ESA Science

Want to help discover an exoplanet? 🪐

Planet Hunters Cheops is a new #CitizenScience project that invites you to search for planet transit signals hidden in light curves from our Cheops mission.

Join the hunt 👉 zooniverse.org/projects/bmeri…

Solar Orbiter tracks the origin of the Sun's mysterious magnetic switchbacks ☀️

Back in 2022, Solar Orbiter spotted a kink in the solar wind’s magnetic field known as a ‘switchback’ and confirmed it to be S-shaped: something scientists had predicted but not seen directly.

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Mars’s oddest cloud may be even odder than we thought 🤔

Every spring and summer in Mars’s southern hemisphere a spectacular cloud emerges: the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, the most visually striking cloud on the Red Planet.

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🆕 Our ESA/Webb Picture of the Month features a glowing and evolving star cluster ✨

Webb has peered through layers of dust to reveal the young stars hidden in NGC 7129, a stellar nursery just 3,300 light-years from Earth. 1/3

Bepi and Mio are almost at Mercury, and they would love to hear from you 💌

Send them a #WelcomeToMercury message for a chance to win a trip to ESA's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, this December.

Wish them well 👉 esa.int/WelcomeToMercu… 🫶

@BepiColombo

🆕 This suspected second-generation planet has solved a Hubble cold case 🕵️‍♂️

Since 1999, mysterious chemical signatures from a white dwarf, HS 0209+0832, have sat in the Hubble archive. Now, sleuthing astronomers have revealed unusual chemical abundances, including of the element niobium. 1/3

A busy month in space 🗓️

This September, BepiColombo separated from its Mercury Transfer Module, while Webb found tiny brown dwarfs that could harbor the building blocks of planets.

Discover more highlights from September 👉 youtube.com/watch?v=FyTnJa…

This World Smile Day 🙂, we bring you ....
 
... Let's Smile, the film 🎞️
 
Watch the European-Chinese Smile spacecraft come together – assembled in the Netherlands, tested, then launched from French Guiana 👇 
esa.int/ESA_Multimedia…

A ‘Juice eye view’ of our home planet 🌍

On 28 September, our @ESA_Juice mission completed a gravity assist flyby of Earth.

As Juice flew just 8640 km above the Indian Ocean, it snapped a series of images with its onboard monitoring cameras, giving us these unique views 👇
youtube.com/watch?v=zmW8hg…

On 9 December, two little explorers, Bepi and Mio, will part ways as they approach their final destination after an eight years-long journey 🥹

Join us in sending them a #WelcomeToMercury message to cheer them up at this bitter sweet moment.

Enter our @BepiColombo competition here 👉 esa.int/WelcomeToMercu…

Inspector Smile is ready for science! 🫡

This is Smile’s first ultraviolet view showing an auroral substorm.

With the ultraviolet camera now operational, Smile becomes the first spacecraft since 2008 to capture the full ring of northern lights around the north pole in ultraviolet light.

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A successful Earth flyby improves Juice’s course to Jupiter.

Earlier today, @ESA_Juice flew just 8640 km above the Indian Ocean and snapped these images with its onboard monitoring cameras.

1️⃣Africa, by Juice monitoring camera 2️⃣Madagascar, by Juice NavCam
3️⃣Moon, by Juice NavCam

Want to join us as @BepiColombo arrives at Mercury?

You can! Submit a #WelcomeToMercury message for @ESA_Bepi and @JAXA_MMO and stand a chance to win a trip to ESA in Darmstadt, Germany, in December of this year.

Check the competition out here 👉 esa.int/WelcomeToMercu…

🚨Competition alert 🚨

Craft a #WelcomeToMercury message for Bepi and Mio and stand a chance to win a trip to Germany and witness the ESA/JAXA @BepiColombo mission arrive at Mercury!

The message could be a drawing, song, poem or any other art form. Details 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

Happy launch anniversary, Hinode! 🎉

This Japanese-led solar mission with ESA participation was launched 20 years ago to explore the Sun's magnetic field and outer atmosphere, and to better understand the mechanisms that power the solar corona and trigger violent solar eruptions.

Juice is returning to Earth, again 🛰️

On 28 September the spacecraft will fly by Earth, coming within 8640 km of our planet.

The closest approach will be over the Indian Ocean at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UTC) 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

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@ESA_JUICE

Are you an early-career scientist?

Don't miss the opportunity to join us for the postdoctoral #ESAResearchFellowship programme.

Applications are open until 21 September 👉 cosmos.esa.int/web/space-scie…

Summer in Europe may be coming to an end, but the Red Planet is still us giving raspberry ripple ice cream vibes in this latest image from #MarsExpress 🍦

Explore the image and find about more about this cliff of ice near Mars's south pole 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

📣 We're looking for the next fellows in Space Science!

The 2026 deadline for the #ESAResearchFellowship in Space Science Programme is fast approaching.

Apply until 21 September here 👉 jobs.esa.int/job/Villanueva…

Details 👉 cosmos.esa.int/web/space-scie…

Webb reveals one of its largest images to date! 😲

This starry view shows the nearby star-forming region IC 348. Here, astronomers searched for brown dwarfs, objects which are less massive than the smallest stars.

Read more 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…

@ESA_Webb