European Space Agency, ESA

📸 This was our #WeekInImages 26-30 January 2026.

1️⃣ This is Crew-12 🧑‍🚀
2️⃣ Dark rings and new light 🌌
3️⃣ COSMOS Field MoM-z14 Galaxy (NIRCam pullout image) ✨
4️⃣ Aerial view of booster for Ariane 6 flight VA267 heading to the launch pad 🚀
5️⃣ Map of forest carbon from ESA’s Biomass mission 🌳
6️⃣ Temperatures over Europe and northern Africa by MTG-Sounder ♨️
7️⃣ Astrophysical anomalies from Hubble’s archive 👀
8️⃣ Earth from Space: Rudong coast, China 🌏
9️⃣ ESA Directors speak to media at the European Space Conference 🤝

More 👉 www.esa.int/About_Us/Week_in_images/Week_in_images…

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6 days ago | [YT] | 3,464

European Space Agency, ESA

This galaxy doesn’t fit into just one category 🌌

Meet NGC 7722 – an uncommon lenticular galaxy located around 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

Lenticular galaxies sit between spirals and ellipticals, and NGC 7722 is a striking example. It lacks the familiar spiral arms, yet features a bright central bulge, a glowing halo, and a visible disc wrapped in dark red dust lanes that coil around its outer regions.

This is the sharpest image of NGC 7722 ever captured by Hubble, revealing dust structures thought to be the aftermath of a past galaxy merger. While lenticular galaxies don’t form many new stars, NGC 7722 is far from quiet – in 2020 it was host to the explosion of a star that could be detected from Earth.

Read more: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/01/Dark_rin…

📸 ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Acknowledgement: Mehmet Yüksek

1 week ago | [YT] | 4,553

European Space Agency, ESA

Europe’s next-generation weather satellite sends back first images! 🌍🛰️

These two views from our planet were captured on 15 December 2025 by EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder satellite, launched in the summer of 2025.

MTG-S1 is a geostationary satellite that provides data on temperature and humidity over Europe every 30 minutes.

1️⃣ A ‘temperature’ image: dark red corresponds to high temperatures, mainly on the warmer land surfaces, while blue corresponds to lower temperatures, typically on the top of clouds.

2️⃣ A ‘humidity’ image: blue colours correspond to regions in the atmosphere with higher humidity, while red colours correspond to lower humidity in the atmosphere.

Read more: www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteo…

📸 Thales Alenia Space, OHB, ESA and Eumetsat

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1 week ago | [YT] | 3,732

European Space Agency, ESA

📸 This was our #WeekInImages 19-23 January 2026.

1️⃣ Proba-3: our eyes on the Sun’s inner corona ☀️
2️⃣ Webb reveals Helix Nebula in glistening detail ✨
3️⃣ A celebrity cluster in the spotlight 🌌
4️⃣ Aurora over the Netherlands, January 2026 🤩
5️⃣ Spectrum on the launch pad 🚀
6️⃣ Rocket roll 🚀
7️⃣ ExoMars drop for a safe landing 🔴
8️⃣ Unleashing a solar flare ☀️
9️⃣ Sophie Adenot exercising on E4D 🧑‍🚀
🔟 ESA Director General discusses wildfire management at the World Economic Forum annual meeting 🤝

More 👉 www.esa.int/About_Us/Week_in_images/Week_in_images…

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1 week ago | [YT] | 3,690

European Space Agency, ESA

You’re looking at more than 300 galaxies around 5 billion light-years away 🌌

This is the galaxy cluster MACS J1149, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity, and the immense mass of these bends spacetime itself.

As light from galaxies far beyond the cluster travels toward us, it is stretched and warped by this gravitational pull, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. The result is a cosmic gallery of distorted arcs, streaks, and strangely shaped galaxies scattered across the image.

Read more: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/01/A_celebr…

📸 ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, C. Willott (National Research Council Canada), R. Tripodi (INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Rome)

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 4,856

European Space Agency, ESA

This isn’t just beautiful, it’s a star’s last breath 🧬✨

Webb has revealed the intricacies of the Helix Nebula with this stunning cosmic view!

The nebula, one of the closest planetary nebulas to Earth, is famous for its striking shape. It is also a favourite among astronomers, providing a view of the final moments of a dying star. Now, Webb’s NIRCam has offered the clearest infrared look at the nebula so far, showing how the final breath of the central star is transforming into the raw ingredients for new worlds.

In this image, colour tells us about temperature and chemistry. Hot gas blasted by ultraviolet light appears blue, while cooling gas in which molecules are forming appears yellow. At the outer edges, red tones trace where gas thins, and dust takes shape.

Read more: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/01/Webb_rev…

📸 NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Pagan (STScI)

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2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 4,805

European Space Agency, ESA

📸 This was our #WeekInImages 12-16 January 2026.

1️⃣ Circinus Galaxy (Hubble and Webb) 🌌
2️⃣ Power to the Moon 🌕
3️⃣ Wildfires in Patagonia 🔥
4️⃣ Earth from Space: The fate of a giant 🧊
5️⃣ Gas flares in Iraq imaged by Sentinel-2A 🛰️
6️⃣ ESA's Planetary Defence team 🤝

More 👉 www.esa.int/About_Us/Week_in_images/Week_in_images…

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 3,508

European Space Agency, ESA

📸 This was our #WeekInImages 05-09 January 2026.

1️⃣ Sextans A PAHs pull-out (NIRCam and MIRI image) 🌌
2️⃣ Location of Cloud-9 ✨
3️⃣ Ariane 6 flight VA267 upper stage rolling into the launcher assembly building 🚀
4️⃣ Ice velocity on Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland, 2014–2024 🧊
5️⃣ Tree planting for εpsilon 🌳
6️⃣ Bird’s-eye view of a martian crater near Eumenides Dorsum 🔴
7️⃣ Snow-covered Amsterdam ❄️

More 👉 www.esa.int/About_Us/Week_in_images/Week_in_images…

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3 weeks ago | [YT] | 3,828

European Space Agency, ESA

🆕 New astronomical object just dropped! ✨

This starless, dark-matter-dominated cloud, nicknamed ‘Cloud-9’, is the first such object seen in the Universe.

More formally known as a Reionization-Limited H I Cloud, it is a neutral hydrogen cloud from the early days of the Universe which never gathered enough gas to form stars –a failed galaxy. Scientists have been searching for years for such an object. 🕵️‍♂️

Only when Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys was turned towards the cloud could scientists confirm that it is starless. Its discovery provides a window into the dark Universe, which is difficult to study through traditional observations.

Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Clou…

📸 NASA, ESA. G. Anand (STScI), and A. Benitez-Llambay (Univ. of Milan-Bicocca); Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

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1 month ago | [YT] | 3,258

European Space Agency, ESA

Happy New Year! ☀️

Start 2026 with a breathtaking video of the Sun: Solar Orbiter captured a stunning plasma flare dancing above the solar surface. 🔥

More 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/11/A_solar_…

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1 month ago | [YT] | 4,491