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European Space Agency
@esa.int
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#50YearsOfESA: we're the European Space Agency, keeping you posted on European space activities.

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esa.int
Patagonia is burning and we can see it from space. 🔥

Captured on 11 January 2026, this image shows an active wildfire near Lake Rivadavia in Los Alerces National Park, Argentina, observed from #Copernicus Sentinel-2.

In this false-colour image we can see burnt areas as well as active fires.
Captured on 11 January 2026, this image shows an active wildfire near Lake Rivadavia in Los Alerces National Park, Argentina.
January 13, 2026 at 3:25 PM
esa.int
🚀 #Artemis II launch opportunities in early 2026

Find out more on #NASA's blog:
🔗 nasa.gov/missions/art...

@exploration.esa.int
To determine potential launch dates, engineers identified key constraints required to accomplish the mission and keep the crew inside Orion safe. The resulting launch periods are the days or weeks where the spacecraft and rocket can meet mission objectives. These launch periods account for the complex orbital mechanics involved in launching on a precise trajectory toward the Moon while the Earth is rotating on its axis and the Moon is orbiting Earth each month in its lunar cycle. This results in a pattern of approximately one week of launch opportunities, followed by three weeks without launch opportunities.
January 11, 2026 at 12:33 PM
esa.int
Today we are launching the ESA Space Range in collaboration with #PLAYMOBIL: a new Mars mission toy collection inspired by real science and exploration. 🚀

🔗 esa.int/About_Us/Branding_and_Partnerships/ESA_and_Playmobil_launch_Mars_mission_collection
ESA Space Range by PLAYMOBIL
January 9, 2026 at 2:18 PM
esa.int
#MediaInvitation: Journalists are invited to join the 18th European Space Conference on 27–28 January 2026 in Brussels.

ESA DG @josefaschbacher.esa.int and Directors will deliver keynotes, join panels and be available for interviews.
January 9, 2026 at 10:32 AM
esa.int
🆕 The threat of large-scale deforestation is well known, but this new study reveals a surprising risk factor: small clearings of tropical forest account for more than half of net carbon losses across the Tropics.

📷 These satellite images show how deforestation has expanded in Peru’s Loreto region.
NASA’s Landsat-5 image from 10 July 1995 of the Loreto region in Peru Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from 3 August 2020 of the Loreto region in Peru
January 8, 2026 at 4:50 PM
esa.int
#ComingUp: Join us today at 10:30 CET for the start-of-the-year press briefing with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher from ESA HQ in Paris.

📺 Watch Live on #ESAWebTV
🔗 watch.esa.int/two/
January 8, 2026 at 6:59 AM
esa.int
📷 These #Copernicus Sentinel-2 images show Brussels and Amsterdam covered in snow on 6 January 2026. ❄️

The winter weather caused widespread disruption, with hazardous road conditions and numerous train and flight cancellations reported throughout the week. 🧪🔭
This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 6 January 2026, shows Brussels and snowy surroundings in Belgium. The city’s dense urban centre contrasts sharply with the lighter tones of snow-covered parks, residential neighbourhoods and nearby rural landscapes, while major transport corridors remain visible beneath the wintry cover. Brussels airport, in the top right of the image, can be seen surrounded by snow, for example. This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 6 January 2026, shows Amsterdam in the Netherlands blanketed in snow. The city’s canals, parks and dense urban fabric are clearly outlined beneath the white covering, highlighting both the snowfall and the mission’s ability to monitor weather events and their impacts on urban areas from space.
January 7, 2026 at 2:51 PM
esa.int
📷 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a vibrant star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of our Milky Way’s satellite galaxies🧪🔭

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/04/Hubble_spots_stellar_sculptors_at_work_in_a_nearby_galaxy

@science.esa.int @stsci.edu
A star cluster within a nebula. The background is filled with thin, pale blue clouds. Parts are thicker and pinker in colour. The cluster is made up of bright blue stars that illuminate the nebula around them. Large arcs of dense dust curve around, before and behind the clustered stars, pressed together by the stars’ radiation. Behind the clouds of the nebula can be seen large numbers of orange stars.
January 4, 2026 at 11:29 AM
esa.int
🔵 In 2025, the NASA/ESA/CSA #Webb Space Telescope found a new moon orbiting Uranus! Called S/2025 U1, it joined the 28 other known moons around the ice giant. Webb’s infrared view also revealed the planet’s rings and atmospheric details in stunning clarity 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... @stsci.edu
An annotated Webb image of the planet Uranus on a black background with 13 of its 28 known moons. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the bottom half. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Beyond the rings are 14 labeled moons appearing as points of light. The newly discovered planet, S/2025 U1, is labeled in yellow.
January 3, 2026 at 11:27 AM
esa.int
📸 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image captures NGC 4449, a dwarf galaxy just 12.5 million light-years away from us that’s forming stars at an extraordinary rate 🧪🔭

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... @stsci.edu @science.esa.int
This Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 4449. The field is dominated by dust that appears in dark red, with scattered brighter regions of star formation as bright pink globules. The background shows countless blue stars peeking around the dusty regions.
January 2, 2026 at 12:04 PM
esa.int
#HappyNewYear! Start 2026 on a radiant note with this breathtaking video of the Sun: our Solar Orbiter spacecraft captured a stunning plasma flare dancing above the solar surface 🔥🧪🔭

🔗 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
January 1, 2026 at 1:33 PM
esa.int
📷 This was our year #2025 in images... 👇

🔗 www.esa.int/About_Us/Wee...
The Sombrero Galaxy is an oblong, pale white disc with a glowing core. It appears nearly edge-on but is slanted slightly in the front, presenting a slightly top-down view of the inner region of the galaxy and its bright core. The outer disc is darker with shades of brown and black. Different coloured distant galaxies and various stars are speckled among the black background of space surrounding the galaxy. ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer wearing a spacesuit holds a prototype of the camera that will make it to the Moon during a rehearsal at the LUNA facility in Germany. Group photo at the European Astronaut Centre showing ESA’s first Astronaut Reserve members with their new training patch. In the front row, from left to right: Aleš Svoboda, Amelie Schoenenwald, Anthea Comellini and Meganne Christian. In the back row, from left to right: ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Arnaud Prost, Carmen Possnig, Andrea Patassa, John McFall, Sara García Alonso and ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration Daniel Neuenschwander. All wear blue ESA flight suits, except Andreas Mogensen and Daniel Neuenschwander, who are in jackets and suits. Ariane 6 rocket night launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
December 31, 2025 at 11:38 AM
esa.int
Can you see fireworks from space? 🎆

If you get lucky you can, but nature always puts on the best show.

We're celebrating the #NewYear with this stunning sight from the International Space Station: a giant blue jet and red sprites shooting upwards from a thunderstorm.

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...
As she flew 400 km above Earth, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers caught a gigantic spark with blue flashes and red tentacles shooting upwards. In the image, a blue jet propagates into space towards the upper layers of the atmosphere. The beam of light is followed by red flashes spreading like tentacles across the sky. The magnificent event lasted less than a second.
December 30, 2025 at 10:39 AM
esa.int
📷 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image shows the N159 star-forming complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way 🧪🔭

🔗 esahubble.org/images/potw2...
A field filled with stars and covered by clouds of gas and dust. In the centre, a thick column of dark black dust blocks light from stars that light it up from behind. More clouds behind those stars are illuminated in pale colours. Complex, layered filaments of red dust lie to the left and right. Blue, white and gold stars in various sizes can be seen around, within and through the colourful layers of dust.
December 29, 2025 at 9:02 PM
esa.int
ESA's Sophie Adenot says, "Delighted to share with you our Crew-12 mission patch and to shed some light on the symbolism behind its design! We hope you’ll love it as much as we do."

(pic:NASA) @exploration.esa.int @soph-astro.esa.int @fr.esa.int
Colourful flight patch for ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot's Crew-12 spaceflight.
December 29, 2025 at 7:41 PM
esa.int
Mars’s mysterious slope streaks aren’t signs of water after all! 🧪🔭

A study using machine learning and decades of orbital data revealed they are the result of dust sliding down steep terrain.

🔗 esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/05/Streaks_on_Mars
Bright and dark streaks covering the slopes of the Olympus Mons aureole, as seen by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
December 28, 2025 at 5:06 PM
esa.int
👀 Our scientists used Gaia's data to craft the most accurate 3D map of star-forming regions in the Milky Way! 🌌 🧪🔭

🔗 esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/Fly_through_Gaia_s_3D_map_of_stellar_nurseries
December 27, 2025 at 1:31 PM
esa.int
❄️ Our ExoMars TGO spacecraft revealed water frost inside the summit crater of Mount Olympus on Mars. Before this observation, it was thought improbable for frost to exist in this area. 🧪🔭

🔗 esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/06/Newfound_frost_atop_Olympus_Mons
This rectangular slice of Mars shows the terrain atop Mars’s volcano Olympus Mons. Rippled, uneven, stepped terrain can be seen, with different illuminations. The right-hand side of the image is blue-toned, representing the newly discovered water ice frost.
December 26, 2025 at 11:59 AM
esa.int
🌟 Merry Christmas from a newborn star. Earlier this year the NASA/ESA/CSA #Webb Space Telescope took this stunning image of HH30, an edge-on protoplanetary disc. 🧪🔭

🔗 esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_investigates_a_dusty_and_dynamic_disc
A close-in image of a protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star. Many different wavelengths of light are combined and represented by separate and various colours. A dark line across the centre is the disc, made of opaque dust: the star is hidden in here and creates a strong glow in the centre. A band going straight up is a jet, while other outflows form flares above and below the disc, and a tail coming off to one side.
December 25, 2025 at 4:26 PM
esa.int
✨This NASA/ESA/CSA #Webb Space Telescope image shows the Westerlund 1 cluster, a group of massive stars located in our galaxy which are nearly as bright as a million Suns each. 🌌🎄🧪🔭

🔗 esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/10/The_exotic_stellar_population_of_Westerlund_1
December 24, 2025 at 11:11 AM
esa.int
🌖 This image shows the South pole of the Moon taken by the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). It is the main candidate landing site for Artemis III. 🧪🔭

🔗 esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Orion/Artemis_III
A mosaic of the south pole of our Moon showing locations of major craters.
December 23, 2025 at 11:25 AM
esa.int
🌪️ Our ExoMars TGO spacecraft captured these images of whirlwinds of dust on the Mars surface.

🔗 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
A colour satellite image of Mars showing a flat, dusty landscape with a faint, swirling dust devil – a small tornado-like column of dust – casting a subtle shadow as it moves across the surface. The dust devil appears as a light, vertical streak against the reddish-brown terrain, with nearby shallow craters and ridges visible
December 22, 2025 at 5:32 PM
esa.int
📷 This NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope image shows galaxies MCG-02-05-050a (left) and MCG-02-05-050, collectively called Arp 4. But this pairing is simply an unlikely visual coincidence... 🧪🔭

🔗 esahubble.org/images/potw2... @stsci.edu
This image shows two galaxies side by side. The galaxy on the top left is smaller in size, and appears as a bright glowing spiral with clearly-defined arms. A larger blue galaxy dominates the full right field of the image. This galaxy is more irregularly shaped, with a glowing central bar, and varying regions of concentrated hues of blue. The background is black with various stars and galaxies in the distance.
December 22, 2025 at 9:13 AM
esa.int
📸 This was our #WeekInImages, 15-19 December 2025 👇
🧪🔭

🔗 www.esa.int/About_Us/Wee...
Ariane VA266 lift off This composite NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the debris ring and dust clouds cs1 and cs2 around the star Fomalhaut. A collage of 32 glowing discs on a black background. Each disc shows concentric rings in vivid colours: purple, orange, and yellow, with bright cyan centres. The discs vary in size and orientation, creating a striking pattern of circular and elliptical shapes. A spiral galaxy seen nearly edge-on. Its disk is filled with red and blue lights from star-forming nebulae and clusters of hot stars, respectively, as well as thick dark clouds of dust that block the strong white light from its centre. A faint, glowing halo of gas surrounds the disc, fading into the black background. A bluish plume of gas also extends from the galaxy’s core to the lower-right of the image.
December 21, 2025 at 6:55 PM
esa.int
Today is the December solstice at 15:03 GMT/16:03 CET.
This @eumetsat.int MTG‑I1 image from 19 December 2025, 06:00 GMT, shows Earth’s day–night terminator tilted near its annual maximum of about 23.5°.
The 2025 winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere — the shortest day (and longest night) of the year and the beginning of the winter season. The event, which also marks the start of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, is caused by Earth's axial tilt and the planet's motion as it orbits around the sun at the center of our Solar System. Earth doesn't sit upright as it circles the Sun. Instead, it orbits on its axis at a tilt of 23.5 degrees. Our planet's Northern and Southern hemispheres take turns with sunlight, trading places when it comes to seasons. So, on the winter solstice, the planet's Northern Hemisphere is turned as far away from the sun as it ever is.
December 21, 2025 at 11:26 AM