Ash creeps across Mars Noticeable change on Mars often takes millions of years – but the European Space Agency’s Mars Express has captured a blanket of dark ash creeping across the planet in just decades.

Either way, noticeable change on Mars usually takes millions of years. Seeing it happen in less than fifty is very special.

Find out more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

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An angled view across the Martian surface in warm orange and reddish tones. A small, shallow circular crater sits near the upper left, while the surrounding terrain looks rough and cracked, with faint ridges and mottled textures. The surface gradually darkens toward the top right, adding depth and contrast to the scene.

We’re pretty sure this dark ash is made and released by volcanoes. Over time, either the wind blows the dark ash around to cover Mars’s light coloured surface, or the wind blows away the light dust to reveal the dark ash below.

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An overhead map view of the Martian surface in brown and orange tones. The upper area is darker and mottled, while the lower area is lighter and smoother. A thin white rectangle highlights a vertical section near the centre.

An overhead map view of the Martian surface in brown and orange tones. The upper area is darker and mottled, while the lower area is lighter and smoother. A thin white rectangle highlights a vertical section near the centre.

These photos were taken by NASA's Viking missions in 1976 (left) and ESA's Mars Express in 2024 (right)

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A wide view of the Martian surface seen from above. The landscape is split into two contrasting halves: the left side is lighter, sandy beige with faint ridges and cracks, while the right side is darker, reddish-brown and more heavily cratered. The boundary between the two regions is uneven and gradual, creating a striking colour contrast across the scene.

Mars Express has captured a blanket of dark ash creeping across the Red Planet.

It has spread hundreds of kilometres in less than 50 years.

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#planetsci
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Artist's impression of exoplanet 29 Cygni b. An almost half lit redish planet is seen against a starry sky, where one star stands out, shining more than the others.

Where is the dividing line between stars and the most massive planets? Scientists think it may depend on how they formed. 

To help clarify the matter, Webb looked at 29 Cygni b, an object weighing about 15 times as much as Jupiter 👉 https://esawebb.org/news/weic2607/ 🔭 🧪

April 14, 2023: Launch of the Juice mission on an Ariane 5 launcher.

Juice images Earth during lunar-Earth flyby

First radargram from Juice’s RIME instrument

Juice's full path, 3 years into its journey.

Three years since Juice launched on its journey to Jupiter. 🧪🔭

Arriving in 2031, it will explore the giant planet and its icy ocean moons, seeking to study them as both planetary objects and possible habitats.

More info 👇 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🗞️The latest edition of the ESA Science Newsletter is out!

Learn about:
🔴 Plato’s Guest Observers Programme
🔴 A call for membership of the Envision EuroSAR Science Team
🔴 The first version of the L4 Science Traceability Matrix

Access the edition & subscribe 👉 cosmos.esa.int/web/scinews 🔭 ☄️

Are you a scientist and want to dive into the data yourself?
You can find it here 👉 www.sidc.be/proba-3/aspi...

In <1 year, ESA’s Proba-3 has
☀️⚫️🛰️ made 57 artificial solar eclipses
📹 recorded >250 hrs of videos of the Sun’s outer atmosphere
☀️🌑🌍 equivalent to 5000 total solar eclipse campaigns on Earth

First Proba-3 science: surprisingly speedy solar wind Since July 2025, the European Space Agency’s pair of&nbsp;Proba-3&nbsp;satellites has already created&nbsp;57&nbsp;artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected&nbsp;more than&nbsp;250&...

The first Proba-3 science results are in!

☀️🏃‍♀️‍➡️🏃‍♀️‍➡️🏃‍♀️‍➡️ Close to the Sun, it spotted solar wind moving 3–4 times faster than expected

Curious? 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

@orb-ksb.bsky.social @technology.esa.int

Artist impression of Envision at Venus. Almost the entire planet is visible on the right side. On the left, we see the spacecraft from the side, with its solar arrays stretched.

Envision, with its next-generation suite of instruments, is set to pick up the story. 

Discover our Venus exploration story here 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Spac...

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Artist's impression of Venus Express orbit insertion. Venus fills the background and we cannot see the entire planet. The spacecraft is seen burning its engines.

20 years ago, on 11 April 2006, Venus Express was making history by entering orbit around Venus.

Europe’s first mission to Venus answered many questions, especially concerning the planet’s atmosphere.

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Integral science highlights The International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) has provided unprecedented information about the Universe’s most exotic objects. It has revealed how matter behaves under extreme conditions and helped astronomers understand processes such as the formation of new chemical elements and mysterious gamma-ray bursts. These findings have been documented in an impressive, and growing, body of scientific and popular literature.

Discover more at 👉

Artist's impression showing a spinning neutron star that orbits another star. Its strong gravitational field pulls gas from the other star. Credit: NASA/Dana Berry

DYK? Integral was the first space observatory to simultaneously observe objects in gamma rays, X-rays, and visible light. 

Its targets? Violent explosions such as gamma-ray bursts and supernovae, and cosmic regions thought to contain black holes. 🔭

Hello, New Norcia 3! 👋 The science fleet can't wait to talk to you 😁

Euclid will be delighted to have new 🕵️ partners!

Smile will use four science instruments to study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the Sun. This will improve our understanding of solar storms, geomagnetic storms and the science of space weather.

A tall, slim rocket is lifting off from a launchpad. Bright light bursts from the bottom of the rocket, and smoke billows all around the lower half of the frame. Around the rocket are four vertical metal structures that look like pylons. The scene is set at night and we see stars in the sky.

#VV29 has been postponed due to a technical issue occurred on a subsystem component production line after launcher integration.

Vega-C and Smile are in stable and safe conditions.

We'll keep you posted.

T-4️⃣ days until Vega-C will bring Smile into an almost-circular orbit around Earth’s poles.

From there, Smile will use its own engines to reach its final science orbit, which will bring the satellite to 121 000 km above the North Pole and down to 5000 km above the South Pole.

🔭 🧪 ☀️

It's T-5️⃣ days until the Smile launch, but if you're eager to know what will happen on the day, check this out 👇

The animation shows the expected sequence of events from lift off to deployment of solar arrays.

But nothing compares to the real deal, so join us on 9 April! 🔭 🧪 ☀️

Two images of protoplanetary discs side-by-side. The left image shows a dark horizontal band covering the star, with broad, colourful, conical outflows above and below it, and a narrow jet pointing directly up and down from the star. The right image shows the star within a yellow dusty disc, with scattered dust creating purple lobes above and below the disc. Each is on a black background with several galaxies or stars around it.

Rainbow-coloured spinning tops in space?

It may look like it, but these are actually two planet-forming discs observed by Webb.

Protoplanetary discs like these appear around stars that have recently been born 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

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T-6️⃣ days until launch!

DYK? Smile will observe the northern lights non-stop for 45 hours at a time for the first time ever.

This will give us a better idea of how geomagnetic storms lead to auroras, but also of other consequences on our infrastructure 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭 ☀️🧪

Got questions about Smile? #askESA

We will answer some questions during the live broadcast and the rest directly here.

More details 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

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Join us for the Smile launch!

🤳 Tune into ESA Web TV at watch.esa.int from 08:10 CEST on 9 April.

Key milestones expected:

🚀 08:29 Vega-C lift off
👋 09:25 Separation of Smile
📈 09:26 Acquisition of Smile’s first signal from space
🛰️ 09:32 Deployment of solar arrays

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5️⃣ 3I/ATLAS is supporting our planetary defence efforts – but perhaps not in the way you might think.

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4️⃣ This interstellar comet looks… just like a normal comet!

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A rectangular, pixelated map uses bright colours to show intensity across the image. A concentrated yellow–orange patch near the middle gradually fades into purple and blue toward the edges, with scattered black gaps where no data appears. A key on the right hand side shows 'counts per second' with yellow indicating many counts.

3️⃣ Gas and dust stretch at least 5 million km from the comet’s nucleus.

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2️⃣ Most of this water vapour was being released in the direction of the Sun.

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1️⃣ The comet was emitting 70 Olympic swimming pools of water vapour every day.

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Five things Juice has revealed about Comet 3I/ATLAS ‘Extreme but not exotic,’ – a glimpse at Comet 3I/ATLAS through the eyes of the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice).

🆕☄️ The wait is over.

Back in November 2025, our Juice mission observed Comet 3I/ATLAS with five science instruments. The data have arrived back on Earth, and scientists are delving in.

Here are five things they've already discovered 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

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