European Space Agency news stories on Newser

European Mission: Can Life Exist on Jupiter's Moons?

Rob Quinn — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:10:57 CDT

The first Europe-led mission to the outer solar system will explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The European Space Agency approved the JUICE—JUpiter ICy moons Explorer—mission yesterday. The project's solar-powered spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive in the Jovian system by 2030 to spend three...

Freshwater 'Bulge' Spotted in Arctic

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:03:00 CST

Scientists have detected an enormous freshwater "bulge" in the Arctic Ocean. The bulge measures nearly 2,000 cubic miles and has risen some six inches in the last nine years. Researchers speculate that the bulge is the result of strong winds whipping up a clockwise current, raising the water height...

Europe Planning Mission to the Sun

Rob Quinn — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:28:09 CDT

The European Space Agency is planning to send a probe much closer to the sun than any before it. The Solar Orbiter mission, to be launched in 2017, will send a heavily heat-shielded spacecraft to within 26 million miles of the sun—10 million miles closer than Mercury. The probe,...

Newfound 'Super-Earth' Might Support Life

Kevin Spak — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:14:21 CDT

A telescope at the European Southern Observatory has spotted 50 new exoplanets—and one of them is a so-called "super-Earth" that might just be habitable, Live Science reports. The telescope actually found 16 super-Earths—potentially rocky worlds sporting more mass than our beloved home world—but one designated HD 85512...

Oxygen Molecules Detected in Deep Space for 1st Time

Mark Russell — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:19:00 CDT

Breathe easier, budding astronauts, it turns out there are oxygen molecules in space. In fact, there are some just 1,500 light-years away, in a star-forming region of the Orion nebula, reports Live Science . Researchers think the oxygen comes from water molecules that coat tiny grains of space dust; when...

US, EU May Launch Single Mars Rover

Rob Quinn — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:42:00 CDT

American and European space agencies trying to reconcile their Mars ambitions with their budgets are stepping up cooperation. NASA and ESA had planned to send two rovers to Mars for a tandem mission in 2018, but they're now considering combining functions and sending a single rover. America's Max-C rover is...

257 Days Later, Astronauts 'Land' on Mars

Matt Cantor — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:58:25 CST

A team of researchers has finally arrived on Mars after a 257-day flight —none of which was real. Six men from across the globe spent 257 days locked in a 12-by-20-foot steel capsule in Moscow, simulating the experience of traveling to the planet, the Daily Mail reports. They’ll now spend...

Space Probe Visits Biggest Asteroid Yet

John Johnson — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:43:31 CDT

The European Space Agency is pulling off a nifty feat 280 million miles from home. Its comet-chasing space probe Rosetta is making a flyby of the biggest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft, reports the BBC . Rosetta will be sending back photos of Lutetia, which was first spotted 150 years...

Space Telescope Captures Big Bang Radiation

Kevin Spak — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:30:00 CDT

The European Space Agency’s Planck space telescope has beamed back its first, much-anticipated image: a map of the entire sky, composed of microwave light. That bright line in the center of the image is our own Milky Way galaxy, and the lights surrounding it represent not stars but the vast...