ESA Space Science

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Keeping you posted on space science activities from the European Space Agency. Web: Privacy Notice: esa.int/connectwithus #astronomy #space #science

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ESA Space Science@science· 27d

Congratulations to the researchers joining our Archival Research Visitor Programme this fall. They will be exploring subjects ranging from hunting centaurs in Euclid data to assessing Solar Orbiter's value for early space weather prediction 👉 www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/vis... ☄️ 🔭

The Sun looks like a warm yellow sphere with a surface covered with glowing messy hair. The yellow glow extends to the edges of the image, with some regions brighter than others. Many bright yellow arcs stick out from a wide band around the Sun’s equator. A darker region stands out across a roughly horizontal line near the Sun’s south pole. The bright arcs and some darker material can also be seen around the Sun’s edges.

ESA Space Science@science· 28d

🔊 What if you could listen to the Universe instead of looking at it? Enter Expedition Sound – our new podcast using sonification to explore what our missions teach us about space, guided by the expertise of scientists and vision impaired astronomers. 🔭 🧪

The key visual of the Expedition Sound podcast, which shows Our Sun in the top right corner. From there, a flowing ribbon of colourful wave-like lines travels across the dark blue, star-filled background, weaving past planets of the Solar System. The ribbon continues toward a glowing spiral galaxy in the upper left, visually linking the destinations across the Universe.

ESA Space Science@science· 29d

Found, at last! 🕳️ The globular star cluster Omega Centauri should be filled with black holes left behind by exploding stars, yet evidence for them is scarce. But now, Hubble has finally found the first stellar-mass black hole in this cluster 👉 esahubble.org/news/heic2610/ 🔭 🧪

Hubble image of globular star cluster Omega Centauri, which looks like a highly dense field of stars. Some appear a bit larger and brighter than others, with the majority of stars appearing blue, orange, and yellow. They are scattered mostly uniformly, like grains of sand. Toward the centre they gradually become closer, creating a more luminous area at the globular star cluster’s core. A small red square frame is near the centre. It connects to a square pullout in the top right corner, which shows the outlined area in greater detail. Among the blue- and orange-colored stars is a small blue-white dot that is highlighted by a small red circle. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA)

ESA Space Science@science· 29d

In Spain for the 12 August #EuropeanSolarEclipse? Join us for a free public observation programme in the city of León, organised in collaboration with the University of León and the city council. Details 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☀️

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 9

🚨 New podcast series incoming 🚨 On 16 July, we're launching ‘Expedition Sound’ – a new podcast series that invites you to explore the Universe through sound instead of just sight. Are you joining the adventure? 🎧 Stay tuned for the first episode ☀️ 🔭 🧪

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 8

📣 Media invitation Join us for two online media briefings, in English and Spanish, on 15 July ahead of the solar eclipse of 12 August 2026. Register by 15:00 CEST on Tuesday 14 July. More details 👉 www.esa.int/Newsroom/Pre... 🔭 🧪 #EuropeanSolarEclipse

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 7

Baby stars growing up! 🌟 👶 Webb has turned its gaze to the star system FS Tau. Here, baby stars, 1 to 3 million years old, are forming from dense pockets of gas and dust. But one day, these babies will become fully-fledged stars 👉 esawebb.org/images/FS-Tau/ 🔭

$FS Tau, a star-forming nebula. Clouds of transparent blue and purple gas and dust extend from slightly left of centre to the right side of the frame, from 2 o’clock to 5 o’clock. Several yellow and white protostars, some showing Webb’s eight-pronged diffraction pattern are dispersed throughout the clouds. Orange wisps and filaments of gas extend from one of the protostars at the centre toward the top left and bottom right corners of the frame. There are numerous, distant yellow and white galaxies strewn about the black background of space. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)$

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 7

A cosmic construction project 🏗️ Webb has observed a galaxy cluster in the making. Two sub-clusters, roughly equal in mass, are actively merging in this messy view. Several details come to light when looking closer 👉 esawebb.org/images/potm2... 🔭 🧪

A galaxy cluster in deep space. It is filled with elliptical galaxies: small, bright white glowing ovals. The two largest elliptical galaxies, left and right of center, are bright cores that radiate light. Unrelated, distant galaxies are scattered around as red smudges and dots.Many of these are stretched out into red arcs and lines by the galaxy cluster’s strong gravity, creating multiple images in places. Numerous spiral galaxies and bright stars appear in the foreground. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, S. Fujimoto

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 6

Written in its stars ✨ On its 4th science anniversary, Webb has turned its gaze towards Centaurus A. Thanks to its high resolution we can now study the galaxy star by star, reconstructing when different events in its history happened 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪

$A horizontal image of the galaxy Centaurus A stretches across a black background filled with thousands of tiny purple, pink, and white points of light. The galaxy is brightest at its centre, where a brilliant white and pale pink glow radiates outward. Eight diffraction spikes extend from the central glow. Delicate loops and wispy ribbons of pink and lavender arc above and below the centre of the image in the shape of an ‘S’. A band of gray and white dust in the shape of a parallelogram cuts across the middle of the galaxy. Mottled patches and bright knots are scattered throughout the dusty band. The galaxy’s outer edges fade into soft, cloud-like plumes with feathery textures that stretch toward the left and right sides of the image. Against the surrounding darkness, a few bright foreground stars shine with Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes, while countless fainter stars create a speckled backdrop. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI), M. Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI)$

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 6

📣 Most ancient quasars ever found! Euclid has discovered 31 ancient quasars. Two of them shone with the light of a trillion Suns back when the Universe was 670 million years old – just 5% of its current age. Discover more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☄️

This collage with observations of the Euclid space telescope shows a grid of small, dark panels filled with tiny points and faint smudges of light. The lights vary in brightness and colour, including white, blue, yellow, and orange, with some appearing as dots and others as slightly blurred shapes. Each panel has a small label with letters and numbers at the bottom.

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 2

Ready to launch your career in space? Our Junior Professional Programme could be your lift‑off. 🚀 If you hold a Master’s degree and have up to three years’ experience, this is your chance to join the European space sector. Apply now 👉 www.esa.int/About_Us/Car... ☄️ 🔭 #ESArecruits

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 1

Can a planet survive the death of its star? ☠️ For WD 1856 b, the answer is yes, based on Webb observations. 🔭 🧪 ☄️ 1/2

Illustration of exoplanet WD 1856 b. An orange gas giant planet at left, taking up about one-third of the frame, facing a star, which appears at top right as a far smaller bright dot. The planet has subtle orange cloud bands. The star illuminates the right side of the planet like the crescent of a waxing moon. Both are on the black background of space. The words “artist’s concept” are in the bottom right corner. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI)

ESA Space Science@science· Jul 1

New distance measurements for our galaxy 📏 ESA's XMM-Newton & NASA's Chandra have measured the distance to three bright explosions echoing through the outer spiral arms of our galaxy. In doing so, they found the arms to be up to 10% further away than we thought 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪 ☄️

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 30

The starry Chandelier Cluster 🪩 This sparkling scene features a globular cluster: a collection of tens of thousands to millions of stars, all tightly bound together under the influence of gravity. 🔭 🧪

A globular cluster. It is made up of many thousands of bright stars, tightly-packed in the centre and more spread out at the corners, but filling the entire view. The stars are coloured either orange or bright blue, with the blue stars mainly concentrated in the centre. Orange stars are located mainly around the edge, and also vary in size from small dots to glowing stars with four points, based on their position in the foreground or background of the cluster.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 29

Webb pinpoints millions of stars within the Cigar Galaxy. 65 hours of observation time and Webb's infrared sensitivity enabled the telescope to pierce through the thick dust of the galaxy and reveal approximately 16.5 million individual stars. Read more 👉 esawebb.org/news/weic2612/ 🔭 🧪

$Composite image of edge-on spiral starburst galaxy Messier 82 as observed by Webb and Hubble. Hourglass-shaped plumes of gas are shooting outward from above and below a bright blue-white, disc-shaped centre. The plumes are yellow near the galaxy’s bright centre, denoting areas of ionised hydrogen gas as observed by Hubble, and gradually become redder as you move farther away. Messier 82 is set against the black background of space, which has many distant galaxies that appear as small white and orange spirals, ovals, and points of light. Toward the right of Messier 82 is a blue-white star with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Smercina (STScI), T. Williams (University of Manchester). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)$

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 26

Solar Eclipse: myth ❌ or fact ✅ ? 🔴 will eclipses vanish one day? 🔴 do regular sunglasses protect your eyes? 🔴 do eclipses only move West to East? Find out with @esa.int astronaut Pablo Álvarez Fernández. 🔭 🧪 #EuropeanSolarEclipse

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 26

SOHO keeps on rocking 🤘 This mission has spent three decades staring at our star, and it shows: 📸 24 million images 🗄️ 60 TB of data 📄 7000 papers published What did it find? Explore here 👉 esa.int/soho 🔭

Banner of the SOHO mission website that reads: Science & Exploration. SOHO. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. In the background we see an illustration of the spacecraft and our the Sun, all depicted in red hues.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 25

Get ready for the 12 August #SolarEclipse with our educational kit. Packed full of activities designed for children aged 6-18, the English and Spanish kit invites you to build an eclipse simulator, a pinhole camera and even a home-made spectograph 👉 cesar.esa.int/index.php?Se... 🔭 🧪 ☀️ #EduSky

Cover image for an educational kit on the topic of solar eclipses, made by the Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research (CESAR) team. From an open book a whole universe opens, depicting elements such as astronauts, rockets, the sun, planets, stars a book, a pencil, a magnifying glass etc.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 25

You've seen Euclid's dazzling image of the Milky Way’s crowded heart. Now explore it yourself. Zoom in, zoom out, go wherever your curiosity takes you 🤩 – in #ESAsky 👇 sky.esa.int/esasky/?targ... 🔭 🧪 ☄️

A very dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. The colour is almost uniform, dominated by bright yellow and gold tones across the entire frame. Small white points appear slightly brighter here and there, with a few faint bluish points scattered among them. No large dark patches or strong colour variations are visible, giving the image a smooth, grain‑like appearance.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 25

Inspector Smile has reached her science orbit! 😊 The European-Chinese team is now embarking on a two-month campaign to ‘commission’ the spacecraft, which involves switching on and testing out its toolbox of science instruments 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 🔭 🧪

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

Today, Euclid revealed the largest, most detailed photo ever taken of our galaxy's centre in visible light 🙌 This video takes you on a journey across this region. Turn up the volume and enjoy our galactic centre 🤩 🔭 🧪

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

Euclid proves time and again that it's a remarkable space telescope. In just one day, it captured a mosaic that covers the entire region that the Roman space telescope will monitor for planet hunting, delivering essential data for this quest. Follow the story at esa.int/euclid 🔭 🧪 8/8

A wide, horizontal image shows an oval, map-like view set against a black background. Across the centre of the oval runs a bright, narrow band filled with countless tiny points of light, denser and brighter than the areas above and below it. The band looks slightly mottled, with lighter and darker patches mixed together, similar to a thin stripe of dust or mist stretched across a surface. Several rectangular zoom-in panels are overlaid on the main image, showing close-up views of densely packed stars in yellow, gold, and darker tones.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

Astronomers pointed Euclid to this area to study exoplanets using a technique called microlensing. Discover how here 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... Thanks to these observations they will be able to confirm any exoplanet found in this region and measure its mass. 🔭 🧪 ☄️ 7/8

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

Euclid's sharpness and sensitivity allowed it to distinguish several distinct cosmic objects: 🔎 an open star cluster 🔎 an emission nebula 🔎 a dense molecular cloud in the foreground But Euclid was looking for something else. 🔭 🧪 6/8

A very dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. The overall colour is warm, with many orange-yellow, gold and white points spread evenly across the scene. Toward the centre, the stars appear more tightly clustered and brighter. A few slightly bluish points stand out among the warmer colours, with no large dark patches visible.

A dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. The background is mostly dark, with countless small white and yellow points spread evenly across it. Near the centre, a brighter, irregular reddish area stands out, with several lighter patches clustered together. A few slightly bluish points are scattered across the scene, contrasting with the warmer colours.

A dense field of tiny, closely packed points of light fills the image. Most of the background is bright yellow and gold. A broad, irregular dark band runs diagonally across the centre, forming connected black and dark-brown patches. Brighter clusters of pale yellow and white points appear above and below this dark band, with a few slightly bluish points scattered throughout.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

This is the heart of the Milky Way, zoomed in ten times compared to the full image. Despite the super-crowded area, Euclid's visible light camera can tell individual stars apart – without being blinded by the chaos. 🔭 🧪 5/8

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

The central region of our galaxy is filled mainly with old, cooler stars, giving it its characteristic yellow colour. The dark patches are not devoid of stars: they mark dense, dust-rich molecular clouds. Massive blue stars hint at regions of active star formation. 🔎 Let's zoom in. 🔭 🧪 4/8

A wide, horizontal view shows a densely packed field of tiny stars. The left side is dominated by bright yellow and gold colours, with only a few dark patches interrupting the glow. Moving towards the right, the image becomes darker and more mottled, with larger irregular black and brown areas cutting into the star-filled background. Subtle purple and reddish tones appear toward the upper right, while small blue points of light are scattered across the scene.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

The location of the Solar System tells you where Euclid, and all of us, are. From here, Euclid gazed towards the centre of the galaxy, the bulge, spotting some hidden treasures along the view. 🔭 🧪 3/8

The image is a composite infographic set against a black background. At the top are three rectangular panels arranged from left to right. The left panel shows a bright horizontal band with a bright central area. The middle panel shows a spiral pattern viewed from above, with a white rectangular outline marking a region. The right panel shows a zoomed-in spiral view labelled ‘Solar System’. Behind these panels, a wide background image filled with densely packed yellow and gold points of light spans most of the width. Along the bottom centre, four numbered rectangular cutouts are shown in a row, each highlighting a different close-up region with varying colours and densities. On the far right, an additional rectangular panel shows a broader view with several numbers marking the locations of the cutouts within it.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 24

No less than 60 million stars in one image. It's possible thanks to ESA's Euclid mission. For just one day, Euclid turned its gaze to the crowded heart of the Milky Way and captured the largest, most detailed photo ever taken of our galaxy's centre in visible light. Let's dive deeper 👇 🔭 🧪 ☄️ 1/8

A dense field of tiny stars fills this square image taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The lower and central areas are dominated by bright yellow and gold colours, forming a textured background similar to fine glitter or sand. Dark brown and black patches cut irregularly through the yellow regions, like ink stains or clouds of smoke. Toward the upper left, the colours shift to purple and reddish tones, blending gently into the surrounding star field. Small blue points of light are scattered across the image.

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 23

This time, they've turned ESA's Euclid to the most crowded patch of sky we have. Stay tuned tomorrow as we reveal this image at 12:00 CEST 🤩 🔭 🧪☄️ 2/2

ESA Space Science@science· Jun 23

🥁🥁🥁 New Euclid image coming In 1995, astronomers turned Hubble to a seemingly empty patch of sky. The now famous Hubble Deep Field turned back with 3000 galaxies. Now, astronomers have done the opposite. 🔭 🧪☄️ 1/2