SPACE/COSMOS
Europe secures record space budget to boost independence
By AFP
November 27, 2025
The European Space Agency's ministerial meeting was held in the German city of Bremen - Copyright AFP/File CHARLY TRIBALLEAU
Frédéric Bourigault
The European Space Agency announced Thursday it had secured a record budget of 22.1 billion euros to fund its programmes for the next three years, as the continent seeks greater independence in space.
The ESA also approved a plan to bolster defence cooperation and laid out plans for scientific space missions at a ministerial council meeting in the German city of Bremen.
The agency’s 23 member states committed five billion euros more than 2022’s budget, with the total representing almost all of the 22.2-billion-euro ($25.7 billion) funding sought by the agency.
“This has never happened before,” ESA director general Josef Aschbacher told the meeting.
The amount of funding “speaks volumes — it’s a sign of confidence in the agency, Aschbacher AFP in an interview.
At the heart of the discussions in Bremen was the European Resilience from Space programme, which includes Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.
The programme, with an estimated 1.35-billion-euro budget, has both civilian and military applications.
“Defence is always a matter of national sovereignty,” said Aschbacher. “But pooling and sharing assets also has a European dimension.”
One example was increasing “the number of observations and satellite images for intelligence and surveillance purposes”, he said.
If the United States and China continue building huge constellations of satellites and Europe does nothing, Aschbacher feared “the same thing will happen as with Starlink: there will be a dominant US company threatening our European companies and our position”.
Germany was the biggest contributor to the total budget with more than five billion euros, followed by France with 3.7 billion.
– Rockets and telescopes –
The industry has changed significantly in recent years as billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has risen to dominate the space launches.
Europe lost an independent way to launch its missions into space after Russia pulled its rockets following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
After repeated delays, Europe’s new heavy lift Ariane 6 rocket finally blasted off last year. However the rocket is not reusable, unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9 workhorse.
So the ESA is planning to contract out the job of developing the continent’s first reusable rocket, having named a shortlist of potential companies.
In Bremen, the European Launcher Challenge received more than 900 million euros in contributions — twice what had been proposed, Aschbacher said.
The funding boost for ESA comes as US space agency NASA faces stiff budget cuts under President Donald Trump.
However, the ESA said this week that NASA had confirmed it would contribute to Europe’s Martian rover Rosalind Franklin.
The mission is scheduled to launch in 2028 aiming to drill into the surface of Mars looking for signs of extraterrestrial life.
Among the scientific projects the ESA has proposed for the future — but have not yet been approved — is the first space-based laser observatory aiming to study gravitational waves, which are ripples in spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein.
Another is the X-ray telescope NewAthena, which would study extreme events in the universe such as supermassive black holes.
There is also a plan to send a spacecraft to Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which scientists suspect could have a liquid ocean under its icy shell that might be able to host life.
The ESA also has a joint proposal with Japan to send a spacecraft called Ramses to study the asteroid Apophis as it zings past Earth in 2029, hoping to learn more about how to fend off dangerous space rocks in the future.
– European astronauts to the Moon? –
Also on Thursday, the ESA announced that the first European astronauts to participate in NASA’s Artemis programme — which aims to return humans to the Moon — will be from Germany, France and Italy.
“I can announce today that the first flight will be allocated to a German astronaut,” Aschbacher said on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting.
The programme’s first crewed mission to the Moon — which will not set foot on its surface — is planned to launch in the first half of next year.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, one of his country’s leading candidates, said in Bremen that “it has never really been officially confirmed, so this is a positive.”
“It means that Europe has its place in this adventure,” he added.
After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter
University of Tokyo
image:
Gamma-ray intensity map excluding components other than the halo, spanning approximately 100 degrees in the direction of the Galactic center. The horizontal gray bar in the central region corresponds to the Galactic plane area, which was excluded from the analysis to avoid strong astrophysical radiation.
view moreCredit: Tomonori Totani, The University of Tokyo
In the early 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed galaxies in space moving faster than their mass should allow, prompting him to infer the presence of some invisible scaffolding — dark matter — holding the galaxies together. Nearly 100 years later, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have provided direct evidence of dark matter, allowing the invisible matter to be “seen” for the very first time.
Dark matter has remained largely a mystery since it was proposed so many years ago. Up to this point, scientists have only been able to indirectly observe dark matter through its effects on observable matter, such as its ability to generate enough gravitational force to hold galaxies together. The reason dark matter can’t be observed directly is because the particles that make up dark matter don’t interact with electromagnetic force — meaning dark matter doesn’t absorb, reflect or emit light.
Theories abound, but many researchers hypothesize that dark matter is made up of something called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, which are heavier than protons but interact very little with other matter. Despite this lack of interaction, when two WIMPs collide, it is predicted that the two particles will annihilate one another and release other particles, including gamma ray photons.
Researchers have targeted regions where dark matter is concentrated, such as the center of the Milky Way, through astronomical observations for years in search of these specific gamma rays. Using the latest data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Professor Tomonori Totani from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo believes he has finally detected the specific gamma rays predicted by the annihilation of theoretical dark matter particles.
Totani’s study is published in the journal Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
“We detected gamma rays with a photon energy of 20 gigaelectronvolts (or 20 billion electronvolts, an extremely large amount of energy) extending in a halolike structure toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The gamma-ray emission component closely matches the shape expected from the dark matter halo,” said Totani.
The observed energy spectrum, or range of gamma-ray emission intensities, matches the emission predicted from the annihilation of hypothetical WIMPs, with a mass approximately 500 times that of a proton. The frequency of WIMP annihilation estimated from the measured gamma-ray intensity also falls within the range of theoretical predictions.
Importantly, these gamma-ray measurements are not easily explained by other, more common astronomical phenomena or gamma-ray emissions. Therefore, Totani considers this data a strong indication of gamma-ray emission from dark matter, which has been sought for many years.
“If this is correct, to the extent of my knowledge, it would mark the first time humanity has ‘seen’ dark matter. And it turns out that dark matter is a new particle not included in the current standard model of particle physics. This signifies a major development in astronomy and physics,” said Totani.
While Totani is confident that his gamma-ray measurements are detecting dark matter particles, his results must be verified through independent analysis by other researchers. Even with this confirmation, scientists will want additional proof that the halolike radiation is indeed the result of dark matter annihilation rather than originating from some other astronomical phenomena.
Additional proof of WIMP collisions in other locations that harbor a high concentration of dark matter would bolster these initial results. Detecting the same energy gamma-ray emissions from dwarf galaxies within the Milky Way halo, for example, would support Totani’s analysis. “This may be achieved once more data is accumulated, and if so, it would provide even stronger evidence that the gamma rays originate from dark matter,” said Totani.
Gamma-ray intensity map excluding components other than the halo, spanning approximately 100 degrees in the direction of the Galactic center. The horizontal gray bar in the central region corresponds to the Galactic plane area, which was excluded from the analysis to avoid strong astrophysical radiation.
Credit
Tomonori Totani, The University of Tokyo
Research paper:
Tomonori Totani, “20 GeV halo-like excess of the Galactic diffuse emission and implications for dark matter annihilation,” Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (IOPscience): November 26, 2025
Funding:
This work was supported by JSPS/MEXT KAKENHI Grant Number 18K03692.
Useful links:
School of Science
https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/
Department of Astronomy
http://www.astron.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/
About the University of Tokyo
The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 5,000 international students. Find out more at https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @UTokyo_News_en
Journal
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Article Title
20 GeV halo-like excess of the Galactic diffuse emission and implications for dark matter annihilation
Article Publication Date
26-Nov-2025
The DEVILS in the details: New research reveals how the cosmic landscape impacts the galaxy lifecycle
Astronomers from ICRAR have released data showing that a galaxy’s ‘neighbourhood’ significantly influences its evolution over time.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
image:
The region of sky studied in the DEVILS survey
view moreCredit: The DEVILS team - ICRAR
A team of astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) has released new data from an extensive galaxy evolution survey that found a galaxy’s ‘neighbourhood’ plays a major role in how it changes over time.
The Deep Extragalactic Visible Legacy Survey, or DEVILS for short, has released its initial data and a series of recent publications explaining how a galaxy’s location in the Universe can significantly influence its evolution. The survey combines data from a wide range of international and space-based telescopes to investigate various aspects of astrophysics by analysing hundreds of thousands of galaxies.
Project lead Associate Professor Luke Davies, from The University of Western Australia node of ICRAR, said the work represented the culmination of a decade’s worth of planning, observations and data analysis – offering a new level of detail in our understanding of galaxies in the distant Universe.
The DEVILS survey is unique in that it is the first of its kind to explore the detailed aspects of the distant Universe. It focuses on galaxies that existed up to five billion years ago, and examines how these galaxies have changed to the present day.
“While previous surveys during this period of Universal history have explored the broad evolution of galaxy properties, they have inherently lacked the capacity to determine the finer details of the cosmic landscape,” A/Professor Davies said.
“In the DEVILS survey, we have been able to zoom in and focus on mapping out the small-scale environment of galaxies – such as mountains, hills, valleys and plateaus as compared to large-scale environments such as oceans or continents.”
From this new approach, A/Professor Davies and his team have found that where a galaxy lives strongly influences its shape, size and growth rate in the distant Universe.
This data will allow researchers to identify the number of stars in a galaxy, understand ongoing star formation, and analyse their visual appearance, shapes and structures. They can then compare these properties between galaxies in the present day Universe to galaxies that existed around five billion years ago and determine how galaxies are changing in time.
“Our upbringing and environment influence who we are,” he said. “Someone who has lived their whole life in the city may have a very different personality compared to someone who lives remotely or in an isolated community. Galaxies are no different.”
The team found that where a galaxy lived had a strong impact on many aspects of its lifecycle.
“Galaxies that are surrounded by lots of other galaxies - the bustling city centres of the cosmos – tend to grow more slowly and have very different structures compared to their isolated counterparts,” A/Professor Davies said.
In crowded regions of the Universe, galaxies interact with each other and compete for resources such as gas to form stars and grow. This competition can impact their evolution and, in some instances, cause star formation to slow down earlier than expected – causing galaxies to die.
The DEVILS data continues to be utilised, and with this public release, the team expects other researchers to leverage the data for their own innovative research.
Associate Professor Davies’ team is now looking to expand the DEVILS survey.
“DEVILS forms the basis of our future plans in exploring this key area of astrophysics research,” he said.
“DEVILS has given us a detailed picture of galaxy evolution and next year, we will start collecting data for WAVES (Wide Area VISTA Extragalactic Survey). WAVES will allow us to significantly expand the number of galaxies and environments we study, plus help us build an even clearer picture of how the Universe came to look the way it does today”.
The rate at which galaxies are growing is slower in crowded environments
Credit
L.Davis - ICRAR
The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) where the main component of DEVILS data was collected.
Credit
Ángel López-Sánchez, Macquarie University
A/P Luke Davies - DEVILS [VIDEO]
A/Prof Luke Davies on charting 'cosmic mountains and rivers' with the DEVILS survey
Credit
ICRAR
Members of the UWA-based DEVILS Survey team
(L to R: Prof. Simon Driver, Melissa Fuentealba Fuentes, Jordan d’Silva, Prof Aaron Robotham, A/Prof Luke Davies, Dr Sabine Bellestedt.
Credit
ICRAR
Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Article Title
Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS): First Data Release Covering The D10 (COSMOS) Region
X-raying a satellite
EURECA examined at Empa
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
image:
X-ray images of EURECA show the fuel and gas tanks with residues of the cleaning solution and the modular “skeleton” of the satellite.
view moreCredit: Empa, CC BY 4.0
Whether it's a sprained ankle or a backpack at the airport, X-ray images are an everyday occurrence in many areas. Empa researchers at the Center for X-Ray Analytics have succeeded in taking images that are far less commonplace: In collaboration with the Swiss Space Center (now Space Innovation at EPFL) and the Swiss Museum of Transport, they have X-rayed an entire satellite.
The imaged satellite is called EURECA – short for EUropean REtrievable CArrier – and is one of a kind. It was launched into space in 1992 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier deployed EURECA into orbit. There, the 4.5-ton satellite remained for the next eleven months – until it was captured by the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on July 1, 1993, and brought back to Earth. This makes EURECA one of the very few satellites to have returned from its mission in space intact.
The European Space Agency (ESA) originally planned several missions for the reusable satellite. EURECA carried 15 interchangeable instruments for scientific experiments ranging from biology to astrophysics. However, the budget for the program was cut, and EURECA's first flight was also its last. At the end of 2000, the satellite was put on exhibit at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. From there, the journey to Dübendorf and Empa was a short one. Examining a flown satellite was not an opportunity Empa researchers were willing to miss.
A deep look inside
EURECA was first X-rayed in 2016. The complete results of the investigation were published in 2025 in the journal Acta Astronautica. Using the high-energy X-ray facility, the researchers were able to X-ray the five-meter-long, three-meter-high, and two-and-a-half-meter-wide satellite in one piece. They also used other X-ray techniques for parts of the satellite and for the two scientific instruments that remained on board.
The big advantage of X-ray imaging is the same for satellites as it is for ankles in hospitals and hand luggage at airports: It allows a non-destructive view of the interior. ”Our analysis covers several orders of magnitude, from the entire carrier structure of the satellite to investigations of materials at nanometer scale,“ says Empa researcher Robert Zboray, lead author of the publication. The researchers found several defects, such as cracks in EURECA's composite struts and fractures and deformations in the scientific instruments.
“Satellites are exposed to strong radiation, large temperature fluctuations, and collisions with particles from meteorites and space debris,” says Zboray. “Our methods enable us to identify weak points, especially in reusable satellites.” Damage can also occur during launch and landing. According to Zboray, further experiments would be necessary to pinpoint the exact event that caused the damage. “Ideally, such satellites should be X-rayed both before launch and after landing,” says the scientist.
Although these days, EURECA only unfolds its solar panels at the Swiss Museum of Transport, the topic of reusable space technologies is more relevant today than ever before. By 2025, there will be over 10,000 satellites in Earth's orbit – and the number is growing every year. The issue is compounded by countless rocket stages, fragments of old satellites, and other space debris that pose a danger to active satellites and manned spaceflight. Reusable satellites could help reduce this flood of space junk – and Zboray is convinced that X-ray techniques could be used to optimize their design. However, high-energy X-ray imaging also has terrestrial applications, such as examining components for the aviation and automotive industries, or even in forensics.
Journal
Acta Astronautica
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Multi-scale and multi-energy non-destructive X-ray analysis of the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA)
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