ESA Science Newsletter - SCI News

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The ESA Science Newsletter serves the scientific community and welcomes anyone interested in more programmatic and technical news from the Directorate of Science. Scheduled to appear roughly monthly, its primary aim is to inform scientists in ESA Member States and across the world about how to engage with the Directorate of Science. The newsletter contains calls for proposals, announcements of opportunity, news on developments of the Science Programme, research fellowship announcements, calls for memberships, job announcements, major mission updates, conference announcements, etc. It also succinctly informs about recent science highlights and upcoming conferences.

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ESA SCIENCE NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #09/2025 - 11 DEC 2025

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			Funding boost unlocks future Space Science Programme In its 50th anniversary year, European Space Agency (ESA) Member States have recommitted to space science. The Science Programme obtained a historic budget increase last week at the Ministerial Conference held in Bremen. This will enable some of the most ambitious missions ever and bolster European leadership in space science. Learn more about what were the priorities for the ESA Science Directorate at the Ministerial Conference and what this funding boost means for the future of the Science Programme. Read more

			Proba-3 1st Guest Investigator Announcement of Opportunity - advance notice The 1st Proba-3 Guest Investigator Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is expected to be issued soon.  It will solicit applications by scientists from ESA Member States to augment the scientific return of the ASPIICS instrument of ESA’s Proba-3 mission. Up to five Guest Investigators will be selected to propose their own ASPIICS science operations programmes to be executed in 2026. The Guest Investigators will have an active role in operations planning and they will have immediate access to all data from their observation campaign, after reception on the ground. Read more

			Einstein Probe Science Archive (EPSA) open - pre-announcement After the first 1.5 years of operations, the Einstein Probe mission, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with ESA and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, will soon publicly release the first batch of science data, for which the proprietary period has expired. First, only data for the mission’s Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) will be available, with Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WXT) data expected for early 2026. All data will be available via the archive interface operated at NAOC/NADC. ESA will operate a mirror archive for level 2 and 3 science data. Read more

			Cluster 1 spacecraft atmospheric re-entry The Cluster 1 spacecraft (dubbed Rumba) re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 22 October 2025 at 18:59:19 UTC. The re-entry took place over a remote corner of the Pacific Ocean, away from any inhabited areas. The spacecraft survived its last perigee (two days before re-entry) while becoming hot, due to air drag, at an altitude of 109 km. Although the spacecraft suffered an anomaly, at that time, it could be fully recovered by ESA’s flight control team. Its orbit and re-entry location could then be precisely predicted. The magnetometer instrument (FGM) could be switched-on during the last orbit and Cluster 1 made its final measurements in the tail of the magnetosphere. This re-entry followed the re-entry of Cluster 2 (Salsa) on 8 September 2024. The last two spacecraft (Samba and Tango) will re-enter on 31st August and 1st September 2026. Read more

	Recent science highlights: First confirmed sighting of explosive burst on nearby star Webb spots greedy supermassive black hole in early Universe Marking one year until BepiColombo reaches Mercury Sun-watcher SOHO celebrates thirty years Flaring black hole whips up ultra-fast winds Webb identifies earliest supernova to date

	Upcoming ESA conferences:
	Ariel Open Conference 2026: Science, Mission & Community *17-19 March 2026, ESA/ECSAT, Harwell Campus, Didcot, UK, hosted at the ESA Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre* The Ariel Mission Consortium and ESA Ariel Science Team are delighted to invite the international scientific community to attend and present at the Ariel Open Conference 2026, at the ESA Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre, UK. The conference will provide a summary of Ariel’s science, instruments and operations and present the activities that the Ariel team has planned to engage the science community.

	Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes VIII: Enriching the Universe: From Primordial Nucleosynthesis to Exoplanet Atmospheres *13-16 April 2026, Vienna, Austria, and online* This is the latest in the series of ESA conferences, in collaboration with STScI, to highlight the scientific impact of the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. The conference will showcase the latest Hubble and Webb studies of chemical evolution and nucleosynthesis, from understanding the chemistry of nearby protoplanetary disks and planetary atmospheres, to early enrichment by the first galaxies and stars.

	The X-ray Universe 2026 *8-11 June 2026, Elche, Spain* This conference is the seventh meeting in the "The X-ray Universe" series, aimed at encompassing a broad range of high-energy astrophysics topics, from solar system studies to cosmology. It will provide a showcase for results and discoveries from XMM-Newton and other missions, discussing as well the scientific potential of future missions and the evolution of the scientific analysis landscape.