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
ESA observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
02/04/2026
The European Space Agency (ESA) reacted promptly to the discovery of comet 3I/ATLAS on 1 July 2025. Soon after they were alerted to its existence by automated detection systems, ESA astronomers began using ground-based telescopes in Hawaii, Chile, and Australia to monitor its progress.Since then, the comet has been observed by space telescopes close to Earth, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, XMM-Newton and XRISM. In October and November 2025, ESA turned interplanetary voyagers Mars Express, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) in the direction of the comet to make further observations from excellent vantage points. The data from Juice has recently arrived on Earth and scientists are busy analysing them to see what they reveal.Follow the links below for more information.
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First Proba-3 science: surprisingly speedy solar wind
13/04/2026
Since July 2025, the European Space Agency’s pair of Proba-3 satellites has already created 57 artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected more than 250 hours of high-resolution videos of the Sun’s atmosphere, called the corona. That’s the same amount of observing time as about 5000 total solar eclipse campaigns carried out on Earth. But the science is even more exciting. For the first time we can carefully track how material from the Sun moves through the inner corona, where space weather is born. The first results, recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, show that solar wind structures in the inner corona can travel three to four times faster than scientists thought.
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A pair of planet-forming discs
03/04/2026
This month’s NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month offers us a two-for-one on brand new stars – with some potential planets thrown in as well!
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How to follow the Smile launch live
02/04/2026
***Update 6 April 2026: launch postponed due to a technical issue occurred on a subsystem component production line after VV29 launcher integration, new launch date to be confirmed at a later date, more information from Avio*** ESA will be broadcasting live as the European-Chinese Smile mission launches at 07:29 BST/08:29 CEST (03:29 local time) on 9 April 2026.Smile will launch on a European Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.Times subject to change at short notice.
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Five things Juice has revealed about Comet 3I/ATLAS
02/04/2026
‘Extreme but not exotic,’ – a glimpse at Comet 3I/ATLAS through the eyes of the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice).
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Smile: A global answer to a global mystery
02/04/2026
The European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are joining hands to uncover how Earth defends itself against dangerous particles and radiation from the Sun.
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Last glimpse of Smile
30/03/2026
Like a caterpillar inside a cocoon, the Smile spacecraft was enclosed inside a Vega-C rocket fairing on 26 March 2026, in preparation for liftoff from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 9 April.
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Smile meets Vega-C
30/03/2026
The Smile spacecraft (gold) was fixed to a Vega-C rocket adaptor (black cone) on 25 March 2026, in preparation for liftoff from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 9 April.
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What is Smile about to discover?
30/03/2026
What really happens when the Sun’s charged particles slam into Earth’s magnetic shield?
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Where spiral arms and star formation meet
27/03/2026
Hubble image of barred spiral galaxy IC 486
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Smile pre-launch media briefing
26/03/2026
Watch the replay of the Smile pre-launch media briefing.
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Webb & Hubble capture new views of Saturn
25/03/2026
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have joined forces to capture new views of Saturn, revealing the planet in strikingly different ways. Infrared and visible observations show layers and storms in the ringed planet’s atmosphere.
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Smile fuelled for launch
24/03/2026
On 20 March, specialists filled the European-Chinese Smile mission with fuel ahead of its launch on a Vega-C rocket on 9 April.
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XRISM solves famous star’s 50-year mystery
24/03/2026
An invisible companion consuming material from the naked-eye star gamma-Cas has been revealed as the culprit for curious X-rays coming from the stellar system. This closes the case on a mystery that has puzzled astronomers for more than fifty years.
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