on my webpage! I’m a spacecraft analyst at the European Space Operations Centre via Telespazio Germany GmbH. In particular, I am a member of a large team operating Earth Explorer spacecrafts. In the past I have worked as an astrophysicist studing accreting neutron stars and cosmological neutrino sources. For more details please have a look at the “About me” menu.
ESA Space Science News
ESA and NASA team up to study solar wind
28/03/2024
In the run up to April’s total solar eclipse, ESA-led Solar Orbiter and NASA-led Parker Solar Probe are both at their closest approach to the Sun. Tomorrow, they are taking the opportunity to join hands in studying the driving rain of plasma that streams from the Sun, fills the Solar System, and causes dazzlement and destruction at Earth.
Read more
Integral spots giant explosions feeding neutron star jets
27/03/2024
ESA’s gamma-ray space telescope Integral has played a decisive role in capturing jets of matter being expelled into space at one-third the speed of light. The material and energy were liberated when huge explosions occurred on the surface of a neutron star. This world-first observation proved to be 'a perfect experiment' for exploring astrophysical jets of all descriptions.
Read more
SOHO reaches 5000 comets
27/03/2024
A citizen scientist digging through data from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has found the mission’s 5000th comet.
Read more
Mars Express celebrates 25 000 orbits
27/03/2024
ESA’s Mars Express recently looped around Mars for the 25 000th time – and the orbiter has captured yet another spectacular view of the Red Planet to mark the occasion.
Read more
Marvel at stunning echo of 800-year-old explosion
26/03/2024
In the year 1181 a rare supernova explosion appeared in the night sky, staying visible for 185 consecutive days.
Read more
Euclid's sight restored
26/03/2024
A newly devised procedure to de-ice Euclid's optics has performed significantly better than hoped. Light coming in to the visible ‘VIS’ instrument from distant stars was gradually decreasing due small amounts of water ice building up on its optics. Mission teams spent months devising a procedure to heat up individual mirrors in the instrument’s complex optical system, without interfering with the finely tuned mission’s calibration or potentially causing further contamination. After the very first mirror was warmed by just 34 degrees, Euclid's sight was restored.
Read more
Cluster explains spiral dance seen over Norway
25/03/2024
Photo of auroral spiral
Read more
Saturn's moon Enceladus top target for ESA
25/03/2024
A fresh, icy crust hides a deep, enigmatic ocean. Plumes of water burst through cracks in the ice, shooting into space. An intrepid lander collects samples and analyses them for hints of life.ESA has started to turn this scene into a reality, devising a mission to investigate an ocean world around either Jupiter or Saturn. But which moon should we choose? What should the mission do exactly? A team of expert scientists has delivered their findings.
Read more
Gaia maps largest ever collection of quasars in space and time
18/03/2024
Astronomers have created the largest yet cosmic 3D map of quasars: bright and active centres of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes.
Read more
Laser light sabre
15/03/2024
What looks like a light sabre is actually a laser beam guided in its path through a hair-thin jet of water, in the same manner as conventional fibre optics.
Read more
Galactic Chloé - the Gaia mission
19/12/2023
For Gaia’s 10-year anniversary, ESA champion Galactic Chloé and the ESA Gaia team are very happy to collaborate to tell the space mission's story.
Read more
Space Team Europe for Euclid: Laurent Brouard
30/11/2023
Focus on Euclid with Laurent Brouard: “I’m going to show you what a telescope that we send into space looks like.
Read more
Space Team Europe for Euclid: Guadalupe Cañas Herrera
29/11/2023
Focus on Euclid with Guadalupe Cañas Herrera: “I’m exactly where I’ve always wanted to be.
Read more
Space Team Europe for Euclid: Henk Hoekstra
28/11/2023
Henk Hoekstra, professor of observational cosmology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, shares his professional trajectory linked to weak gravitational lensing, a technique used by ESA’s Euclid mission.
Read more
Space Team Europe for Euclid: Jean-Charles Cuillandre
27/11/2023
Focus on Euclid with Jean-Charles Cuillandre: “What we see in the first Euclid images is a promise of what will come in the future.
Read more