ESA News

Astronomers recently used a trove of archived images taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to visually snag a largely unseen population of smaller asteroids in their tracks. The treasure hunt required pursuing 37 000 Hubble images spanning 19 years. The payoff was finding 1701 asteroid trails, with 1031 of those asteroids uncatalogued. About 400 of these uncatalogued asteroids are about below a km in size.

Image: Dubai floods seen from space

As humans exert greater pressure on natural processes, understanding the intricate workings of our Earth system is increasingly vital for effective action on mitigation and adaption strategies. ESA’s Earth Explorer missions yield a wealth of astonishing findings, serving as the bedrock of scientific research in this field. Now, four new concepts have been selected to undergo assessment study, one of which is destined to be the twelfth in this family of world-leading satellite missions.

Wading through the wealth of data from ESA’s Gaia mission, scientists have uncovered a ‘sleeping giant’. A large black hole, with a mass of nearly 33 times the mass of the Sun, was hiding in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth. This is the first time a black hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted within the Milky Way. So far, black holes of this type have only been observed in very distant galaxies. The discovery challenges our understanding of how massive stars develop and evolve. 

Image: Planetary defenders assemble!

ESA accelerates the race towards clean energy from space

EarthCARE - ESA's cloud and aerosol mission

In March, we announced that 2023 would see the publication of over 300 vacancies at ESA. New vacancies keep being published as we continue our search for talented and motivated professionals to join our teams across Europe and support our mission of the peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of everyone. Could ESA be the next step in your career? Read more to find out!