LiteBIRD illustration

LiteBIRD aims to find evidence for the greatest expansion in the history of the Universe

Global space news: the importance of planetary defence

Core hole created by the NASA Perseverance rover (NASA / JPL-Caltech).

Global space news: The NASA Perseverance rover cores & stores its first Mars samples

BepiColombo grazes Venus in a second swing-by, at an altitude of just 550 km

Global space news: NASA’s Juno photographs Ganymede

Artist impression of the MMX spacecraft descending to the surface of Phobos (based on the spacecraft design in FY2019).

Why explore the moons of Mars?

The re-entry capsule & parachute from Hayabusa2 where it was spotted in the Woomera desert in Australia (JAXA).

Helping to bring an asteroid home

Artist impression of the cruise configuration for the BepiColombo spacecraft. The Mercury Transfer Module is at the bottom, with the ion engines on and twin solar panels extended. The middle section is the MPO orbiter and the MIO orbiter is tucked inside the sunshield (credit: ESA/ATG medialab)

BepiColombo is set for science, as the spacecraft performs a Venus swing-by

MIO, MPO and MTM that form BepiColombo wish us all the very best as they fly-by the Earth (credit: ESA).

Ready for swing-by! BepiColombo will pass close to the Earth on April 10

(A) DCAM3 image of the ejecta created during the SCI impact, with four separate rays of material. (B) ONC optical image of the impact site, with numbers corresponding to the ejecta rays in (A). (C). Change in reflectivity before and after the SCI impact. Darker regions are thought to indicate material ejected from below the surface. (Figure 4 in Arakawa et al., Science 2020.)

Creating a crater to constrain the age of an asteroid’s surface

1 2 3