Copernical Team
Week in images: 23-27 June 2025
Week in images: 23-27 June 2025
Discover our week through the lens
A new adventure on the International Space Station
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Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA head of Space and Robotic Exploration, explains that Ignis mission will include an ambitious technological and scientific programme with several experiments led by ESA and proposed by the Polish space industry.
On 26 June 2025, ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and his crewmates arrived to the International Space Station on the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4).
The Polish project astronaut is the second of a new generation of European astronauts to fly on a commercial human spaceflight opportunity with Axiom Space.
Possible meteor spotted over Georgia and nearby states, reports say
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Swarm in tune with atmospheric hot flushes
Scientists are harnessing data from ESA’s Swarm mission and ground-based instruments to precisely measure the strength and duration of intense upper-atmosphere heating – dramatic ‘hot flushes’ triggered by solar storms that also cause Earth’s tenuous outer atmospheric layers to expand rapidly.
This research, funded by ESA's Earth Observation FutureEO Science for Society initiative, offers crucial insights into how geomagnetic activity affects satellite orbits and space weather conditions.
Rice researchers search for ultralight dark matter using a magnetically levitated particle
Dark matter, although not visible, is believed to make up most of the total mass of the universe. One theory suggests that ultralight dark matter behaves like a continuous wave, which could exert rhythmic forces that are detectable only with ultra-sensitive quantum instrumentation.
New research published in the American Physical Society June 24 and led by Rice University physicist Christop UC Davis and Proteus Space to launch first-ever dynamic digital twin into space
The Center for Space Exploration Research at the University of California, Davis, has partnered with Proteus Space to launch a US government-sponsored satellite into space with a custom AI-enabled payload in a brand-new, first-ever rapid design-to-deployment small satellite.
The team will launch the satellite and payload in October 2025 from Vanderberg, CA. From the time the project was fu Physicists confirm elusive quantum spin liquid in new study
An international team of scientists led by Rice University's Pengcheng Dai has confirmed the existence of emergent photons and fractionalized spin excitations in a rare quantum spin liquid. Published in Nature Physics on June 19, their findings identify the crystalline compound cerium zirconium oxide (Ce2Zr2O7) as a clear, 3D realization of this exotic state of matter.
Long a subject of th Why the sun is so good at evaporating water
A new study is shedding light on why solar radiation is more effective than other forms of energy at causing water to evaporate. The key factor turns out to be the oscillating electric field inherent to sunlight itself.
"It's well established that the sun is exceptionally good at causing water to evaporate - more efficient than heating water on the stove, for instance," says Saqlain Raza, Meteorite amino acid triggers nanocavity formation in common clay
Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University have discovered that gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid commonly found on meteorites, can induce the formation of nanocavities in the mineral montmorillonite clay. This unexpected finding suggests a novel mechanism by which extraterrestrial molecules could have influenced the prebiotic chemistry that led to life on Ea York deploys Dragoon satellite to bolster SDA missile alert and tactical link goals
York Space Systems has announced the successful launch and early contact of its Dragoon satellite, a defense-focused mission developed for the Space Development Agency (SDA) under an accelerated timeline. The satellite lifted off on June 23, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Within two hours of deployment, York established communications with the spacecraft.