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ESA Science Profile picture
ESA Science
@esascience
Science @ the European Space Agency, keeping you posted on European space science activities
Jan 25, 2024 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
📢 @ESA adopts two ambitious space science missions: Venus voyager #EnVision and gravitational wave surfer #LISA.

“These trailblazing missions will take us to the next level in two extraordinarily exciting areas of space science and keep European researchers at the forefront of these domains,” says ESA Director of Science @CGMundell

The ‘adoption’ step recognises that the missions' concept and technology are sufficiently advanced, and gives the go-ahead to build the instruments and spacecraft. Both spacecraft are planned to launch with an #Ariane6Illustration showing two black holes merging and creating ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Some galaxies are visible in the backrgound as well as a red triangle, meant to represent the position of the three LISA spacecraft and the laser beams that will travel between them.
Illustration showing the EnVision spacecraft on top of two partially overlappint images of Earth (left) and Venus (right). Credit: NASA / JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic / VR2Planets Capturing ripples in spacetime

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna #LISA mission is the first scientific endeavour to detect and study gravitational waves from space.

The @ESA_LisaMission has three spacecraft that will fly in formation. Together they form an equilateral triangle connected by laser beams, trailing the Earth during its orbit around the Sun.

Read more 👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…Infographic providing information on gravitational waves and how the LISA mission will measure them using laser beams and free-floating cubes. The image shows the three LISA spacecraft in orbit with the Earth and Sun visible. A zoomed in circle focuses on one of the spacecraft and the two golden cubes it contains. In the background an illustration of two colliding black holes is creating ripples in spacetime. Another box shows a sequence of triangles to demonstrate the effect gravitational waves will have on the distance travelled by LISA’s laser beams.
Mar 28, 2023 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
💥 @esa and @NASA space telescopes further investigated #GRB221009A, the famous gamma-ray burst which might be the brightest since human civilisation began.

X-rays from the blast have illuminated 20 dust clouds in our galaxy, as seen by @ESA_XMM 👉esa.int/Science_Explor…
1/4 This image shows concentric... A mystery remains about the object that exploded to create the GRB. Astronomers used @ESA_Webb and @HUBBLE_space to look for the aftermath of the explosion, and found... nothing.
2/4
Oct 28, 2020 • 12 tweets • 13 min read
Are you ready for an early #Halloween story? Turn on your pumpkin lanterns, because the ghosts of our spacecraft past have a story to tell… 💀🛰👻🎃🤖☄️🕯 #RosettaLegacy #TrickOrTreat #MysteryStory After years of detective work by #Rosetta & #Philae teams, the lander’s “missing” second touchdown site has been identified on #comet #67P, in a location that resembles the shape of a skull! 🔎💀😮 #RosettaLegacy
Full story👉 esa.int/Science_Explor…
May 13, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A new #comet was discovered last month by amateur astronomer Micheal Mattiazzo from Australia. Just, he did not look at the sky to do so. He inspected images from #SOHO, our Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

Meet C2020/F8, aka Comet SWAN 👇👍
Details 👉
esa.int/Science_Explor… Here is a photo of the comet from 2 May 👇
Today, it reached its closest approach to Earth at around 85 million km, and it is headed towards its closest point to the Sun on 27 May. It is now faintly visible to the naked eye. Will it become brighter?
May 28, 2019 • 25 tweets • 61 min read
Today we'd like to share some fun facts about #Mars and our discoveries so far with #ESA Mars Express & @ESA_TGO. But first let's take a look at the @esa @NASA @isro @roscosmos spacecraft currently investigating the Red Planet:
📷Hi-res: esa.int/spaceinimages/… #ExploreFarther @ESA_TGO @esa @NASA @isro @roscosmos Did you know there is a telecommunications network at #Mars? Orbiters relay commands and send #science data from landers & rovers back to #Earth. Our #ExoMars @ESA_TGO is a key provider of data relay services!🔴〰️🛰〰️🌍 #ExploreFarther
📷Hi-res: esa.int/spaceinimages/…
Feb 4, 2019 • 4 tweets • 7 min read
#SpaceScience #ImageOfTheWeek: Grab your #3D glasses & dive into a river delta on #Mars! 💦 This recent image was taken by @ExoMars_CaSSIS onboard our @ESA_TGO, currently investigating the planet’s atmosphere & mapping subsurface water-ice. #ScienceAtESA 📷esa.int/spaceinimages/… Our @ESA_TGO is part one of the joint @esa @roscosmos #ExoMars programme. Coming soon is @ESA_MarsRover, set for launch in 2020 and landing on #Mars in 2021 in a quest to look for evidence for life buried underground. esa.int/exomars #ScienceAtESA #Space19Plus
Oct 20, 2018 • 24 tweets • 17 min read
Greetings from @ESA's operations centre in Germany, where we're following the launch of #BepiColombo together with mission experts. The spacecraft are on the launch pad at Europe's #Spaceport in Kourou & in just over 1 hour will blast off into space. Destination: planet #Mercury #BepiColombo is a collaboration between @ESA and @JAXA_en to explore the innermost planet in our Solar System. For a primer on #Mercury and the mission, here's a useful thread 👇
Jul 25, 2018 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
🔴💦 Our #Mars Express satellite has detected liquid #water hidden under the planet’s south polar ice cap. Full story: esa.int/Our_Activities… We know from orbiters, landers & rovers that #Mars had a wet past, with its vast dried out river channels & minerals that can only form in liquid #water, but it is not stable on the surface anymore, so scientists are looking underground…
Jul 17, 2018 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
From an almost perfect Universe to the best of both worlds: final data release of our @Planck mission confirms the standard model of cosmology... but with a few details to puzzle over ➡️ esa.int/Our_Activities… Planck scanned the sky between 2009 and 2013 to observe the Cosmic Microwave Background, or #CMB, which is the most ancient light in the history of our Universe, emitted only 400,000 years after the Big Bang, and hidden beneath the microwave emission of our Milky Way galaxy