ESA News

December 25, 2025

Top Headlines

What Are Asteroids Really Made of? New Analysis Brings Space Mining Closer to Reality

Dec. 25, 2025 Scientists are digging into the hidden makeup of carbon-rich asteroids to see whether they could one day fuel space exploration—or even be mined for valuable resources. By analyzing rare meteorites ...

Subaru Telescope Reveals a Hidden Giant Planet

Dec. 22, 2025 Astronomers have uncovered a massive hidden planet and a rare “failed star” by combining ultra-precise space data with some of the sharpest ground-based images ever taken. Using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaiʻi, the OASIS survey tracked subtle ...

Gravitational Waves May Reveal Hidden Dark Matter Around Black Holes

Dec. 19, 2025 Gravitational waves from black holes may soon reveal where dark matter is hiding. A new model shows how dark matter surrounding massive black holes leaves detectable fingerprints in the waves recorded by future space ...

Scientists Are Turning Earth Into a Giant Detector for Hidden Forces Shaping Our Universe

Dec. 6, 2025 SQUIRE aims to detect exotic spin-dependent interactions using quantum sensors deployed in space, where speed and environmental conditions vastly improve sensitivity. Orbiting sensors tap into ...

Space Is Filling with Junk and Scientists Have a Fix

Dec. 3, 2025 Earth’s orbit is getting crowded with broken satellites and leftover rocket parts. Researchers say the solution is to build spacecraft that can be repaired, reused, or recycled instead of abandoned. They also want new tools to collect old debris ...

Solar Superstorm Gannon Crushed Earth’s Plasmasphere to a Record Low

Nov. 23, 2025 A massive solar storm in May 2024 gave scientists an unprecedented look at how Earth’s protective plasma layer collapses under intense space weather. With the Arase satellite in a perfect observing position, researchers watched the plasmasphere ...

Japanese Spacecraft Faces a Massive Challenge from a House-size Asteroid

Nov. 21, 2025 New observations show that asteroid 1998 KY26 is a mere 11 meters across and spinning twice as fast as previously thought. The discovery adds complexity to Hayabusa2’s 2031 mission but also heightens scientific interest. The asteroid’s ...

AI Restores James Webb Telescope’s Crystal-clear Vision

Oct. 27, 2025 Two Sydney PhD students have pulled off a remarkable space science feat from Earth—using AI-driven software to correct image blurring in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Their innovation, called AMIGO, fixed distortions in the telescope’s ...

The Sun’s Hidden Poles Could Finally Reveal Its Greatest Secrets

Oct. 14, 2025 High above the Sun’s blazing equator lie its mysterious poles, the birthplace of fast solar winds and the heart of its magnetic heartbeat. For decades, scientists have struggled to see these regions, hidden from Earth’s orbit. With the upcoming ...

An Interstellar Visitor Lights Up the Red Planet’s Sky

Oct. 12, 2025 ESA’s Mars orbiters have observed comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third interstellar comet ever discovered. The faint, distant object revealed a glowing coma as it was heated by the Sun. Researchers are still studying the data to understand its makeup ...

Scientists Stunned by Wild Martian Dust Devils Racing at Hurricane Speeds

Oct. 9, 2025 Mars may look calm, but new research reveals it’s a world of fierce winds and swirling dust devils racing at hurricane-like speeds. Using deep learning on thousands of satellite images from European orbiters, scientists have discovered that ...

ESA’s Chilling New “Super Antenna” in Australia Reaches Spacecraft Billions of Miles Away

Oct. 6, 2025 ESA has inaugurated a powerful new 35-meter deep space antenna at its New Norcia site in Western Australia, marking a major boost to Europe’s ability to communicate with spacecraft exploring the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:01pm EST

What Scientists Found Inside Titan Was Not What Anyone Expected

Dec. 20, 2025 For years, scientists thought Saturn’s moon Titan hid a global ocean beneath its frozen surface. A new look at Cassini data now suggests something very different: a thick, slushy interior with ...

Webb Finds a Hidden Atmosphere on a Molten Super-Earth

Dec. 14, 2025 Webb’s latest observations reveal a hellish world cloaked in an unexpected atmosphere: TOI-561 b, an ultra-hot rocky planet racing around its star in under 11 hours. Despite being blasted by ...

Astronomers Capture Sudden Black Hole Blast Firing Ultra Fast Winds

Dec. 9, 2025 A sudden X-ray flare from a supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 3783 triggered ultra-fast winds racing outward at a fifth the speed of light—an event never witnessed before. Using XMM-Newton and ...

The Solar Mission That Survived Disaster and Found 5,000 Comets

Dec. 3, 2025 For thirty years, SOHO has watched the Sun from a stable perch in space, revealing the inner workings of our star and surviving crises that nearly ended the mission. Its long-term observations ...

New State of Quantum Matter Could Power Future Space Tech

Dec. 2, 2025 A UC Irvine team uncovered a never-before-seen quantum phase formed when electrons and holes pair up and spin in unison, creating a glowing, liquid-like state of matter. By blasting a custom-made ...

New Mars Images Reveal Hidden Traces of a Recent Ice Age

Nov. 26, 2025 Mars’s Coloe Fossae reveals a landscape shaped by ancient ice ages, with deep valleys, cratered terrain, and frozen debris flows preserved from a time when the planet’s climate dramatically ...

This Tiny Plant Survived the Vacuum of Space and Still Grows

Nov. 24, 2025 Moss spores survived an extended stay on the outside of the ISS and remained capable of germinating once back on Earth. Their resilience to vacuum, extreme temperatures, and UV radiation surprised ...

Supercomputers Decode the Strange Behavior of Enceladus’s Plumes

Nov. 18, 2025 Cutting-edge simulations show that Enceladus’ plumes are losing 20–40% less mass than earlier estimates suggested. The new models provide sharper insights into subsurface conditions that future ...

Astronomers Discover Thousands of Hidden Siblings of the “Seven Sisters”

Nov. 16, 2025 The “Seven Sisters” have far more relatives than anyone imagined. Using NASA and ESA space telescopes, astronomers found thousands of hidden ...

Extreme-Pressure Experiment Reveals a Strange New Ice Phase

Nov. 16, 2025 Researchers at KRISS observed water’s rapid freeze–melt cycles under ultrahigh pressure and discovered Ice XXI, the first new ice phase found in decades. Using advanced high-pressure tech and ...

Astronomers Spot a Rare Planet-Stripping Eruption on a Nearby Star

Nov. 14, 2025 Scientists have finally confirmed a powerful coronal mass ejection from another star, using LOFAR radio data paired with XMM-Newton’s X-ray insights. The eruption blasted into space at ...

CERN Creates Cosmic “fireballs” That Could Reveal the Universe’s Hidden Magnetism

Nov. 7, 2025 Using CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron, researchers generated plasma fireballs to simulate blazar jets. The beams stayed stable, suggesting plasma instabilities aren’t responsible for missing ...

Webb Reveals the Universe’s First Galaxies Were a Chaotic Mess

Oct. 30, 2025 JWST observations show that early galaxies were chaotic, gas-filled systems rather than stable disks. Researchers from Cambridge studied over 250 galaxies and found most were turbulent, still forming ...

Saturn's Moon Titan Just Broke One of Chemistry’s Oldest Rules

Oct. 17, 2025 Scientists from NASA and Chalmers University have discovered that incompatible substances can mix on Titan’s icy surface, breaking the “like dissolves like” rule of chemistry. Under ultra-cold ...

Tiny Asteroid Flew Right Over Antarctica, and No One Saw It Coming

Oct. 9, 2025 Asteroid 2025 TF zipped past Earth above Antarctica, coming within 428 km of the surface. Roughly the size of a small car, it was detected hours after the flyby and posed no danger. ESA astronomers ...

Gaia Solves the Mystery of Tumbling Asteroids and Reveals What’s Inside Them

Oct. 7, 2025 By combining Gaia’s massive asteroid dataset with AI modeling, scientists discovered that asteroid rotation depends on how often they’ve been hit. A mysterious gap in rotation speeds marks where ...

Rogue Planet Spotted Devouring 6 Billion Tons Every Second

Oct. 3, 2025 Astronomers have uncovered a runaway feeding frenzy in a rogue planet drifting freely through space, devouring six billion tonnes of gas and dust every second. Located 620 light-years away in the ...

Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus Just Revealed Stunning New Clues to Life

Oct. 2, 2025 Fresh analysis of Cassini data has revealed new complex organic molecules inside ice grains spewing from Enceladus. These discoveries strengthen the case that the moon’s underground ocean hosts ...

Supercomputer Breakthrough Exposes Enceladus’s Hidden Ocean

Nov. 10, 2025 From Cassini’s awe-inspiring flybys to cutting-edge simulations, scientists are decoding the secrets of Enceladus’s geysers. Supercomputer models show the icy moon’s plumes lose less mass than ...

A Giant Wave Is Rippling Through the Milky Way, and Scientists Don’t Know Why

Oct. 22, 2025 Our Milky Way is far from calm — it ripples with a colossal wave spanning tens of thousands of light-years, revealed by ESA’s Gaia telescope. This wave, moving through the galaxy’s disc like ...

James Webb Spots a Cosmic Moon Factory 625 Light-Years Away

Oct. 29, 2025 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first detailed look at a carbon-rich disk surrounding the exoplanet CT Cha b, located about 625 light-years from Earth. The observations reveal a ...

Hubble Captures a Galaxy That Glows in Blue and Gold

Oct. 7, 2025 Hubble captured a breathtaking view of NGC 6000, a spiral galaxy where blue newborn stars shine beside golden, aging ones. The image also reveals traces of ancient supernovae still glowing faintly ...

Astronomers Stunned as Fiery Auroras Blaze on a Planet Without a Star

Sep. 29, 2025 The James Webb Telescope has revealed fierce auroras, storms, and unchanging sand-like clouds on the rogue planet SIMP-0136. These insights are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of alien ...

Hubble Finds a Hybrid Galaxy With a Mysterious and Violent Past

Sep. 29, 2025 Hubble has captured a striking new image of NGC 2775, a galaxy that defies easy classification. Blending features of spirals, ellipticals, and lenticulars, its puzzling structure may be the result of ...

10 People Who Beat 8,000 Others to Become NASA Astronaut Candidates

Sep. 23, 2025 NASA has chosen 10 new astronaut candidates who will train for missions to the Moon and Mars. Their selection represents a powerful blend of talent and ambition, fueling humanity’s next great leaps ...

A Neutron Star’s Weird Wind Rewrites Space Physics

Nov. 10, 2025 XRISM’s observations of GX13+1 revealed a slow, fog-like wind instead of the expected high-speed blast, challenging existing models of radiation-driven outflows. The discovery hints that ...

A Clue to Ancient Life? What Scientists Found Inside Mars’ Frozen Vortex

Oct. 19, 2025 Mars’ north polar vortex locks its atmosphere in extreme cold and darkness, freezing out water vapor and triggering a dramatic rise in ozone. Scientists found that the lack of sunlight and moisture ...

This New AI Can Spot Solar Storms Days Before They Strike

Sep. 17, 2025 A new AI model from NYU Abu Dhabi predicts solar wind days in advance with far greater accuracy than existing methods. By analyzing ultraviolet solar images, it could help protect satellites, ...

Scientists Just Found the Strongest Signs of Life on Mars Yet

Oct. 1, 2025 Perseverance rover data shows Jezero Crater once held a calm lake, leaving behind mudstones rich in organic-linked minerals. The presence of iron-phosphate and iron-sulfide nodules suggests processes ...

Black Hole Discovery Confirms Einstein and Hawking Were Right

Sep. 29, 2025 A fresh black hole merger detection has offered the clearest evidence yet for Einstein’s relativity and Hawking’s predictions. Scientists tracked the complete cosmic collision, confirming that ...