ESO Top News
Proba-3: our eyes on the Sun’s inner corona
The EGT Programme: your road to space
Dreaming of a career in space? The 2026 ESA Graduate Trainee opportunities are launching soon! It’s time to polish up your CV, craft your motivation letter and get ready to reach for the stars.
Revolutionising astronaut fitness for deep space missions
As we prepare for missions beyond Earth orbit, one crucial challenge remains: keeping astronauts healthy in microgravity. Without daily exercise, their muscles, bones and cardiovascular systems weaken, which could impact mission success and astronaut safety, especially in destinations such as the Moon or Mars, where crew will have to operate autonomously immediately after landing.
Week in images: 12-16 January 2026
Week in images: 12-16 January 2026
Discover our week through the lens
Earth from Space: The fate of a giant
Sentinel-2 explores night vision
After more than 10 years in orbit, the first Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, Sentinel-2A, is still finding new ways to contribute to Earth observation. With its younger siblings, Sentinel-2B and Sentinel-2C, now leading the mission’s core task of delivering high-resolution, ‘camera-like’ images of Earth’s surface, the European Space Agency is pushing Sentinel-2A beyond its original remit.
In recent trials, this elderly satellite was even switched on at night to see how it would perform in the dark – and the results have been strikingly positive, offering encouraging news for the follow-on Copernicus Sentinel-2 Next Generation mission, currently in development.
Week in images: 05-09 January 2026
Week in images: 05-09 January 2026
Discover our week through the lens
ESA Director General’s 2026 annual press briefing
Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency, briefed journalists on the main milestones for 2026, such as the launch of Smile, a mission that will give humankind its first complete look at how Earth reacts to streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun. Later in 2026 should also see the arrival of BepiColombo at Mercury after its eight-year trip, where it will gather data to answer many perplexing questions about the least-explored planet of the inner Solar System. Many more exciting missions are expected, with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot launching for the International Space Station, and various Earth Observation and Navigation launches from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
ESA preview 2026
As a new year begins, let’s take a look at what’s ahead for the European Space Agency in 2026. From Earth to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, 2026 marks a year of firsts that continue to shape the future of space.
ESA and Playmobil launch Mars mission collection
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Playmobil are expanding their successful partnership with a brand-new collection of space-themed toys, bringing a distinctly European vision of Mars exploration into the hands of young explorers.
Tiny patches of deforestation drive tropical carbon loss
Often called Earth’s green lungs, tropical forests pull down massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, release oxygen and help regulate the global climate. While the threat of large-scale deforestation is well known, new findings reveal a surprising culprit – the clearance of small areas of forest accounts for more than half of net carbon losses across the Tropics.
Snow-covered Amsterdam
Sentinel-1's decade of essential data over shifting ice sheets
The extent and speed of ice moving off the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica into the sea – an important dynamic for climate and sea-rise modelling – has been captured over a 10-year period by satellites from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission.
Sandblasting on Mars
Martian winds can have quite an impact. ESA’s Mars Express has spotted them whipping up sand grains and acting as a cosmic sandblaster, carving out intriguing grooves near Mars’s equator.
Cloud-9: a new celestial object found by Hubble
A team using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object – a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud that is considered a 'relic' or remnant of early galaxy formation. Nicknamed 'Cloud-9,' this is the first confirmed detection of such an object in the Universe.
Press conference with ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot
Media representatives joined French ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, on Monday 5 January, for a hybrid press conference to learn more about her first mission to space.
This event, held at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Germany, was the final media event in Europe ahead of her launch to the International Space Station.
Sophie selected the name ‘εpsilon’ for her first mission, currently planned no earlier than 15 February, reflecting the power of small, yet impactful contributions, and how many parts come together to make a whole.
During εpsilon, Sophie will conduct a wide range of tasks on the International Space Station, including European-led scientific experiments, medical research, supporting Earth observation and contributing to operations and maintenance on the Station.
From roots to rocket
On 5 January 2026, the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, hosted a special tradition: the planting of an astronaut tree by ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot in honour of her first mission to space, εpsilon. This symbolic gesture celebrates her achievements and future mission while reinforcing the deep connection between space explorers and the planet they call home.
