Welcome

on my webpage! I am an experienced spacecraft analyst at the European Space Operations Centre via Telespazio Germany GmbH. Currently, I am the analyst for the X-ray astronomy mission XMM-Newton, but have worked as an analyst for almost all Earth Explorer spacecrafts previously. 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

The following news are a copy of the ESA space science news, for which I thank ESA for authorization. In order to read the full articles please follow the corresponding links.

Webb reveals millions of stars in nearby galaxy

06/07/2026

In new images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to celebrate its fourth science anniversary, a familiar galaxy transforms into something far richer, and far more complex, than ever seen before. Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity across near- and mid-infrared wavelengths cuts through the thick lanes of dust that obscure Centaurus A’s centre in visible light, showing a densely packed tapestry of individual stars and an active, everchanging galaxy. These images mark four years of better-than-anticipated performance and successful science operations for the most powerful space telescope in history.
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Euclid discovers the most ancient quasar in the Universe

06/07/2026


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Webb studies how a planet survived the death of its star

01/07/2026

An international team of astronomers has used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to watch the Jupiter-sized exoplanet WD 1856 b transit its host star, measuring the planet’s mass and temperature and even detecting its atmosphere.They found that the planet is significantly warmer than expected and determined how it most likely reached its very tight orbit around the star, a white dwarf. The results are our first window into the future of planets like Jupiter after the death of the Sun, billions of years into the future.
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XMM-Newton helps revise distance to outer spiral arms

01/07/2026

The European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray space telescopes have spotted the aftermath of three bright explosions echoing through the outer spiral arms of our galaxy, the Milky Way. By measuring the distance to these echoes, they find the outer arms to be up to 10% further away than we thought.
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Thousands of planets are hidden in this photo

01/07/2026

Millions of stars.
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Solar eclipse: myth vs fact

26/06/2026

What really happens during a solar eclipse? ESA astronaut Pablo Álvarez Fernández separates myth from fact, answering common questions and misconceptions about one of nature's most spectacular phenomena.
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Smile reaches science orbit

25/06/2026

The European-Chinese Smile mission reached its designated science orbit on 20 June 2026.
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ESA’s Euclid captures the Milky Way’s crowded heart

24/06/2026


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ESA’s Euclid captures the Milky Way’s crowded heart

24/06/2026

This is the largest high-resolution photo ever made of our Milky Way galaxy’s centre in visible light.
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How Europe studies the Sun

05/06/2026

English
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Webb unveils young stars across every stage of formation

05/06/2026

For this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month we return to the constellation Orion (the Hunter), a location familiar to Webb.
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Webb sniffs methane from interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

01/06/2026

Webb's MIRI image of the interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS in three different light wavelengths
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Smile: cleanroom to space

01/06/2026

Smile successfully launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 19 May 2026.
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Journey to the centre of a galaxy cluster

29/05/2026

The focus of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years.
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Inspector Smile, chapter 3: the countdown begins

18/05/2026

A ship sails smoothly into harbour.
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