offer immediate information on the extent of inundation and have proved useful in monitoring floods, thanks to Sentinel-1’s ability to ‘see’ through clouds and rain.
The mission has been supplying imagery through the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service to aid relief efforts. The devastating floods has triggered four activations in the Copernicus Emergency Mapping Service, in Western Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The service uses observations from multiple satellites to provide on-demand mapping to help civil protection authorities and the international humanitarian community in the face of major emergencies.
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Quantum satellite
A sophisticated telecommunications satellite capable of being completely repurposed in orbit has been fuelled ready for its launch on 30 July.
Developed under an ESA Partnership Project called Quantum, the satellite is pioneering a new generation of fully reconfigurable satellites that can respond while in orbit to changing demands on Earth during their 15-year lifetimes.
It is the first reprogrammable commercial telecommunications satellite to operate in a high-frequency radio range called the Ku band that is used for data transmission and secure communications, notably with ships at sea.
Its beams can be redirected to move in almost real time to provide information to passengers on board moving planes or ships. The beams can also be adjusted at the push of a button, so that more data is delivered when demand surges.
The successful development and manufacture of the satellite resulted from the contribution of all industrial partners under an ESA Partnership Project with satellite operator Eutelsat. It is a UK flagship project with most of the satellite developed and manufactured by UK industry. Airbus is the prime and was responsible for manufacturing the satellite’s payload and Surry Satellite Technology Ltd manufactured the new platform.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Test of carbon-composite oxidiser tank
Test of carbon-composite oxidiser tank.
Tests show that lightweight carbon-fibre reinforced plastic is strong enough to replace metal used in upper-stage rocket structures. This is an important milestone in Europe for the development of a prototype of a highly-optimised ÔblackÕ upper stage, Phoebus, a joint initiative by MT Aerospace and ArianeGroup, funded by ESAÕs Future Launchers Preparatory Programme.
MT Aerospace tested the strength of a subscale oxidiser tank made from carbon-fibre reinforced plastic.
During these tests, the tank was filled and drained multiple times, pressurised beyond operational limits and shock tested to ensure no ignition event of the oxygen tank. Sensors monitored pressure, temperature, strain or a possible leakage. The analysis of the results and the overall good structural integrity of the tank prove the technology for use in a Phoebus upper stage.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his crew mates held the very first space Olympics as the Olympic Games started in Tokyo.
All the players.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and his crew mates held the very first space Olympics as the Olympic Games started in Tokyo. For crew cohesion and fun, they put together a friendly competition between the Soyuz team and the Dragon team.
Thomas said: "the events ranged from synchronised floating or lack-of-floor routine to (very) long jumps and no-hand ball. We had all flags of the world (yes, every single country) hung up on the ceiling of the lab which gave an inspiring (and colourful) backdrop to our athletic prowess (or lack of)."
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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AFS-8/101
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission is transported from Kennedy Space Center’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility to the Florida spaceport’s Launch Abort System Facility on July 10, 2021. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs will integrate components of the launch abort system onto the spacecraft. Launching later this year, Artemis I will be a test of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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A touch of sun
From ESAÕs Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory Ð one of a suite of labs based at the ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands Ð a view from an intricate test campaign for the next generation of European weather satellites. The near infrared detector assembly of the Flexible Combined Instrument (FCI) imager aboard the Meteosat Third Generation Ð Imaging (MTG Ð I) satellite was found to be susceptible to unwanted Ôstray lightÕ from the Sun.
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Galápagos Islands from the International Space Station
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet snapped this image of one of the Galápagos Islands surrounded by clouds during his second long-duration mission known as Alpha. He posted it on social media saying: "The Galápagos Islands are famous for their wildlife and Charles Darwin who studied the area, as well being a poster for bio-diversity."
Thomas was launched to the International Space Station for his second mission, Alpha, on 23 April 2021. He will spend six months living and working on the orbital outpost where he will support more than 200 international experiments in space.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Augmented click
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet working using an Augmented Reality set aboard the International Space Station.
Thomas shared this image on his social media channels with the caption: "Using augmented reality lenses to inspect our treadmill, yes clicking in mid-air won’t make it work better, I realise that. Although astronauts have to be proficient at many things and have training, we have (lots of) limits to our knowledge and skills. We rely on mission control for everything, to help us and guide us and lend a helping hand. But if you have ever tried to help somebody fix their computer, or instruct them to do a difficult task over the phone, you will know how difficult it is! No not that thingy, the other thingy! Space agencies are constantly trying to improve the process and augmented reality is another test, allowing us both hands to work with as well as avoiding the necessity to stop what we are doing to move to the next step on a checklist on our tablets. Win-win possibly?"
Credit: ESA / eyevine
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One of the Greats
Two things capture your attention in this spectacular Picture of the Week, which was taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3): the two enormous galaxies that flank the left and right sides of the image. The galaxy on the left is a lenticular galaxy, which rejoices in the name of 2MASX J03193743+4137580. The side-on spiral galaxy on the right is more simply named UGC 2665. Both galaxies lie approximately 350 million light-years from Earth, and they both form part of the enormous Perseus galaxy cluster. Perseus is an important figure in Greek mythology, renowned for slaying Medusa the Gorgon — who is herself famous for the unhappy reason that she was cursed to have living snakes for hair. Given Perseus’s impressive credentials, it seems appropriate that the eponymous galaxy cluster is one of the biggest objects in the known Universe, consisting of thousands of galaxies, only a few of which are visible in this image. The wonderful detail in the image is thanks to the WFC3’s powerful resolution and high sensitivity. The WFC3 is sensitive to both visible and infrared light, so those are the wavelengths that are captured in this image. The Perseus supercluster looks very different at other wavelengths. Whilst in this image the spaces between the galaxies appear dark and peaceful, when the X-ray emission is observed the Perseus cluster appears to be burning with bright intense light.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Orphan cloud discovered in galaxy cluster
Orphan cloud discovered in galaxy cluster.
New observations made with ESAÕs X-ray XMM Newton telescope have revealed an Òorphan cloudÓ Ð an isolated cloud in a galaxy cluster that is the first discovery of its kind.
A lot goes on in a galaxy cluster. There can be anything from tens to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The galaxies themselves have a range of different properties, but typically contain systems with stars and planets, along with the material in between the stars Ð the interstellar medium. In between the galaxies is more material Ð tenuous hot gas known as the intercluster medium. And sometimes in all the chaos, some of the interstellar medium can get ripped out of a galaxy and get stranded in an isolated region of the cluster, as this new study reveals.
Unexpected discovery
Abell 1367, also known as the Leo Cluster, is a young cluster that contains around 70 galaxies and is located around 300 million light-years from Earth. In 2017, a small warm gas cloud of unknown origin was discovered in A1367 by the Subaru telescope in Japan. A follow-up X-ray survey to study other aspects of A1367 unexpectedly discovered X-rays emanating from this cloud, revealing that the cloud is actually bigger than the Milky Way.
This is the first time an intercluster clump has been observed in both X-rays and the light that comes from the warm gas. Since the orphan cloud is isolated and not associated with any galaxy, it has likely been floating in the space between galaxies for a long time, making its mere survival surprising.
The discovery of this orphan cloud was made by Chong Ge at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and colleagues, and the study has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Along with data from XMM-Newton and Subaru, Chong and colleagues also used the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to observe the cluster in visible light.
The orphan cloud is t
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Shoemaker Crater, Australia
Shoemaker Crater, Australia.
For Asteroid Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Shoemaker Impact Structure (formerly known as Teague Ring) in Western Australia.
Located around 100 km northeast of the small town Wiluna, the Shoemaker Impact Structure was renamed in honour of Eugene Shoemaker, a planetary geologist and pioneer in impact crater studies.
The almost circular shape of the Shoemaker impact site, visible in the bottom-right of the image, is approximately 30 km in diameter and is defined by concentric rings formed in sedimentary rocks (seen in dark brown). The precise age of the impact is unknown, but is estimated to be between 1000 and 600 million years ago Ð making it AustraliaÕs oldest impact crater.
This false-colour image was processed by selecting spectral bands that can be used for classifying geological features, allowing us to clearly identify the concentric rings in the image. The light blue areas are saline and ephemeral lakes including Nabberu, Teague, Shoemaker and other smaller ponds.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Juice in Large Space Simulator
Juice in Large Space Simulator.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) in the Large Space Simulator at ESTEC just before the chamber is closed for a thermal-vacuum test dry run.
Once in the Jovian system Juice will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons Ð Ganymede, Callisto and Europa Ð with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant exoplanets now known to orbit other stars.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Dubai palm island Alpha
Dubai palm island Alpha.
Dubai palm island seen from the International Space Station during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet's second mission, Alpha, 3 June 2021, and to compare the same island (rotated and on a white background) photographed by Thomas in 2017 during his first mission, Proxima.
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Cygnus NG-15 cargo vehicle
On its way...
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet snapped this image of the Cygnus NG-15 cargo vehicle over Earth during his second long-duration mission known as Alpha. He posted it on social media saying: "So long Cygnus! Thanks for all the supplies you brought up here and thanks for clearing out the trash as you leave. Cygnus NG-15 arrived at the Station long before me on 22 February and has served as an extra module since then. Yesterday we said goodbye but packed it with waste first that will burn up on reentry, clearing some space inside the Space Station. The distinctive solar panels you might have seen in many previous images, they are now gone."
Thomas was launched to the International Space Station for his second mission, Alpha, on 23 April 2021. He will spend six months living and working on the orbital outpost where he will support more than 200 international experiments in space.Credit: ESA / eyevine
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Hubble looks at a ‘Space Triangle’ spawned by a galaxy collision
A spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies, known as Arp 143, has fueled the unusual triangular-shaped star-formation frenzy as captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The interacting galaxy duo Arp 143 contains the distorted, star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2445, at right, along with its less flashy companion, NGC 2444, at left. Their frenzied collision takes place against the tapestry of distant galaxies, of which some can be seen through the interacting pair.
Astronomers suggest that the two galaxies passed through each other, igniting the uniquely shaped firestorm of star formation in NGC 2445, where thousands of stars are bursting into life. This galaxy is awash with new stars because it is rich in gas, the raw material from which stars are made. However, it hasnÕt yet escaped the gravitational clutches of its partner at left. The pair is waging a cosmic tug-of-war, which NGC 2444 appears to be winning. That galaxy has pulled gas from NGC 2445, forming the oddball triangle of newly minted stars.
NGC 2444 is also responsible for yanking strands of gas from its partner, stoking the streamers of young, blue stars that appear to form a bridge between the two galaxies. These streamers are among the first in what appears to be a wave of star formation that started on the galaxyÕs outskirts and continued inward. Researchers estimate the streamer stars were born between 50 million and 100 million years ago. But these infant stars are being left behind as NGC 2445 continues to pull slowly away from NGC 2444.
Stars no older than one million to two million years old are forming closer to the centre of NGC 2445. HubbleÕs keen vision reveals some individual stars, the brightest and most massive in the galaxy. Most of the brilliant blue clumps are groupings of stars and the pink blobs are glowing gas clouds enshrouding young, massive star clusters.
Although most of the action is happening in NGC 2445, it doesnÕt mean the other member of the i
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A Scattering of Stars
This Picture of the Week depicts the open star cluster NGC 330, which lies around 180,000 light-years away inside the Small Magellanic Cloud. The cluster Ñ which is in the constellation Tucana (The Toucan) Ñ contains a multitude of stars, many of which are scattered across this striking image. Pictures of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show us something new about the Universe. This image, however, also contains clues about the inner workings of Hubble itself. The criss-cross patterns surrounding the stars in this image Ñ known as diffraction spikes ÑÊ were created when starlight interacted with the four thin vanes supporting HubbleÕs secondary mirror. As star clusters form from a single primordial cloud of gas and dust, all the stars they contain are roughly the same age. This makes them useful natural laboratories for astronomers to learn how stars form and evolve. This image uses observations from HubbleÕs Wide Field Camera 3, and incorporates data from two very different astronomical investigations. The first aimed to understand why stars in star clusters appear to evolve differently from stars elsewhere, a peculiarity first observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The second aimed to determine how large stars can be before they become doomed to end their lives in cataclysmic supernova explosions. Links Video of A Scattering of Stars Credit: ESA / eyevine
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