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MSG-4 is set for launch on Wednesday night. Learn more about the European weather satellite with ESA TV

Rosetta’s investigations of its comet are continuing as the mission teams count down the last month to perihelion – the closest point to the Sun along the comet’s orbit – when the comet’s activity is expected to be at its highest.

One day 3C 279 was just one of many active galaxies scientists see, and the next day it was the brightest thing in the gamma-ray sky.

NASA’s NuSTAR usually examines the mysteries of black holes, supernovae, and other high-energy objects, but it occasionally looks closer to home to study our star.

As a research scientist, she inspired a generation, especially young women, to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Space Science Image of the Week: 20 SOHO snapshots of our Sun, one for each year of operations

A robot building on ESA’s ExoMars rover is bidding to win a place on oil and gas production rigs around the world, to work in remote and hazardous environments.

While composition and color data still need to be downlinked, this hemisphere will be invisible to New Horizons during the July 14 flyby.

Among the structures tentatively identified in this new image are what appear to be polygonal features, a complex band of terrain stretching east-northeast across the planet, and a complex region where bright terrains meet the dark terrains of the “wha…

Mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, are assessing an anomaly with the radar instrument on NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite observatory.

Curiosity is monitoring sunspots on the side of the sun facing away from Earth, during weeks when sun-monitoring spacecraft can’t provide that information.

Our week through the lens: 6-10 July 2015

Because the galaxy the 7-billion-solar-mass black hole was discovered in is fairly typical in size, the study calls into question previous assumptions on the development of galaxies.

The satellite detected the start of a new outburst from V404 Cygni, where a black hole and a Sun-like star orbit each other.

A proposed rule change aimed at thwarting TMT protestors could block public access to some of the most pristine dark skies on Earth.

The two worlds orbit the same gravitational point, but their similarities seem to end there.

NASA’s New Horizons will have the support of other spacecraft during its historic Pluto flyby, with observations from their outposts across the solar system.

A NASA study shows heat has been trapped in the Pacific and Indian oceans. The finding explains the recent slowdown in global temperature rise.

Magnetic waves from a black hole are set in motion as if a whip is being cracked.

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen narrates this animated story about his iriss mission to space starting September

The flags are raised at the new Roy Gibson building at ESA ECSAT in UK, 9 July

Telecom satellites are set to enter a new age, as ESA, Eutelsat and Airbus Defence & Space begin designing the most flexible payload ever. 

Join us Friday, 10 July, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features the sandy and rocky terrain of the Sahara desert as seen by Sentinel-2

A new study shows convincing evidence of the “switching on” of the active phase in a black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 660.

The first KiDS survey results show how the characteristics of the observed galaxies are determined by the invisible vast clumps of dark matter surrounding them.

The New Horizons mission has officially begun the flyby sequence of science observations that will culminate with closest approach July 14.

This colourful image resembles an abstract watercolour, but it is in fact a colour-coded topographic map of one of the most geologically diverse regions on Mars.

Ground control teams are ready to shepherd Europe’s next weather satellite through its critical first days in orbit, ensuring it is working and healthy in the harsh environment of space.

A bouquet of colors highlights X-rays streaming off our sun.

Technology image of the week: UK band Public Service Broadcasting examine a reentry capsule during a recent visit to ESA’s technical heart

New computer simulations show that the distant planet’s magnetic field is constantly rotating and changing.

A new study reveals that a supernova discovered after a gamma-ray burst must have been powered by a highly magnetic neutron star.

While the new maps gives mission scientists an important tool for deciphering the patterns of bright and dark markings on the distant planet’s surface, they are holding off on making any interpretations of features for now.

NASA has selected seven technology proposals for continued study under Phase II of the agency’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, including one from JPL.

With one year remaining in a five-year trek, NASA’s Juno mission team is preparing for the spacecraft’s expedition to the solar system’s largest planet.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: the International Space Station crosses the Moon seen from Australia

A special session at the National Astronomy Meeting has been convened for astronomers to take stock of the evidence and stimulate further investigation of cosmology beyond the standard model.

These regularly spaced patches are each hundreds of miles across.

The new maps show regions of the sky that produce anomalous microwave emission.

Pluto’s reddish color has been known for decades, but New Horizons is now allowing scientists to correlate the color of different places on the surface with their geology and soon with their compositions.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is healthy and stable, after experiencing an anomaly in the system that controls its orientation.

NASA’s Opportunity rover has resumed driving after Mars emerged from behind the sun. Plans call for the rover to examine sites in Marathon Valley during the upcoming winter.

The high-energy X-ray eyes of NASA’s NuSTAR have peered into some of the most heavily buried supermassive black holes known.

The Integral, Fermi and Swift space observatories have used the magnifying power of a cosmic lens to explore the inner regions of a supermassive black hole.

Share your summer pictures with the crew in Concordia research station in Antarctica, who have not seen the Sun since 4 May

Space Science Image of the Week: The criss-crossing scars marking the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in this Galileo image look disturbingly biological

A team of scientists using NuSTAR detected high-energy X-rays from five supermassive black holes previously clouded from direct view by dust and gas.

Although scientists thought this is how planets form, this is the first time they’ve actually seen the process in action.

Preparations are ongoing to resume the originally planned science operations July 7 and to conduct the entire close flyby sequence as planned.

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is to lead NASA’s 20th underwater astronaut training mission this month. Starting on 20 July, the 14-day NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations sortie, or NEEMO, will see a team of four living and working in the Aquarius underwater research station off the coast of Florida, USA.

Our week through the lens: 29 June – 3 July 2015

This image, based on housekeeping data from ESA’s Gaia satellite, is no ordinary depiction of the heavens. While the image portrays the outline of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and of its neighbouring Magellanic Clouds, it was obtained in a rather unusual way.

Earth observation image of the week: a false-colour image from Sentinel-2A over part of the Italian island of Sardinia, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme

A new image containing data from NASA’s Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes shows a cluster of young stars expected to burn for billions of years.

Join us Friday, 3 July, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features an image over northwest Sardinia – one of the first from the Sentinel-2 mission

Not finding new moons or rings is a bit of a scientific surprise, but as a result, no engine burn is needed to steer clear of potential hazards.

These circular pits on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko likely formed when ices beneath the surface turned directly to gas.

When an oil spill sullied beaches near Santa Barbara, California, in May, a JPL airborne instrument tested new techniques that may help responders after future oil spills.

In most of the U.S., summer thunderstorms form on hot days. In the Great Plains, they often form at night. NASA is joining a multi-agency field campaign to learn why.

As Mars emerges from passing nearly behind the sun, NASA has resumed full operations of the Curiosity rover, which has reached a site where at least two rock types meet.

A number of the dust jets emerging from Rosetta’s comet can be traced back to active pits that were likely formed by a sudden collapse of the surface. These ‘sinkholes’ are providing a glimpse at the chaotic and diverse interior of the comet.

Such “supercritical accretion” produces powerful outflows in the form of a dense disk wind coming from these ultra-luminous X-ray sources.

NGC 2367 is an infant stellar grouping that lies at the center of an immense and ancient structure on the margins of the Milky Way.

Technology image of the week: original technology demonstration mission Proba-1 images the site of Antarctica’s first zero-emission base

First blog post by Jan Woerner, on taking up duty as ESA Director General

Meet Johann-Dietrich Woerner

The day will officially be a bit longer than usual on Tuesday, June 30, 2015, because an extra second, or “leap” second, will be added.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: Gaia avionics model settles into new home

Space Science image of the week: Rosetta is monitoring the ever-increasing activity of the comet as they move closer to the Sun

Each year, astronomers worldwide discover over 1000 new asteroids or other space rocks that could strike our planet. And if one is spotted heading towards Earth, experts working in ESA and national emergency offices need to know who should…

As the 2016 spacecraft nears completion, mission scientists explain how the ExoMars programme will help in the search for life on Mars

Watch a replay of the hangout with ESA astronaut Tim Peake

Scientists have identified 120 bright regions on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Scientists on the New Horizons team have found that the “close approach hemisphere” on Pluto has the greatest variety of terrain types seen on the planet so far.

Your asteroid questions answered by ESA experts, for World Asteroid Day

ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission in pictures – for World Asteroid Day

Telescopes around the globe recently homed in on one point in the sky, observing the paired Didymos asteroids – the target for ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission.

The 800 m-diameter main body is orbited by a 170 m moon, informally dubbed Didymoon. The duo were more favourably placed from March until early June for studies.

New research from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has identified one such candidate, seemingly looking billions of years younger than its actual age.

Since June 15, the black hole/star system V404 Cygni has featured repeated bright X-ray flashes on time scales shorter than an hour.