Category: Science

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Exoplanet system artwork

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ESA’s new and future exoplanet missions

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00:00:51

The James Webb Space Telescope, configured for flight, was moved from the cleanroom to the payload preparation facility for fuelling at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 11–12 November 2021.

Webb will be loaded with propellants before being mounted on top of the rocket and then encapsulated by the Ariane 5 fairing.

Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit.

Access the related broadcast quality video material.

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Webb stickers for Ariane 5 fairing

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00:01:00

Solar Orbiter’s crucial flyby of Earth on 27 November will place the spacecraft onto the correct orbit for its science phase to begin. But the manoeuvre is not without risk. At closest approach, the spacecraft will be around 460 km above our planet. This is in the Low Earth Orbit zone, where the International Space Station and many other spacecraft can be found. It is also home to a lot of space debris, meaning that there is a small risk of a collision between Solar Orbiter and some space junk. To reach this region, Solar Orbiter will also have to fly through another well-used orbital region, called Geostationary orbit, which again is congested with space debris and other satellites. ESA will monitor the situation carefully and change the trajectory of the spacecraft if it needs to. However, the flyby does present a unique opportunity for science. Solar Orbiter can collect data on the Earth’s magnetic field, which can be compared to that from ESA’s Cluster and Swarm missions to give a more detailed, three dimensional description of this highly changeable region around our planet. After the flyby, regular Venus gravity assists will bring the spacecraft higher over the Sun’s never-before-seen poles, providing new details about how activity on the Sun generates space weather.

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00:00:19

The Euclid payload and service module are currently at Thales Alenia Space in Torino, Italy, where they will be integrated to form the final, finished spacecraft.

In this video Euclid’s service module is being transferred onto a support near the payload module, in order to prepare it for further integration activities.

Euclid is ESA’s mission to map the geometry of the Universe and better understand the mysterious dark matter and dark energy.

The Euclid mission recently passed a milestone in its development with successful testing of the telescope and instruments showing that it can operate and achieve the required performance in the extreme environment of space.

Thales Alenia Space is ESA’s prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its service module. The payload module, including the telescope, was developed by Airbus Defence and Space.

Euclid has two instruments provided by two consortia of European scientific institutes: the VISible imager (VIS) and the Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP).

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray space telescopes, astronomers have made an important step in the quest to find a planet outside of the Milky Way.

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00:00:41

ESA’s Euclid mission aims to investigate dark matter, dark energy and the expanding Universe.

Euclid has reached a new milestone in its development with successful testing of the telescope and instruments showing that it can operate and achieve the required performance in the extreme environment of space.

At Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) in Belgium, the payload module (containing the telescope and scientific instruments) was packed in a thermal tent, after which it was loaded in a large vacuum tank where it underwent intensive testing.

Euclid experienced simulated space conditions in vacuum with the payload module cooled to -150^oC, the same temperature it will operate in once in space.

After 60 days of intensive testing, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, the vacuum chamber was opened and Euclid was taken out of the thermal tent.

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00:01:54

The James Webb Space Telescope, a once in a generation space mission, arrived safely at Pariacabo harbour in French Guiana on 12 October 2021, ahead of its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport.

Webb was packed in a 30 m long container with additional equipment. It arrived from California on board the MN Colibri which sailed the Panama Canal to French Guiana on a 16-day voyage. The shallow Kourou river was specially dredged to ensure a clear passage and the vessel followed high tide to safely reach port.

The MN Colibri, like its sister vessel the MN Toucan, were built to ship Ariane 5 rocket parts from Europe to French Guiana. They were specifically designed to carry a complete set of Ariane 5 parts across the Atlantic, while having a low enough draft to enable them to follow a route along the shallow Kourou river to the Pariacabo harbour. 

Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit.

Access the related broadcast quality footage.

Video:
00:02:07

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space.

Webb’s flight into orbit will take place on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Webb is the next great space science observatory, designed to answer outstanding questions about the Universe and to make breakthrough discoveries in all fields of astronomy. Webb will see farther into our origins – from the formation of stars and planets, to the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe.

During the first month in space, on its way to the second Langrange point (L2), Webb will undergo a complex unfolding sequence. Key steps in this sequence are unfolding Webb’s sunshield – a five-layer, diamond-shaped structure the size of a tennis court – and the iconic 6.5-metre wide mirror, consisting of a honeycomb-like pattern of 18 hexagonal, gold-coated mirror segments.

Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service. As well as launch services, ESA contributes to two of the four science instruments (NIRSpec and MIRI), and provides personnel to support mission operations.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Music: ‘Once In A Lifetime’ by Philip Guyler and ‘Halcyon Days’ by Ian Hughes

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Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime produced by the acceleration of very massive objects, such as black holes coming together and merging. 

Different objects in space produce gravitational waves of different timescales, ranging from milliseconds to billions of years. 

Some of these waves can only be observed from space.

This is the goal of ESA’s future mission LISA, which will be the first space-based gravitational wave observatory.

LISA will study gravitational waves that are produced by merging stellar mass black holes, supermassive black holes and white dwarfs. It will also pick up the waves produced by compact objects, like neutron stars or small black holes, that fall into a supermassive black hole.

Video:
00:00:55

ESA’s Euclid mission aims to investigate dark matter, dark energy and the expanding Universe.

Euclid has reached a new milestone in its development with successful testing of the telescope and instruments showing that it can operate and achieve the required performance in the extreme environment of space.

At Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) in Belgium, the payload module (containing the telescope and scientific instruments) was packed in a thermal tent, after which it was loaded in a large vacuum tank where it underwent intensive testing.

Euclid experienced simulated space conditions in vacuum with the payload module cooled to -150^oC, the same temperature it will operate in once in space.

After 60 days of intensive testing, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, the vacuum chamber was opened and Euclid was taken out of the thermal tent.

ESA’s Euclid mission has reached a new milestone in its development with successful testing of the telescope and instruments showing that it can operate and achieve the required performance in the extreme environment of space.