Week in images: 17-21 February 2025

Discover our week through the lens

The second of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites and the first instrument for the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission are fully integrated and, having completed their functional and environmental tests, they are now ready to embark on their journey to the US for launch this summer.

Space missions require high-performance, reliable and adaptable computing solutions that can operate in extreme conditions. An innovative project by YosysHQ and funded through ESA's Discovery element seeks to develop an open-source toolchain to work with a space-grade, radiation-hardened Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) architecture. 

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
A recent study underscores the accelerating loss of glacial ice worldwide, depleting regional freshwater reserves and significantly contributing to rising global sea levels. Conducted as part of the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (GlaMBIE), the research, published in *Nature* on February 19, 2025, involves contributions from 35 international teams, including the German Aerospace C

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
A new study led by Dr. Fengfei Song and Dr. Lixin Wu from the Frontier Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System and the Physical Oceanography Laboratory at Ocean University of China has examined long-term trends in downward surface solar radiation (DSSR). As a crucial component of Earth's energy balance, DSSR influences global climate patterns and is essential for renewa

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
ESA's Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission with NASA, is poised for its closest-ever approach to Venus, marking a pivotal moment in its mission to study the Sun's polar regions. The spacecraft's maneuver will alter its orbital trajectory, granting scientists a rare opportunity to observe the Sun's poles, a perspective unattainable from Earth. Insights gained from this unique vantage poin

London, UK (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
A powerful cosmic explosion from an unidentified object beyond our galaxy has intrigued astronomers after being unearthed in decades-old data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This extraordinary discovery, published in *Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society*, remained unnoticed for years until a novel machine learning technique exposed its existence. Researchers from Stanf

Paris, France (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
The Einstein Probe satellite, utilizing its innovative lobster-eye X-ray optics, has detected a rare cosmic phenomenon-an intense X-ray burst from an unusual binary star system. This discovery highlights the mission's capacity to identify and track transient X-ray sources, shedding new light on the complex interactions and life cycles of massive stars. The newly identified stellar system c

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
The Milky Way's central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, is proving to be a relentless source of cosmic activity, continuously producing bursts of light with no apparent pattern, according to new findings by astrophysicists using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A team led by Northwestern University conducted the longest and most detailed observational study of Sagittarius

Ann Arbor, MI (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
The first space mission led by the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy is scheduled to launch in 2029 with the support of a NASA grant worth $10 million. The mission is called STARI-STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry-and will showcase the viability of a new technique for studying exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system. The technique coul