European Space Agency

The BepiColombo mission has taken a series of new images of Mercury during its sixth flyby of the planet. The spacecraft, launched in 2018, is due to land on Mercury in 2026 for a detailed study.

A metal hoop with a diameter of 2. 4 meters fell from a rocket upper stage in a Kenyan village. Local residents are demanding compensation for damaged trees and bushes, and experts warn of a growing problem of space debris.

The European satellite Sentinel-1A detected a 2. 4 square kilometer slick of fuel oil in the Kerch Strait after the sinking of the Volgoneft-212 tanker. Due to a change in wind direction, the pollution could reach the coastline.

The EU has signed contracts to create an IRIS2 network of 290 satellites by 2030. The €10.6 billion project will be implemented through a public-private partnership involving SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat.

The Vega C launch vehicle successfully launched the Sentinel-1C satellite into 700 km orbit after a two-year upgrade. The launch took place from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana after the installation of a new French nozzle.

Meteosat-12, the first geostationary satellite of the third generation, has been put into operation. It will provide more accurate weather forecasts and will be able to track lightning in real time over the next 20 years.

The James Webb Space Telescope has overcome the obstacles of cosmic dust and found new galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster. The object is located at a distance of 10 billion light years from Earth.

Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), discovered in September in Hawaii, evaporated near the Sun on October 28. The SOHO spacecraft captured the last moments of the comet, which belongs to the Kreutz family.

ESA has published a video demonstrating the deformation of the Earth's magnetic field during the LaChampagne event 41,000 years ago. The planet's magnetosphere weakened to 5% of its current strength, allowing cosmic rays to penetrate the atmosphere.

Astronomers have proposed an artificial intelligence project to exchange messages with extraterrestrial intelligence. The idea is to send a large AI language model into space so that it can speak on behalf of earthlings.

Asteroid Apophis with a diameter of 340-375 meters will pass 32,000 km from Earth in 2029. NASA and ESA plan to send spacecraft to study this rare event.