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Watch the replay of the media information session in which ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair Renato Krpoun (CH) update journalists on key decisions taken at the ESA Council meeting, held at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 17 and 18 December 2025.

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Ever wondered how planetary systems like our own Solar System form? Thanks to the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, we're getting a unique peek behind the cosmic curtain into these dusty environments.

In this collage, we see the images of 31 baby star systems. Click on the white dots next to each system to find out more about them. The bar on the top right shows the scale of the image in Astronomical Units (AU).

The collage also shows our own Solar System for reference on the bottom right, as it is predicted to have looked at

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
NASA and commercial partners are using a small satellite mission called DUPLEX (Dual Propulsion Experiment) to demonstrate new propulsion options for small spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit and on future missions deeper into the solar system. Two micropropulsion systems that draw propellant from spools of polymer fibers are now undergoing an in-space test campaign after the CubeSat's deplo

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2025
Space-themed sweepstakes slots have become a standout genre for players who crave mystery, exploration, and cinematic visuals. These games create entire universes inside their reels - from glowing nebula fields to alien planets and interstellar soundscapes.

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
Southern Launch and Lux Aeterna have signed a contract to conduct orbital re-entries of Lux Aeterna's reusable satellite infrastructure to the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. The partnership will support the future of circular space manufacturing and operations with rapid, reliable, and flexible access to orbit, enabling governments, businesses, and research organizations to maximise the

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
A team from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has for the first time excited the atomic nucleus of the isotope thorium 229 with laser light while the atoms are embedded in a non transparent solid host. The experiment demonstrates that nuclear laser excitation is possible even when the surro

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, has cleared a major test campaign at Sandia National Laboratories that is intended to show the 1,000-pound lunar rover can withstand the stresses of launch and flight on its way to the Moon's South Pole. "We've built a rover that is designed to go and prospect for water on the moon, but the vehicle must be certified for miss

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
Every living organism must operate in environments that change over time, such as seasonal shifts between heat and cold or alternating years of drought and heavy rain. University of Vermont scientist Csenge Petak set out to examine how such environmental fluctuations affect evolution and whether they help or hinder populations as they adapt to new conditions. Working with UVM computer scie

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 18, 2025
New Euclid satellite observations indicate that collisions between galaxies trigger the most powerful active galactic nuclei in the universe. The results strengthen the link between galaxy mergers and rapid growth phases of supermassive black holes at galactic centers. Active galactic nuclei are periods when supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies accrete surrounding matter and