With £1.5 million of funding from us, 6 innovative projects will use satellite technology and AI to deliver real-world impact across a range of Britain's sectors. 🛰️🚅🌱 We're bringing the benefits of space down to Earth. 🌍🔭 👉 www.gov.uk/government/n...

The sun was just 10 degrees above the horizon when NASA's Perseverance rover captured this morning view of Nili Planum yesterday. The rim of Jezero crater is casting a long shadow over the rover and foreground landscape. 🔭 Full res: flic.kr/p/2rt54pJ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß

Plato has arrived! ESA's planet-hunting spacecraft has safely arrived at ESTEC, where engineers will attach its solar panels and sunshield before running critical tests to ensure everything's ready for launch. 🚀

The UK is playing a huge role in the mission, from leading on the science to the design and build of the camera electronics. 📸 Read more about the UK's involvement in the mission 👉 gov.uk/government/c...

The umbral shadow slipping away as the Moon rises during tonight’s lunar eclipse. Photographed from Teignmouth, Devon. #lunareclipse

Here are the track-stacks from our #GMN #UKMON #MeteorCameras from overnight 12/13 Aug 2025. Despite the moonlight, they captured so many #meteors! Most of them are #Perseids but there are new Kappa Cygnids + sporadics. Dotted lines are aircraft #Perseids2025 #MeteorShower

Despite it being a poor year for the #Perseid meteor shower with the very bright Moon up all night, still worth popping out for a look. We’ve just seen an incredible Perseid fireball across about 30° of sky with a highly structured persistent train that lingered for a good 10 seconds. #Perseids

With 14,000+ satellites orbiting the Earth, the risk of collision and re-entry is rising, making space security vital. 🌍 🛰️ Discover how the National Space Operations Centre is safeguarding UK space interests as it celebrates its first anniversary. 👉 space.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/11/u...

#NoctilucentClouds last night as seen from South Devon. Haytor on Dartmoor is visible silhouetted on the horizon.

Really nice #NoctilucentCloud display visible from South Devon currently. Not particularly bright and only ~5° above horizon but some nice structure on camera.

We have images of a new interstellar visitor! ☄️ 👀 Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third object ever spotted coming from beyond our Solar System. In this timelapse, our VLT observes the comet move across the sky — just two days after its discovery! https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2527a/ 🔭 🧪

Amplifying the call from Marc Delcroix and co. over the weekend: the team are looking to verify/refute a potential impact on #Saturn on July 5th, 09:00-09:15UT. Videos taken by amateur observers at that time might hold the key. This 📸 credit: Mario Rana pvol2.ehu.eus/pvol2/news/v...

☄️ Analysis by UK Meteor Network experts suggests a bright fireball meteor dropped meteorites over the Scottish Highlands on Thursday night [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8ze2vnz38o.amp]. Here’s the UK Fireball Alliance guidance on what to do if you think you’ve found a meteorite:

The IMO calendar is a great resource and an excellent antidote to the online hype & misinformation about meteor showers. We’ll have Moon-free nights for the Perseids & Geminids in 2026, so fingers crossed for clear skies! ☄️

We rely on satellites for our daily lives - from sat-nav to weather forecasts - and they are at risk from space debris. 🌍🛰️ We have launched a tender for the UK’s first mission to remove defunct satellites from orbit, and safeguard vital services. 🛰️📱 Read more 👉 www.gov.uk/government/n...

FACT THREAD on New Interstellar Object #A11pl3Z This story unfolded pretty fast yesterday for a few reasons. The object was discovered on July 1st UTC by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS team. A #NASA funded survey at the University of Hawaii. atlas.fallingstar.com 🔭🧪

Last night we had a phenomenal display of noctilucent clouds over the UK with really striking structure & masses of embedded gravity waves. Grabbed these shots from a bedroom window with a DSLR & fast 135mm lens, which has ‘frozen’ a lot of the fine, filamentary, detail in the dynamic shapes/waves.

Wonderful #NoctilucentCloud display emerging out of the twilight currently in South Devon. Almost overhead with lots of patches of embedded gravity wave structures. #NLCs

Asteroid 2024 YR4 made headlines this year when its probability of impacting Earth in 2032 rose to 3%. While an Earth impact has now been ruled out, the story continues. The final glimpse of the asteroid left it with a 4% chance of hitting the Moon on 22 Dec 2032. www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

Daylight fireball over the U.S. Southeast - and there may have been a related meteorite hit of a house: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_Oa.... Visual reports: fireballs.imo.net/members/imo_.... Another TV report: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcTk...

Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory! Can you guess these regions of sky? This is just a small peek...join us at 11am US EDT for your full First Look at how Rubin will #CaptureTheCosmos! 🔭🧪 #RubinFirstLook ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

We haven’t been able to observe the Sun’s poles. ☀️ Until now… With Solar Orbiter, we can, for the first time, observe how the solar wind flows around the poles - unlocking vital clues about the 11-year solar cycle, which is key to advancing space weather forecasting. ☀️ Learn more 👇

🪐🌍🛰️🗣️ Heads-up space communicators! The UK Space Agency External Affairs team are running another of our Space Communicators Networking Breakfasts at the UK Space Conference in Manchester. 📝 If you're interested in joining, you can sign up via the form here: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

🚨🌔 ispace's eagerly anticipated Mission 2 is scheduled to land on the Moon this week! We're proud to once-again be making lunar exploration possible, as we work alongside @operations.esa.int's ESTRACK network to provide communications support. 📡 Learn more in ESA's article ⬇️

Bit of an Aurora tonight from here in New Zealand

Another beautiful view of Mars, taken by Perseverance yesterday... Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson

Good thread on the arrival of the big CME this morning and the ongoing geomagnetic storm. 👇 Hopefully activity holds up until nightfall for aurora viewing in Europe/UK. #spaceweather #NorthernLights

Strong M8-class flare occurring now, initating a very large-scale eruption on the Earth-facing solar disk which is at least likely partially Earth-directed. A full halo CME is expected.

There's a fast CME heading into some fast solar wind and some pre-existing slower CMEs. We're currently putting arrival at noon-to-midnight tomorrow, but this forecast may change as more observations become available. Updates here: research.reading.ac.uk/met-spate/hu...

🚨 New dwarf planet candidate: 2017 OF201 🚨 ~700 km wide, now 90.5 AU from the Sun. Orbit: a = 838 AU, q = 44.9 AU — deep into the inner Oort Cloud. Possibly part of a hidden population totaling ~1% of Earth’s mass. 📄 Paper: arxiv.org/pdf/2505.15806 #astronomy #dwarfplanet

🌍🪐🔭 Today @ukspaceagency.bsky.social is launching a call for proposals from UK-based research organisations and companies to explore the feasibility of a UK-led scientific instrument for the Habitable Worlds Observatory mission. To find out more, see: space.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/19/u...

Great to see the new @nhm-london.bsky.social space exhibition last night. A superb exploration of the question “could life exist beyond Earth?” that takes you from our cosmic beginnings to asteroids, Mars & the icy moons via a driveway in Gloucestershire.

With increasing space activities from the UK there comes increasing planetary protection risks, so – after extensive work with academia, industry & other experts – @ukspaceagency.bsky.social has today published a new Planetary Protection Technical Framework. 🌍 🌓 🔬 space.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/08/u...

☀️Soak up the Sun with Solar Orbiter's widest high-resolution view yet! Zoom in and explore👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 🔭🧪

🌔 Last month, Firefly landed their Blue Ghost mission on the plains of Mare Crisium. But did you know that tech from a UK company was central to getting the lander safely to the lunar surface? For the full story see this new @ukspaceagency.bsky.social blogpost: space.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/22/h...

The Northern Lights photographed from Dartmoor, Devon, this evening. These were all taken during the brief substorm just after 10pm BST as Bz flipped north. At the display’s peak, the rays were clearly visible to the eye and had a hint of red/pink to them. #aurora #spaceweather

Faint aurora showing up on camera now from Devon, UK (50°N). Subtle vertical rays close to the horizon below a diffuse purple/pink glow. Nothing visually. #NorthernLights

Hear from @aberuni.bsky.social’s Dr Helen Miles about the work being done on the Enfys & PanCam instruments for the Rosalind Franklin rover. #Mars #spacescience #Enfys #PanCam #UKSpaceAgency

Moon - April 4th, 2025 ~22:00UTC 48% illuminated. Made the most of a bit of favorable libration to get a good look at Mare Australe and surrounding area. 8" reflector at 3000mm

Fascinating day at the Senedd for Aberystwyth Uni’s Pushing the Frontiers of Space event. Really interesting to hear about the work being done at Aberystwyth, including on upcoming Mars science from the Rosalind Franklin rover. That’s a full-size replica of the Enfys IR spectrometer in 2nd pic.

Heads-up STEM and space educators/skills experts: @ukspaceagency.bsky.social is looking for an Education & Future Workforce Lead. Details on Civil Service jobs: www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... We have offices in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leicester & Harwell.

A montage of tonight’s wonderful occultation of the Pleiades star cluster by the Earthshine-lit Moon (before they both dipped behind some rooftops). #astrophotography

Don’t forget UK folks: tonight the Moon will pass in front of the Pleiades star cluster between 9:45pm and midnight. Both currently look great in the deepening twilight within the FOV of a pair of 10x50 binoculars. #astronomy

Tonight’s crescent Moon with the four large craters Furnerius, Petavius, Vendelinus & Langrenus sitting on the terminator. #astrophotography

Last night’s razor-thin crescent Moon, with Earthshine, setting over the high hills of Dartmoor. #astrophotography

UK folks: if you have clear skies there is a stunning, razor-thin, crescent Moon sitting low in the west right now. Earthshine just becoming apparent on the night side too.

The Meteosat-12 satellite captured this space perspective of the partial #SolarEclipse yesterday morning 🌍🌑🌞 In a partial solar eclipse, the Moon moves between Earth and the Sun, partially blocking the sunlight 🧪 (vid: @eumetsat.int, processed by @simonsat.bsky.social) @esaearth.esa.int

Airbus in the UK have been awarded £150 million to help deliver Europe's Mars rover to the red planet. 🚀🔴 Funded by @esa.int through us, Airbus will develop the landing system for the Rosalind Franklin rover, set to land in 2030 in the hunt for past Martian life. www.gov.uk/government/n...

This morning’s partial solar eclipse from Devon. ☀️🌑 Taken by holding a phone camera up to the eyepiece of a specialist, filtered, solar telescope, which shows the hydrogen-alpha light from the Sun. Look closely at the pic & you can see the undulating profile of the lunar limb. #partialeclipse

BOOM! What a beautiful #SolarFlare (just now). This eruptive event reached the X-class level, and produced this stunning coronal mass ejection. The flare source region will rotate to face Earth in the coming week. Further strong solar activity is likely! #spaceweather