Scientists found evidence that supermassive black hole seeds can form directly from the collapse of a giant gas cloud, skipping any intermediate steps.

Full replay of the launch and separation coverage of Europe’s thirteenth and fourteenth Galileo satellites

Europe’s 13th and 14th Galileo satellites lifted off by Soyuz on 08:48 GMT – watch replay here

An ESA-backed start-up company is working with fashion students to incorporate energy-harvesting devices in new space-inspired high-fashion designs. The results will be unveiled on a catwalk at the London Science Museum on 25 May.

Mysterious high-rise clouds seen appearing suddenly in the martian atmosphere on a handful of occasions may be linked to space weather, say Mars Express scientists.

Space science image of the week: An infrared view inside a distant star nursery has revealed a surprising amount of structure in the cloud

Members of a galaxy type that lies somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy, lenticular galaxies such as NGC 5308 are disk galaxies that have used up, or lost, the majority of their gas and dust.

Mysterious high-rise clouds seen appearing suddenly in the martian atmosphere on a handful of occasions may be linked to space weather.

There’s still plenty of time to see Mars this summer, but here’s the main event.

Why is Antarctic sea ice cover increasing while Arctic sea ice is diminishing rapidly? A NASA-led study finds the geology of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are responsible.

Follow the launch of Europe’s 13th and 14 Galileo satellites on Tuesday 24 May, live from 10:28 CEST

Our week through the lens: 16-20 May 2016

Clothes for the space age on show at London’s Science museum 25 May, with ESA and leading European fashion schools

The Sentinel-1A radar satellite has detected a potential oil slick in the eastern Mediterranean Sea – in the same area where EgyptAir flight MS804 disappeared early yesterday morning on its way from Paris to Cairo.

New methods could pave the way to finding a true other Earth.

Mars is the star of the show this week, but comet fans and a few gas giants will make welcome appearances in the night sky.

A team of European mission control experts will be watching closely next week when two Galileo satellites are boosted into space, ready to shepherd the craft through the first critical days in orbit.

Researchers detected low levels of carbon monoxide gas around the star in amounts that are consistent with the comets in our own solar system.

Sentinel-2A is demonstrating how it can be used to help forecast ocean waves around our coasts: sunlight reflected from the water surface reveals complex waves as they encounter the coastline and seafloor off the tip of Dorre Island, Weste…

Operations image of the week: A debris impact chip in a Space Station window illustrates the risk presented by space debris

Join us Friday, 20 May, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-2A image of the Rub’ al Khali desert

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was welcomed at the ESA Astronaut Centre by DG Jan Woerner and Alexander Gerst

Each struck in different eras, leaving behind a breadcrumb trail of clues.

You can follow along with the action here.

The team relied on gravitational lensing to see the incredibly faint object born just after the Big Bang.

Operations Image of the week: Mission controllers gather for next week’s Galileo launch

A ‘blanket’ layer may keep the planet from a faint glow, unlike its neighbor, Neptune.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has been assigned a new mission to the International Space Station, where he will fulfil the role of commander during the second part of his six-month mission in 2018. 

Images from Sentinel-2A over the last five months have been used to create a remarkable cloud-free view of Africa

Technology image of the week: this Lego model of Europe’s ExoMars 2020 rover on its lander is a tool, being used by robotics engineers during an ‘egress’ test campaign

Video briefing on the next Galileo launch on 24 May, including views of the satellites and an interview with ESA’s Navigation Director Paul Verhoef

Whether the jovian moon has the raw materials and chemical energy in the right proportions to support biology is a topic of intense scientific interest.

The spacecraft has now twice observed 1994 JR1, a Kuiper Belt object orbiting more than 3 billion miles from the Sun.

A new study finds a solar system whose planets may resemble the ancient configuration of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

A NASA modeling study suggests the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa, even without volcanic hydrothermal activity.

ESA and London’s Science Museum are working with leading fashion schools around Europe to design clothes for the space age with Couture in Orbit

Human spaceflight and robotic exploration image of the week: The International Space Station has now circled Earth 100 000 times

It has two known satellites, an unusually high spin rate, and is also the “parent” of a large family of icy bodies in the outer solar system.

The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes, it would have caused huge tsunamis, and would have made cliffs crumble.”

Space science image of the week: A fault cuts through an ancient crater on Mars

New Orleans and surrounding areas continue to sink due to a combination of natural and human-induced processes, finds a new NASA/university study using NASA airborne radar.

An expert on the solar system, in 1984 he launched a program that led to the discovery, with US astronomer William Hubbard.

Planetary diversity suggests that around other stars, initially frozen worlds could be the size of Earth and provide habitable conditions once the star becomes older.

A proposal for a Europa CubeSat mission could map the entire world, and maybe find evidence of life too.

Our week through the lens: 9-13 May 2016

Together with the London Science Museum and top European fashion schools, ESA is harnessing next-generation technology and exploring the future of fashion 

Presented at this week’s Living Planet Symposium, this image shows how the Sentinel-5P satellite will improve air-quality forecasts

Selected highlights of the Living Planet Symposium in Prague, 9-13 May

The surviving parts of Earth’s primitive mantle have been preserved for four and a half billion years.

Satellite readings show that atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide are continuing to increase despite global efforts to reduce emissions.

“Little lion” galaxy contains lowest level of heavy elements ever detected in gravitationally bound system of stars

René Forsberg joins the programme at the Living Planet Symposium in Prague to discuss collecting gravity data at the South Pole to support GOCE

By providing information on soil moisture around plant roots, ESA’s SMOS satellite is helping to forecast crop yield and monitor drought

Noel Gourmelen joins the programme at the Living Planet Symposium in Prague to discuss a new way of processing CryoSat data over ice sheets

Technology image of the week: this ice drill has been designed to penetrate 1–2 m into the surface of the Moon

There are 42 worlds that might be Earth-like out there. We can’t see them directly, yet. But here’s where to find out cosmic cousins.

The size, evolution, and duration of standing bodies of water, such as lakes, on Mars’ surface are still a matter of great debate.

Tabby’s star is still pretty weird, but at least one part of the mystery was a false lead.

The repetition helps distinguish seasonal effects from sporadic events.

With each planet in resonance, there’s little room to move for the four planets around Kepler-223.

New results from NASA’s Kepler/K2 mission reveal the largest unnamed body in our solar system and the third largest of the current roster of dwarf planets.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has completed its second Martian year since landing in 2012, recording environmental patterns through two full cycles of Martian seasons.

Thousands of scientists are at the Living Planet Symposium in Prague this week to present the latest findings on our changing planet. Between the mountains of data coming from multiple satellites and the high level of expertise needed to t…

Space science image of the week: Saturn’s monstrous south pole vortex is a hurricane-like structure almost two thirds the diameter of Earth

Presented at the Living Planet Symposium, this map uses radar images from Sentinel-1A to show that Antarctic Peninsula ice flows up to a metre per day

Scientists found typical galaxies forming stars in the universe two billion years after the Big Bang have only twenty percent of metals compared with those in the present day universe.

Astronomers combined data from two space observatories to reveal something surprising: This dwarf planet is significantly larger than previously thought.

NASA’s Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets — the single largest finding of planets to date.

Two teams mentored by NASA centers were in the winning alliance at the national FIRST Championship in St. Louis on April 30.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet tries out a spacesuit

With more than two years of measurements by ESA’s Swarm satellite trio, changes in the strength of Earth’s magnetic field are being mapped in detail.

Europe’s latest Galileo satellites have been filled with fuel in preparation for their joint launch on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 24 May.

As the smallest planet in the Solar System crossed the fiery face of the Sun on Monday 9 May, one of ESA’s smallest satellites was watching

These atoms were found in the upper layers of the martian atmosphere known as the mesosphere.

Meet your 1,200 new exoplanet neighbors.

Wolfram Mauser, Chairman of the Earth Science Advisory Committee, joins us at the Living Planet Symposium in Prague to discuss some of the highlights from ESA’s Earth Explorer missions

One of the biggest Earth observation conferences in the world got off to a flying start today as thousands of scientists from around the world gathered in the Czech Republic to present their latest findings on our changing planet.

Watch the replay of the opening session of the Living Planet Symposium in Prague, 9–13 May

Cassini was able to measure the amount of water vapor erupting from the geysers, offering new insights on geologic activity beneath the moon’s surface.

The model contains, for the first time, a realistic description of how neutron stars are deformed just before they collide.

Social media users may apply now for access to a two-day media event at JPL on July 3-4, 2016, culminating in the arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter.

Scientists on NASA’s Cassini mission were surprised to find that a small-scale surface change produces very visible effects on Saturn’s active moon Enceladus.

SLOOH Observatory will be livestreaming the event, which you can watch here.

Our week through the lens: 2-6 May 2016

For the latest news, interviews and web streaming of the world’s largest Earth observation conference, being held in Prague on 9–13 May, visit our dedicated web page

Watch selected sessions of the Living Planet Symposium live from the Prague Conference Centre in the Czech Republic on 9–13 May

The company landed a first stage of a geostationary launch on its drone ship.

A start-up company hosted in an ESA business incubator is developing the world’s first vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for personal use. The electric two-seater will open the door to a new class of simpler, quieter and environmentally friendly planes available from 2018.

Join us Friday, 6 May, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-1 image of the Zachariae Isstrom Glacier

Shocks provide unique opportunities to study high-energy phenomena in the intra-cluster medium — the hot plasma between galaxies.

To determine the actual mass of a supermassive black hole, astronomers must measure the strength of its gravitational pull on the stars and clouds of gas that swarm around it.

Operations image of the week: Mission controllers monitor a network for astronauts to remotely drive rovers on planets

Researchers thought that Pluto was characterized more like a comet, which has a large region of gentle slowing of the solar wind, as opposed to the abrupt diversion solar wind encounters at a planet like Mars or Venus, but instead Pluto is a hybrid.

NASA will host a news teleconference Tuesday, May 10 to announce the latest discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.

By using multiple telescopes, they were able to get one of the best maps ever of a star other than the sun.

Technology image of the week: the design evolution of ESA’s Proba-3 double satellite mission shown by this trio of 3D-printed models

Volcanoes erupted beneath an ice sheet on Mars billions of years ago, far from any ice sheet on the Red Planet today, new evidence from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests.

The mission’s board concluded that, taking into account the delays in European and Russian industrial activities and deliveries of the scientific payload, a launch in 2020 would be the best solution.

Volcanoes erupted beneath an ice sheet on Mars billions of years ago, far from any ice sheet on the Red Planet today, new evidence from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests.
The research about these volcanoes helps show there was extensive ice o…

Space Science Image of the Week: Mercury’s intriguing Kertész crater fools the eye in this image from NASA’s Messenger probe