ESA Space Science

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A peak behind the scenes of the interview recording with Miho Janvier, for episode one of the European Space Agency’s podcast series, called ‘Expedition Sound’. It is a cheerful selfie of Miho with the podcast host Zsofi. Both are wearing headphones and have microphones before them. In the background, a roll-up banner is showing the Sun and the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

Photograph of a spacecraft towering at the centre of a large test chamber. The walls and ceiling of the chamber are covered with dense rows of blue foam spikes that create a striking geometric pattern extending in all directions around the spacecraft. The right side of the spacecraft is dominated by shiny black, stowed, solar panels. The spacecraft body is partly visible on the left wrapped in reflective gold-coloured insulating foil and partially covered by a translucent protective sheet secured with small pieces of red tape.

A square image from Mars Express showing a mostly-orange patch of Mars's surface, scattered with sharp craters, many of which are blue inside.

An infographic showing the different stages of BepiColombo's arrival at Mercury. Each step shows the configuration of the different spacecraft as they separate from one another, depicted as simplified grey drawings on a dark blue background. A vertical line connects the image for each step to the corresponding date and description at the bottom. An image of Mercury lies on the right edge of the infographic.

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.

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.

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)

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

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

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

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.

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)

GIF with an artist’s impression of what our home galaxy, the Milky Way, might look like face-on, before and after the new observations. In the centre of the galaxy, the bulge shines as a hazy oval, emitting a faint golden gleam. Starting at the central bulge, several glistening spiral arms coil outwards, creating a circle-shaped spiral. The position of the Sun is indicated as a small yellow dot within the spiral. Two sets of two lines roughly trace the extremities of the outer arms labelled ‘Outer Arm’ and ‘Outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm’, drawing four arcs. In each set, a magenta line traces the newly determined position of the outer arm by XMM-Newton and Chandra; on the inside of the magenta arc, a white dashed arc traces the position of that arm derived from older estimates.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

A GIF with Earth at the centre, surrounded by black space speckled with white stars. A series of blue ellipses appear one-by-one around Earth, as we slowly zoom out. Finally one larger and bolder pink ellipse appears.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

The Hubble Deep Field shows a stepped, staircase-shaped frame filled with many galaxies of different shapes and colours, scattered across a deep black background. Credit: R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA/ESA

Three images of comet 3I/ATLAS taken with Webb’s NIRSpec, each highlighting a part of the comet’s contents. The comet images are spherical but pixelated. From left to right: smallest sphere is blue and labeled H2O, orange is larger and labeled CO2, and red is largest and labeled CO. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M.Cordiner (Catholic University of America, GSFC)

Promotional image reading Director of Science Town Hall, 24 June 14:00–16:00 CEST. In the background, a blue-white, circular spiral galaxy is shown on a colourful starry background.

A dark tan-coloured patch of Mars, with an area of lower land running between the left and centre of the frame. Large islands dot the lower land, and steep cliffs appear to divide the lower and higher land. The right side of the landscape is smoother and slightly darker. A small scale bar at the bottom right indicates that north is to the left, and that a line approximately one tenth of the image width is 20 km long.

$A dramatically crowded starfield that looks like a just-shaken snow globe. The black background of space, which is clearer at the edges, is covered by thousands of tiny white, orange, and blue points of light, which are stars. The stars are most concentrated in the centre, forming a roughly circular orb, and sparser at the edges of the image. Several larger orange stars, particularly those largest near the edges of the frame, have prominent diffraction spikes.$

Cartoon animation showing BepiColombo heading towards Mercury and the thrusters switching off.

This infographic is titled 'Types of solar eclipse'. It shows three solar eclipses. Running from left to right: a total solar eclipse, which looks like a dark circle surrounded by a glowing, perfectly circular ring. An annular solar eclipse, which is also a dark circle surrounded by a ring, but the ring is more solid and thicker on one side. A partial solar eclipse, which is a yellow crescent-shape, almost like a biscuit with a large bite taken out of it.

A spectrum graphic showing the amount of light blocked on the y-axis versus wavelength of light, in microns. The bottom of the y-axis is labeled “fainter,” and the top is labeled “brighter.” The x-axis starts with 2.80 microns at left and continues in increments of five, ending with 3.05 microns at right. A key at top left has a white line labeled “Data” and a small blue square labeled “Model of light scattered through hot dense gas.” The white data line is stepped with a large bell-like curve that peaks at 2.95 microns. It is labeled “hydrogen” and highlighted by a semi-transparent purple. The data also forms small peaks highlighted with different colors: around 2.84 microns, oxygen, green; 3.0 microns, helium, red; and 3.02 microns, sulfur, orange. The blue filling, representing the model, approximately fills the bell-like curve that marks hydrogen. A smaller peak of blue also approximately fills the data’s peak of helium. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, V. Kokorev (University of Texas at Austin), A. Pagan (STScI)

$A field of galaxies against the black background of space. In the centre is a bright-white elliptical galaxy that is the core of the Abell S1063 galaxy cluster. Around the core are short, curved red lines, which are distant background galaxies magnified and warped by gravitational lensing. A couple of foreground stars appear large and bright with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spike pattern. Toward the very bottom, slightly off center toward the right, is a small red dot that is highlighted by an orange square outline. A larger orange square in the top right corner shows the object in more detail. The object, labeled “GLIMPSE-17775” looks like a fuzzy red dot with a yellow core. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, V. Kokorev (University of Texas at Austin), A. Pagan (STScI)$