Image: Mars terrain recreation at ESA

A downward view of ESA's rock-strewn recreation of the Red Planet, is designed to put prototype planetary rovers through their paces.

Satellites provide crucial insights into Arctic amplification

The Arctic, once again at the forefront of climate change, is experiencing disproportionately higher temperature increases compared to the rest of the planet, triggering a series of cascading effects known as Arctic amplification.

Video: Annual global ice loss simulated over Oslo

Satellites play a vital role in monitoring the rapid changes taking place in the Arctic. Tracking ice lost from the world's glaciers, ice sheets and frozen land shows that Earth is losing ice at an accelerating rate.

Satellites are tracking patterns that lead up to El Niño

Adding to the grim list of record ice losses, record air temperatures and record droughts, which have all hit the headlines recently, the temperature of the surface waters of our oceans is also at an all-time high. With an ...

Origami heat shield: Reusable for reentries

A novel origami-based heat shield developed with ESA support is planned to be tested with an actual atmospheric reentry from space. Named Pridwen, after the legendary shield of King Arthur, this reusable design will spring ...

Chasms on the flanks of a Martian volcano

Mars has some of the most impressive volcanoes in the solar system. ESA's Mars Express has now imaged the pitted, fissured flank of the planet's second-tallest: Ascraeus Mons.

Aeolus' fiery demise to set standard for safe reentry

ESA's wind mission, Aeolus, will soon be lowered in orbit leading to its fiery reentry and burn-up through Earth's atmosphere. ESA's efforts to ensure a safe return go well beyond international standards and place the agency ...

Earth from space: Farming the desert

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over El Oued, in northeast Algeria, about 80 km west of the border with Tunisia.

New weather satellite reveals spectacular images of Earth

Europe's latest weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager, has just delivered its first view of Earth—revealing conditions over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic in remarkable detail.

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