ESA - European Space Agency

Herkese merhaba, İsmim Reşit Öner. Doğa, Yaşam ve Astro fotoğrafçısıyım, Van-Türkiye’de Yaşıyorum. Avrupa Uzay Ajansı EASA @europeanspaceagency ile birlikte ortaklaşa paylaşım yapmaktan onur duyuyorum. Bu fırsat için ESA’ya @europeanspaceagency çok teşekkür ederim🙏 En Beğendiğin Fotoğraf Hangisi? ☺️🙏 Hello everyone, My name is Reşit Öner. Nature, I am a life and astro photographer, I live in Van/Turkey. European Space Agency together with EASA @europeanspaceagency I am honored to share together. Thank you very much to ESA @europeanspaceagency for this opportunity🙏 The sky has always been the center of my attention, Throughout my photography life, I have taken photographs of the Milky Way and the sky in many ancient cities and historical areas. In my opinion, the places where the stars are the most magnificent are historical regions. I take single exposure photos to document the sky realistically. To take night shots, places where there is no light pollution are preferred. To photograph stars, appropriate equipment is needed. To explain this briefly; Lenses with wide apertures are used to allow more light to reach the camera’s sensor. Depending on the environment, the most suitable frame for the photo is selected and shooting begins with test shots. Apart from Milky Way photos; I love taking Full Moon and Comet photos. I take full moon shots with different concepts. I hope you like it, please indicate the photo you like the most. Have a good time everyone :) 1- St. Thomas Church and C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) Comet (VAN) 2- St. Thomas Church and Polaris (VAN) 3- St. Thomas Church and Milky Way (VAN) 4- Karmravank Monastery and Milky Way (VAN) 5- The Ancient City Of Blaundus (UŞAK) 6- Mount Nemrut King of Commagene and Milky Way (ADIYAMAN) 7- Mount Nemrut King of Commagene and Milky Way (ADIYAMAN) 8- Our Camping View and Stars in Van (VAN) 9- War of Witches and Fairies Full Moon (VAN) 10- Flying Balloon and Full Moon (VAN)

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot got even more interesting! 🤠 Remember that giant storm raging on Jupiter? @esawebb just revealed it’s hiding a secret! Scientists thought the area above the Great Red Spot was boring, but Webb’s infrared vision found all sorts of crazy structures - dark arcs and bright spots. The upper atmosphere of Jupiter is the interface between the planet’s magnetic field and the underlying atmosphere. Here, the bright and vibrant displays of northern and southern lights can be seen, which are fuelled by the volcanic material ejected from Jupiter’s moon Io. However, closer to the equator, the structure of the planet’s upper atmosphere is influenced by incoming sunlight. Because Jupiter receives only 4% of the sunlight that is received on Earth, astronomers predicted this region to be homogeneous in nature. Turns out, Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is way more dynamic than we thought. This might be caused by gravity waves crashing through the atmosphere, similar to waves on a beach! These waves are generated deep in the turbulent lower atmosphere, all around the Great Red Spot, and they can travel up in altitude, changing the structure and emissions of the upper atmosphere. The findings are exciting not just for Webb, but also for our upcoming Juice mission, which will explore Jupiter and its moons in more detail. What other secrets might Jupiter be hiding? 📸 @europeanspaceagency / Webb, @NASA & @canadianspaceagency , Jupiter ERS Team, J. Schmidt, H. Melin, M. Zamani

Hubble time! 🌌 The globular cluster NGC 2005, is not unusual in and of itself; but it is a peculiarity in relation to its surroundings. NGC 2005 is located about 750 light-years from the heart of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy and which itself lies about 162 000 light-years from Earth. Globular clusters are densely-packed clusters that can constitute tens of thousands or millions of stars. Their density means that they are tightly gravitationally bound and are therefore very stable. This stability contributes to their longevity: globular clusters can be billions of years old, and as such often comprise very old stars. Thus, studying globular clusters in space can be a little like studying fossils on Earth: where fossils give insights into the characteristics of ancient plants and animals, globular clusters illuminate the characteristics of ancient stars. Current theories of galaxy evolution predict that galaxies merge with one another. It is widely thought that the relatively large galaxies that we observe in the modern Universe were formed via the merging of smaller galaxies. If this is correct, then astronomers would expect to see evidence that the most ancient stars in nearby galaxies originated in different galactic environments. As globular clusters are known to contain ancient stars, and because of their stability, they are an excellent laboratory to test this hypothesis. NGC 2005 is such a globular cluster, and its very existence has provided evidence to support the theory of galaxy evolution via mergers. Indeed, the stars in NGC 2005 have a chemical composition that is distinct from the stars in the LMC around it. This suggests that the LMC underwent a merger with another galaxy somewhere in its history. That other galaxy has long-since merged and otherwise dispersed, but NGC 2005 remains behind as an ancient witness to the long-past merger. 📸 @europeanspaceagency / @hubbleesa & @NASA , F. Niederhofer, L. Girardi; @creativecommons CC BY 4.0

Did you know there’s a hidden population of asteroids zipping around our Solar System? 🪨 This @hubbleesa image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone took a white marking pen to it. In reality it is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field of view, photobombing the observation of the galaxy. Several exposures of the galaxy were taken, which is evidenced by the dashed pattern. The asteroid appears as a curved trail as a result of parallax: Hubble is not stationary, but orbiting Earth, and this gives the illusion that the faint asteroid is swimming along a curved trajectory. The uncharted asteroid is inside the asteroid belt in our Solar System, and hence is 10 trillion times closer to Hubble than the background galaxy. Rather than being a nuisance, this type of data is useful to astronomers for doing a census of the asteroid population in our Solar System. Astronomers have used a whopping 37 000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope to track down these elusive asteroids, most of which are less than a kilometer wide! This incredible detective work spanned 19 years of Hubble observations. The payoff was finding 1701 asteroid trails, with 1031 of those asteroids uncatalogued. Volunteers from around the world known as ‘citizen scientists’ contributed to the identification of this asteroid bounty. Professional scientists combined the volunteers’ efforts with machine learning algorithms to identify the asteroids. This represents a new approach to finding asteroids in astronomical archives spanning decades, and it may be effectively applied to other datasets. 📸NASA, ESA, P. G. Martín (@uammadrid ), J. DePasquale (@space_telescopes ). Acknowledgment: A. Filippenko (@ucberkeleyofficial ); @creativecommons CC BY 4.0 🖥️ NASA, ESA, P. G. Martín (Autonomous University of Madrid), E. Wheatley (STScI)

These are gorge 💁 Imagine peering back in time to just 460 million years after the Big Bang, when galaxies were mere infants. Thanks to @esawebb , astronomers have spotted the first-ever star clusters in such a young galaxy! The detection of massive young star clusters in the Cosmic Gems arc (a strongly-lensed galaxy) provides us with an excellent view of the early stages of a process that may go on to form globular clusters. The newly detected clusters in the arc are massive, dense and located in a very small region of their galaxy, but they also contribute the majority of the ultraviolet light coming from their host galaxy. Studying them with Webb is like having a front-row seat to see star formation and the inner workings of infant galaxies at such an unprecedented distance! This discovery revolutionises our understanding how galaxies formed and how globular clusters came to be. We’re piecing together the puzzle of the Universe’s history, one sparkly star cluster at a time! 📸 @europeanspaceagency / Webb, @NASA & @canadianspaceagency , L. Bradley (@space_telescopes ), A. Adamo (@stockholmuniversity ) and the Cosmic Spring collaboration 📹 ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Bradley (STScI), A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the Cosmic Spring collaboration, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Mars: More than just red 🔴 Sure, Mars looks rusty from Earth, but space cameras reveal a surprising rainbow. This image from our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter shows layers of yellow clays (containing iron and magnesium), white and blue aluminum deposits, and dark eroded rock. Welcome to Mawrth Vallis. Once filled with liquid water, is a treasure trove of minerals. It was even considered a landing site for our ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, searching for signs of past life (Oxia Planum was ultimately chosen). What do you think? Does Mars hold the secrets of ancient life? 📸 @europeanspaceagency /TGO/CaSSIS; @creativecommons CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

See how LEGO® bricks are helping scientists build astronaut shelters on the moon 🚀💥 Inspired by the LEGO® system in play, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have used dust from a 4.5 billion year old meteorite to 3D print bricks, similar to a LEGO brick, to help design astronaut shelters on the moon. The ESA Space Bricks have helped the ESA team explore how buildings could be made using materials found in space.    To find out more about the ESA Space Bricks and see the exciting range of LEGO Space sets, visit /Space.     #LEGO #LEGOSpace #ESASpaceBricks @europeanspaceagency

Gotcha! 📸 For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to image directly has been captured by @esawebb in a beautiful view that is revealing secrets about how stars are born! In the Serpens Nebula, a young star-forming region, Webb’s captured a surprising discovery: jets of gas from newborn stars, all pointing in the same direction! Normally, these jets are chaotic, but here, they’re aligned like sleet in a storm. So just how does the alignment of the stellar jets relate to the rotation of the star? As an interstellar gas cloud collapses in on itself to form a star, it spins more rapidly. The only way for the gas to continue moving inward is for some of the spin (known as angular momentum) to be removed. A disc of material forms around the young star to transport material down, like a whirlpool around a drain. The swirling magnetic fields in the inner disc launch some of the material into twin jets that shoot outward in opposite directions, perpendicular to the disc of material. In the Webb image, these jets are identified by bright red clumpy streaks, which are shockwaves caused when the jet hits the surrounding gas and dust. Here, the red colour indicates the presence of molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Webb can image these extremely young stars and their outflows, which were previously obstructed at optical wavelengths. Astronomers say there are a few forces that potentially can shift the direction of the outflows during this period of a young star’s life. One way is when binary stars spin around each other and wobble in orientation, twisting the direction of the outflows over time. Webb instrument will now analyze the gas and dust to understand how volatile chemicals survive star and planet formation. 📸 @NASA , @europeanspacagency , @canadianspaceagency , @space_telescopes , K. Pontoppidan (@nasajpl ), J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute) 📹 NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI) Acknowledgement: Akira Fujii, Digitized Sky Survey, Spitzer Space Telescope 📹 NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Happy World Rainforest Day! 🌨️ ⁣ 22 June marks World Rainforest Day, a day to celebrate how rainforests are teeming with life and play a critical role in regulating Earth’s climate. ⁣ From space, our satellites and astronauts monitor rainforest health, tracking changes in vegetation cover. This information helps scientists understand deforestation and develop strategies for preserving these vital ecosystems. Swipe through to see the lush rainforests of the Amazon, Congo Basin, Borneo, El Salvador and West Africa from orbit! 📸 @europeanspaceagency / @nasa - @astro_timpeake 📸 ESA, @creativecommons by-SA 3.0 IGO
📸 contains modified @copernicus_eu Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC by-SA 3.0 IGO
📸 contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC by-SA 3.0 IGO
📸 contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC by-SA 3.0 IGO

Listen to the music of the cosmos ✨ 21 June is Music Day and we want to join the celebrations with a compilation of “cosmic music” we’ve published throughout the years. Prepare those headphones and let these sounds take you around the Universe: 1. Cosmic Cliffs - Complete sonification by James Webb Space Telescope 2. Starquakes by Gaia 3. Titan echoes by Huygens 4. The ‘singing comet’ 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by Rosetta 5. Earth’s magnetic song during a solar storm by Cluster 6. Feeling a close Mercury flyby by BepiColombo 7. Sound of a close Venus flyby by BepiColombo These soundtracks are not actual sounds recorded in space. Instead, it’s data captured by different instruments that has been transformed into sounds audible to humans. Do you have a favourite space song? Share it with us! 📹 @NASA , @europeanspaceagency , @canadianspaceagency , @space_telescopes , Kimberly Arcand (CXC, SAO), Matt Russo (SYSTEM Sounds), Andrew Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds), Quyen Hart (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), Christine Malec 📹 ESA/Gaia/DPAC; @creativecommons by-SA 3.0 IGO
 📹 ESA/NASA/@nasajpl / @uarizona ⠀⠀⠀⠀ 🔊ESA /NASA/ @agenziaspazialeitaliana / HASI team (M. Fulchignoni) 📹 ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA⠀⠀⠀ 🔊TU Braunschweig/IGEP/Manuel Senfft, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 📹 NASA/ESA - @thom_astro ⠀ 🔊Martin Archer,@officialqmul 📹 Images: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO 🔊 ESA/BepiColombo/ISA/ASI- @mediainaf

A galactic masterpiece 🌌 The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3059 lies about 57 million light-years from Earth. The data used to compose this image were collected by @hubbleesa in May 2024, as part of an observing programme that studied a number of galaxies. All the observations were made using the same range of filters: partially transparent materials that allow only very specific wavelengths of light to pass through. Filters are used extensively in observational astronomy, and can be calibrated to allow either extremely narrow or somewhat broader ranges of light through. Narrow-band filters are invaluable from a scientific perspective because certain light wavelengths are associated with specific physical and chemical processes. For example, under particular conditions, hydrogen atoms are known to emit red light with wavelength value of 656.46 nanometres. Red light at this wavelength is known as H-alpha emission, or the ‘H-alpha line’. It is very useful to astronomers because its presence acts as an indicator of certain physical processes and conditions; it is often a tell-tale sign of new stars being formed, for example. Thus, narrow-band filters calibrated to allow H-alpha emission through can be used to identify regions of space where stars are forming. 📸 @europeanspaceagency / @hubbleesa & @NASA , D. Thilker; @creativecommons CC BY 4.0

There are areas of our planet that are getting drier 🏜️ Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands, often caused by human activities and climate change. It reduces land productivity and can lead to famine. These images of deserts from around the world, taken by our astronauts from the @iss , together with @esa_earth observation satellites, help us monitor land degradation and understand desertification. By working together, communities can implement sustainable land management practices to combat desertification and preserve our precious ecosystems. 📸 Iberian Peninsula: @europeanspaceagency / @nasa - @astro_alex_esa , @creativecommons BY-SA 3.0 IGO 📹 Sahara: ESA/NASA - @thom_astro 📸 Nile Delta: ESA/NASAS - T.Pesquet 📸 Iran: ESA/NASA - @astro_timpeake 📸 Australian Outback: ESA/NASA - A.Gerst 📸 New Mexico: ESA/NASA - T.Peake 📸 Andes: ESA/NASA - A.Gerst 📸 Nabim: ESA/NASA - @astro_andreas