#ESA Science Newsletter!

* Call for Expressions of Interest to become Member of the AWG/SSEWG & SSAC
* #SolarOrbiter gets world-first views of the Sun’s poles
* Date and content of next #Gaia Data Release
* Vacancy: #Cheops Project Scientist – advance notice
* Vacancy: Payload Validation Engineer
* Winter school: The exploration of Jupiter & its moons by ESA’s #Juice mission
* Results of the 9th call for the Archival Research Visitor Programme

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/scinews/2025-05

A Giant Planet and a Small Star Are Shaking Up Conventional Cosmological Theory #Science #Space #Cosmology #Astronomy #SpaceScience
https://purescience.news/article?id=935773

Due to Earth’s unfavorable position to observe Comet 3I/ATLAS at closest approach to the Sun are any agencies considering pointing any Mars-orbiting craft its way? Looks like they’ll be cozy neighbors briefly.

If you're so minded, you can take a listen to the interview I did with Valerie Sanderson on the BBC World Service about the new interstellar interloper, Comet 3I/ATLAS, & what it means for science & future missions like ESA's Comet Interceptor.

It starts at 13m18s into today's episode of The Newsroom:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zwl4vgrjpv5

https://www.alojapan.com/1319119/japan-shifts-space-policy-from-science-to-security/ Japan Shifts Space Policy from Science to Security ##visitjapanjp #BasicSpaceAct #CabinetSatelliteIntelligenceCenter #epsilon #GPS #Japan #JapanNews #michibiki #MitsuruNodomi #news #space #SpaceOperationsGroup #SpaceScience #SpaceSecurityInitiative As space becomes a contested, congested, and competitive domain, Japan is rapidly transforming its approach to space development. A recent lecture by Mitsuru Nodomi, former Director of the Cabinet

Could a Paper Plane Thrown from the ISS Survive the Flight?

https://www.sciencealert.com/could-a-paper-plane-thrown-from-the-international-space-station-survive-the-flight

https://www.europesays.com/us/54081/ Things Are Suddenly Looking Up For NASA Science #cnn #Congress #Https://nasawatch.com/congress/thingsAreSuddenlyLookingUpForNasaScience/budget #Nasa #Science #SpaceScience #TrumpSpace #UnitedStates #UnitedStates #US

As far as I'm concerned, science missions are the entire reason NASA exists. I'm not into exerting manned tubular priapal dominance over the other planets.

#NASA #spacescience #FuckTrump

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/trump-administration-moves-to-tighten-the-noose-around-nasa-science-missions/

Call for Expression of Interest to become a member of the European Space Agency Science Advisory Structure:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/expression-of-interest-for-science-advisory-members-2025

Through the present Call, the #ESA Director of Science invites scientists affiliated with institutions in the ESA Member States to express their interest in being a member of the Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC), Astronomy Working Group (AWG), or the Solar System and Exploration Working Group (SSEWG).

Welcome to the neighbourhood, 3I/ATLAS, if only briefly

A new interstellar object has been found skimming through our solar system, only the third after 1I/'Oumumua & 2I/Borisov

This new object, detected by the ATLAS telescope in Chile, will make its closest approach to the Sun in late October, inside the orbit of Mars, & then barrel out again at more than 200,000 kmh

More at: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/07/ESA_observes_interstellar_comet_3I_ATLAS

#SpaceScience

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Nova V462 Lupi Now Visible
A rare celestial event is underway in the southern sky. Nova Lupi 2025 is a thermonuclear explosion on a white dwarf, discovered mid-June and now visible with binoculars. Even more rare: Nova Velorum 2025 is visible too, making two simultaneous novas!

July 3, 2025
Credit: Matipon Tangmatitham (NARIT)

Meet A11pl3Z: our solar system's third interstellar tourist, clocking 152,000 mph and up to 12 miles wide. It's like having a cosmic RV barrel through your neighborhood - impressive, slightly concerning, and definitely not staying for dinner.

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/03/0041226/a-new-interstellar-visitor-has-entered-the-solar-system

Separated at birth / Gone but not forgotten

I've just watched the trailer for the film of Andy "The Martian" Weir's book "Project Hail Mary", starring Ryan Gosling & due out next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GPyA7VniTY

Take a careful look at 01:30 into the trailer, as Gosling's rocket launches.

Yep, that's an Ariane 5 dropping its umbilicals

First picture: screenshot from the trailer
Second picture: the 2023 Ariane 5 launch of ESA's JUICE

#SpaceScience
#ProjectHailMary
#ArianeSpace

What Islands Can Teach Us About Planetary Protection #Science #Space #PlanetaryScience #PlanetaryProtection #SpaceScience #EnvironmentalLessons
https://purescience.news/article?id=931661

H2A Rocket Retires, Capping 25 Years of Excellence

このページを 日本語 で読む Japan’s flagship heavy-lift rocket, the H2A, concluded its distinguished career with the successful launch of its 50th and final mission at 1:33 AM on June 29 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Pre…
#Japan #JP #JapanNews #H2A #H3 #hayabusa2 #JAXA #juichiroito #MitsubishiHeavyIndustries #news #space #SpaceScience #TanegashimaSpaceCenter
https://www.alojapan.com/1310205/h2a-rocket-retires-capping-25-years-of-excellence/

https://www.alojapan.com/1310205/h2a-rocket-retires-capping-25-years-of-excellence/ H2A Rocket Retires, Capping 25 Years of Excellence #H2A #H3 #hayabusa2 #Japan #JapanNews #JAXA #JuichiroIto #MitsubishiHeavyIndustries #news #space #SpaceScience #TanegashimaSpaceCenter このページを 日本語 で読む Japan’s flagship heavy-lift rocket, the H2A, concluded its distinguished career with the successful launch of its 50th and final mission at 1:33 AM on June 29 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. Roughly 16 minutes after li…

Dark Sand Cascades on Mars
Dark streaks on pinkish dunes near Mars' North Pole resemble trees, but they're actually sand slides exposed as CO₂ frost melts in spring. Captured by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s MRO.
June 29, 2025
NASA, HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona)
https://stellarsnap.space
#APOD #Mars #HiRISE #MRO #NASA #MartianGeology #SandDunes #PlanetaryScience #RedPlanet #SpaceScience #StellarSnap

Science and the stars a call to the spiritual, says Vatican astrophysicist | National

Jesuit Father Paul Gabor, vice director of the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, Ariz., delivers a keynote…
#Europe #Vatican #astronomy #catholicchurch #physicalsciences #Religión #spacescience #StatodellaCittàdelVaticano #StatusCivitatisVaticanae #vaticancity #VaticanCityState #VaticanObservatory #Vaticano
https://www.europesays.com/2197183/

During a town hall Wednesday, NASA officials on stage looked like hostages https://arstechni.ca/m2bx #spacescience #DonaldTrump #spacepolicy #janetpetro #nasabudget #Science #science #Space #NASA

If I was being generous here, I could agree that this is the first direct image of this specific exoplanet, TWA-7b

But it’s certainly not the first direct image of an exoplanet or even the first one imaged by JWST

There’s something about the JWST x exoplanet combo that seems to generate endless misleading clickbait headlines, undermining the genuinely good science being done

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jun/25/james-webb-space-telescope-first-direct-images-exoplanet

The original paper by Lagrange et al.:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09150-4