ESA

Blog about ESA activities.

The Sentinel-3C and FLEX satellites lift off atop a Vega-C rocket (Photo: ESA–S. Corvaja. ESA Standard Licence)

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A few hours ago, the Sentinel-3C, part of the GMES/Copernicus program, and the FLEX satellites were launched from the space center in French Guiana atop a Vega-C rocket. After approximately an hour, Sentinel-3C separated from the rocket’s final stage, the adapter known as Vespa. About 57 minutes later, FLEX also separated from Vespa. Their final orbit is sun-synchronous, meaning they will pass over a specific area of ​​Earth at the same local time, at an altitude of approximately 815 kilometers.

15 of the 31 discovered quasars. Each of them is visible as a dot at the center of its image. The two oldest quasars are shown in red.

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An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” reports the discovery of 31 new primordial quasars, including the two oldest known so far. A team of researchers used observations conducted with ESA’s Euclid space telescope as part of the Euclid Wide Survey to find quasars we see as they were when the universe was no more than 800 million years old.

The Smile satellite blasting off atop a Vega-C rocket (Photo ESA-S. Corvaja - ESA Standard License)

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A few hours ago, the Smile satellite was launched from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Vega-C rocket. After about 56 minutes, the Smile satellite separated from the rocket’s last stage and began maneuvers that are scheduled to last approximately 25 days. Eleven burns of the spacecraft’s engines will lengthen its orbit, initially circular at an altitude of approximately 700 kilometers, to approximately 121,000 kilometers above the North Pole and approximately 5,000 kilometers above the South Pole.

On the left, a combination of photos of the planetary nebula NGC 6543 obtained by the Euclid and Hubble space telescopes with a detail from a photo obtained by Hubble on the right.

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The planetary nebula NGC 6543, also known with the nickname Cat’s Eye, is the protagonist of the Hubble Space Telescope’s photo of the month. However, for this occasion, a juxtaposition was created between an image captured by Hubble and one captured by ESA’s Euclid Space Telescope. These two instruments can both capture wavelengths in the near-infrared and visible light, but Euclid specializes in deep-field surveys. For this reason, it portrayed NGC 6543 as part of a large region of space. The combination of the two telescopes offers greater detail on a planetary nebula that has been studied for over two centuries.

Views of the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft docking with the International Space Station in its Crew-12 mission (Image NASA+)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft docked with the Harmony module of the International Space Station, completing the first part of its Crew-12 or SpaceX Crew-12 mission that began with its launch about 34 hours earlier. After checking that the pressure gets properly balanced, the hatch will be opened to allow Andrey Fedyaev, Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir, and Sophie Adenot to enter the Station and start their mission.