Thirteen-year-old Julia Derzay of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, wins a trip to the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show with her entry for Astronomy’s 2015 Youth Essay Contest.

This discovery that the winds blow in all directions has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they are powerful enough to inhibit the host galaxy’s ability to make new stars.

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions — a phenomenon that had been suspec…

Following the initial selection in 2013 for Biomass to become ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission and the completion of preparatory activities, ESA Member States yesterday gave the green light for its full implementation for launch in 2020.

Join us Friday, 20 February, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-1A mosaic of Estonia

Astronomers have identified the closest known flyby of a star to our solar system.

Astronomers have identified the closest known flyby of a star to our solar system.

There seems to be a mysterious link between the amount of dark matter a galaxy holds and the size of its central black hole.

A complex network of isolated hills, ridges and small basins spanning 1400 km on Mars is thought to hide large quantities of water-ice.

Wishing the world’s Chinese population safe travels for their celebrations of the year of the sheep

The instrument has been used to search for a brown dwarf expected to be orbiting the unusual double star V471 Tauri — and found nothing.

As the spacecraft delivers better images and other data, the science team will be investigating the nature and composition of the dwarf planet.

Technology image of the week: an ESA-led team rode this Polish centrifuge to prepare for a technology-testing parabolic flight

Craters and mysterious bright spots are beginning to pop out in the latest images of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft.

Thanks to space, some Parisian Metro riders now enjoy a very high-tech commute. A satellite spin-off is paving the way for more comfortable journeys.;

Human Spaceflight and Operations image of the week: the International Space Station and the last Automated Transfer Vehicle streaking through the sky over Europe

From close encounters to distant flybys, discover what’s in store for the Rosetta mission as the comet increases in activity

The technique produces radar images of Titan’s surface that are much clearer and easier to look at than the views to which scientists and the public have grown accustomed.

The plumes were seen rising to altitudes of over 155 miles (250 kilometers) above the same region of Mars on both occasions.

With fundamental changes happening to the chemistry of the world’s oceans, salinity information from ESA’s SMOS mission is being used with other Earth observation data to obtain information on ‘the other carbon dioxide problem’ – ocean acidification.

Space science image of the week: Rosetta swoops in for the closest comet flyby yet

Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet.

The computed code used to generate the movie’s iconic images revealed that when a camera is close up to a rapidly spinning black hole, peculiar surfaces in space create more than a dozen images of individual stars and of the thin, bright plane of the g…

The research suggests that it’s not just the number of stellar nurseries that sets the throttle for a galaxy to create new stars, but also what kind of stellar nurseries are present.

Time-lapse showing the departure of ATV Georges Lemaître from the International Space Station on 14 February

ESA’s fifth automated cargo ferry completed its mission to the International Space Station today when it reentered the atmosphere and burned up safely over an uninhabited area of the southern Pacific Ocean.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft showed its love for the solar system, including Earth, with these images on Feb. 14, 1990.

Our week through the lens: 9-13 February 2015

Choose your favourite image and send an e-card

Astronomers are discovering that some type Ia supernova explosions may not be as symmetric as previously thought.

The discovery of these stellar twins could provide invaluable insight into the formation and evolution of massive stars, close binaries, and star nurseries.

Follow the last moments of ESA’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle as it leaves a legacy for future space exploration

See the ground tracks of ESA spacecraft and satellites on our interactive map, including the final voyage of Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle

Join us Friday, 13 February, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features Las Vegas and Lake Mead in the United States

Direct observations of this process give strong support to one of several suggested pathways to producing such systems.

The discovery provides important insight on how supermassive black holes can have a catastrophic effect on the galaxies in which they reside.

IXV is hoisted onboard the Nos Aries recovery ship. Looking in great shape, it will now travel back to Europe for further analysis

Views of Saturn’s hazy moon Titan now appear much sharper, thanks to a technique that greatly improves radar images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Relive IXV’s 100 minute reentry success from liftoff at Europe’s Spaceport to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on 11 February

Job done, IXV floats in the Pacific Ocean awaiting the Nos Aries recovery ship that will hoist it on board for its journey back to Europe for further analysis

An experimental vehicle to develop an autonomous European reentry capability for future reusable space transportation has completed its mission. ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle flew a flawless reentry and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos islands.

Watch the liftoff of Vega VV04 with ESA’s experimental spaceplane at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET) on 11 February

View the latest pictures of ESA’s reentry mission lasting 100 minutes. IXV will test in flight the lastest technologies and critical systems for future space exploration

The European Space Agency’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle flew a flawless reentry and splashed down in the Pacific today.

Since landing on Mars in January 2004, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven nearly as far as a marathon footrace.

An upbeat-looking galaxy cluster appears to smile at us in a newly released image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Two JPL researchers have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the highest professional distinction for engineers.

Origins of crunchy crusts on comets explained in new laboratory research.

ESA’s last Automated Transfer Vehicle will leave the International Space Station on Saturday for its final solo voyage, setting course for a fiery demise that will mark the end of its mission and the programme.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: The Control Centre that will command Europe’s largest spacecraft, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, when it undocks from the International Space Station on Saturday

The next crews to visit the International Space Station, including ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, have been announced.

ESA’s spaceplane is set for its 100 minute mission tomorrow, 11 February. See how it was done in the timelapse video

The orbiter is investigating seasonal and longer-term changes, including some warm-season flows that are the strongest evidence so far for liquid water on Mars today.