Don’t miss the final ESA Impact of the year!

Your interactive gateway to the most captivating stories and stunning visuals from ESA.

This year has been a whirlwind of fascinating Earth observation stories, from dramatic volcanic eruptions to Saharan dust plumes to epic meteorite craters. Let’s dive into some of the most memorable highlights from 2024.

In a world first, ESA and Telesat have successfully connected a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite to the ground using 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) technology in the Ka-band frequency range, marking a crucial step towards making space-based connections as simple as using a mobile phone.

NASA is delaying the launch of three missions to study the sun by several months because of issues with the primary payload.

Liechtenstein became the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords Dec.

A NASA spacecraft is performing better than expected as it makes its closest approach to the sun this week.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 17, 2024
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) recently captured an image of the retired InSight lander, offering insights into dust accumulation on Mars. Taken on Oct. 23 using the orbiter's High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the image reveals InSight's solar panels now share the same reddish-brown hue as the Martian surface. InSight, which landed in November 2018, was

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 23, 2024
I have always loved the mountains. Growing up on the flat plains of Midwestern USA, every summer I looked forward to spending a few days on alpine trails while on vacation. Climbing upward from the trailhead, the views changed constantly. After climbing a short distance, the best views were often had by looking back down on where we had started. As we climbed higher, views of the valleys below e

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 17, 2024
As seen across North America at sometimes surprisingly low latitudes, brilliant auroral displays provide evidence of solar activity in the night sky. More is going on than the familiar visible light shows during these events, though: When aurora appear, the Earth's ionosphere is experiencing an increase in ionization and total electron content (TEC) due to energetic electrons and ions precipitat

Baltimore MD (SPX) Dec 23, 2024
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is in good health and operating normally as it speeds toward its closest-ever flight around the Sun on Christmas Eve. Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, received a beacon transmission from Parker, through NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia, indicating all spacecraft systems were operat