Copernical Team
Polar weather on Jupiter and Saturn hints at the planets' interior details
Over the years, passing spacecraft have observed mystifying weather patterns at the poles of Jupiter and Saturn. The two planets host very different types of polar vortices, which are huge atmospheric whirlpools that rotate over a planet's polar region. On Saturn, a single massive polar vortex appears to cap the north pole in a curiously hexagonal shape, while on Jupiter, a central polar vortex ExLabs and ChibaTech team up to land student CubeLanders on asteroid Apophis
ExLabs has partnered with Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology and its Planetary Exploration Research Center to deliver university-led payloads to the surface of asteroid Apophis during its close approach to Earth in 2029. The ApophisExL mission is described as the world's first commercial deep-space rideshare and is supported through mission design and operations collaboration with NASA's Jet Lunar impacts limit late delivery of Earth ocean water
A long-standing idea in planetary science proposes that water rich meteorites arriving late in Earth history delivered a major share of the planet's water inventory. A new study led by researchers at Universities Space Research Association and the University of New Mexico uses the Moon's surface record to impose strict limits on that scenario, concluding that impacts over the last 4 billion year Major equity deal backs Gilmour Space expansion of sovereign launch capability
Gilmour Space Technologies has raised 217 million Australian dollars in private equity funding to accelerate the next phase of its sovereign space operations in Australia.
The Series E round was jointly led by the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and superannuation fund Hostplus, with participation from Future Fund, Blackbird, Funds SA, HESTA, NGS Super, Main Sequence, QIC, Stratolaunch secures major funding to scale hypersonic flight services
Stratolaunch has completed a significant capital raise to accelerate the growth of its hypersonic test and flight services business, adding Elliott Investment Management L.P. as a new investor alongside existing backer Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The new funding is intended to rapidly expand Stratolaunch's role in the American defense industrial base through higher production rates and mor Artificial intelligence in manufacturing rocket parts
Legs made for a Mars landing
To land on the right foot on the Red Planet, European engineers have been dropping a skeleton of the four-legged ExoMars descent module at various speeds and heights on simulated martian surfaces.
Magnetic avalanches power solar flares, finds Solar Orbiter
Just as avalanches on snowy mountains start with the movement of a small quantity of snow, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has discovered that a solar flare is triggered by initially weak disturbances that quickly become more violent. This rapidly evolving process creates a ‘sky’ of raining plasma blobs that continue to fall even after the flare subsides.
SunRISE SmallSats ace tests, moving closer to launch
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ESA monitoring January 2026 space weather event
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Weather Office is closely monitoring a notable space weather event, first detected 18:09 UTC on Sunday, 18 January 2026. We are collecting detailed information from our expert service centres.
Further details and updates will be provided here as they become available.
This page was last updated on 20 January 2026, at 14:00 CET.
