Category: Science

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This image shows part of the ice cap sitting at Mars’ north pole, complete with bright swathes of ice, dark troughs and depressions, and signs of strong winds and stormy activity.

The landscape here is a rippled mix of colour. Dark red and ochre-hued troughs appear to cut through the icy white of the polar cap; these form part of a wider system of depressions that spiral outwards from the very centre of the pole. Visible to the left of the frame are a few extended streams of clouds, aligned perpendicularly to a couple of the troughs. These are thought to be caused by small local storms that kick up dust into the martian atmosphere, eroding scarps and slopes as they do so and slowly changing the appearance of the troughs over time.

This image comprises data gathered on 16 November 2006 during orbit 3670. The ground resolution is approximately 15 m/pixel and the images are centred at about 244°E/85°N. This image was created using data from the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is to the upper right.

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This image shows shows the ice cap at Mars’ north pole. The area outlined by the bold white box indicates the area imaged by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera on 16 November 2006 during orbit 3670.

ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has spied hot gas sloshing around within a galaxy cluster – a never-before-seen behaviour that may be driven by turbulent merger events.

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This image shows the bright, nearby, and massive Coma galaxy cluster in X-ray and optical light, as seen by XMM-Newton’s European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS).

Using XMM-Newton to study Coma and another notably massive cluster, Perseus, astronomers spotted the first signs of gas sloshing around in Perseus – a behaviour that, while predicted, had never been seen before – while Coma appears to comprise two major sub-clusters that are slowly merging together.

Full story: First sighting of hot gas sloshing in galaxy cluster

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This image shows the Perseus galaxy cluster – one of the most massive known objects in the Universe – in X-ray and optical light, as seen by XMM-Newton’s European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) and the Digitzed Sky Survey II, respectively.

Using XMM-Newton to study Perseus, astronomers spotted the first signs of this hot gas splashing and sloshing around – a behaviour that, while predicted, had never been seen before.

Full story: First sighting of hot gas sloshing in galaxy cluster

Arianespace and ESA today announced the signature of a launch services contract for the Euclid satellite – with the mission’s timeframe for liftoff starting in mid-2022 from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

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The rim of this ice-rich crater catches the early morning sunlight in the high northern latitudes of Mars, imaged by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on 26 October 2019.

This image features a simple 7 km-wide bowl-shaped crater pictured in the early morning. The sunlight falling on the ice deposits on the crater’s north-facing walls causes the ice to appear extremely bright. Ice fills much of the crater floor, and coats part of the surrounding terrain.

While the image was taken during the summer months, some shadowed regions receive fewer hours of sunlight on average throughout the year, so they trap permanent deposits of water ice.

The image is centred at 230.77ºE/73.95ºN. It was taken on 26 October 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.

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This view may resemble a snowy scene observed from an airplane flying over Earth’s mountain ranges, but it is in fact a spectacular scene captured by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, or TGO, as it flew over the ice-coated Korolev crater on 21 August 2019.

Korolev is an 80 km-wide crater in the northern polar regions of Mars that contains a massive ice sheet in its centre, the third largest exposed ice sheet on Mars, after its polar caps. The beauty of this ice sheet was captured in its entirety in a stunning mosaic of images taken by the HRSC camera on ESA’s Mars Express over the course of its 15-year – and counting – odyssey at the Red Planet.

TGO also captured a beautiful slice of Korolev crater in April 2018, which was one of the first images the spacecraft sent back to Earth after arriving in its science orbit around Mars.

In the image presented here, the CaSSIS camera reveals the detail of the crater’s south-eastern wall, which was illuminated at sunrise during the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. The walls of the craters at this latitude get fewer hours of sunlight on average throughout the year, so they have permanent deposits of water ice. In addition, at this time of year, carbon dioxide ice is still present on the surface left over from the seasonal cap that covers the polar regions during winter, contributing to the appearance of snow-covered mountain peaks.

Compare with this image taken in the same region a few months later, after much of the carbon dioxide ice has receded.

The image is centred at 164.90ºE/72.02ºN and was taken on 21 August 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.

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Many craters in the polar regions of Mars hold permanent ice deposits year-round.

In this image, taken by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, the south-eastern wall of a 35 km-wide crater is seen. The image captures its permanent deposits of water ice, which survive the summer months due to the low average sunlight at high latitudes.

The image is centred at 192.99ºE/70.4ºN. It was taken on 29 October 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.

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Ice capping the northern hemisphere terrain of Mars slowly recedes as summer progresses, revealing the underlying surface.

This scene was captured by the CaSSIS camera onboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter as it flew over the ice-coated Korolev crater on 1 November 2019. Korolev crater is an 80 km-wide crater in the northern latitudes of Mars that contains a massive ice sheet in its centre – this image focuses on one of the crater walls.

At this time, it was mid-summer in the northern hemisphere of Mars: the carbon dioxide ice cover had retreated, revealing the permanent water ice deposits much more clearly, along with details of surfaces previously covered in ice.

The image is centred at 164.90ºE/72.02ºN and was taken on 1 November 2019. The scale is indicated on the image.

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The fairing of the Soyuz launcher that will lift ESA’s Cheops mission into space, along with the primary passenger, the Italian space agency’s Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellite, and three CubeSats: ESA’s OPS-SAT and the French space agency’s CNES’s EYE-SAT and ANGELS satellites. Launch is scheduled for 17 December from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

In this photo, the upper composite of the launcher and all passengers are encapsulated in the fairing and the composite is ready for integration with the 3-stage launcher. The fairing sticker features, among others, the ESA and Cheops mission logos and the winning design of the Cheops fairing sticker competition, on the left, created by Denis Vrenko.

More about Cheops

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ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, encapsulated under the ASAP-S adapter of the Soyuz launcher, after having been moved to the platform of the transport module on 29 November. The two shells of the module were later closed and sealed before transport  to the final integration building at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Cheops is ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet’s transit across the star’s disc.

More about Cheops

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At Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is being fitted into the flight adapter of the Soyuz-Fregat rocket that will lift it into space on 17 December.

In this picture, taken on 29 November, the Souyuz Arianespace System for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP-S) is progressively lowered, encapsulating Cheops. The ASAP-S structure is used to integrate the main passenger, Cheops and the Cubesats into the launcher.

Cheops is ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. It will observe bright stars that are already known to host planets, measuring minuscule brightness changes due to the planet’s transit across the star’s disc.

More about Cheops