Satellite imagery can show when a crime leaves a mark on the landscape – a village destroyed, a lake drained, a forest cleared. However, whether a court will accept satellite evidence remains an open question. The 'Earth Observation for Human Rights and Legal Accountability Mechanisms' project, co-funded by the Discovery element of ESA's Basic Activities and the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Strathclyde, examined how Earth observation data can be systematically analysed and presented to meet the evidentiary standards required in legal proceedings.

Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black hole in the centre of Abell2744-QSO1, a tiny galaxy more than 13 billion light-years away. The results suggest that the 50-million-solar-mass black hole predates its host galaxy, possibly forming within the first second of the Big Bang, and must have been immense from the start.

The launch of the 4DSpace-Daedalus mission in Norway is the latest success supported by Prodex, a European Space Agency (ESA) programme which enables highly skilled research institutes to partake in European space science activities and missions.

Week in images: 18-22 May 2026

Discover our week through the lens

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher participated in the 21st edition of the GLOBSEC Forum, held from 21 to 23 May in Prague, Czechia, under the theme ‘The Global Systemic Transformation.’ The high‑level gathering brought together political leaders, industry representatives and experts to discuss how Europe can respond to an increasingly complex and fragmented geopolitical environment.

ESA’s astronaut reserve members have completed their Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) programme, marking a key milestone in Europe’s human spaceflight ambitions.

The liquid iron in Earth’s outer core doesn’t always behave as expected. When it changed direction in an unexplained way, ESA satellites provided data on the direction of flow, helping scientists gain better insight into the dynamics at the centre of our planet.