About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Highlights
Latest
Space in Member States
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Spain
Estonia
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
The Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Czechia
Romania
United Kingdom
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland
Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicAstronauts
Latest
Enabling & Support
Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicLatest
Halloween crack
In this image from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite mission, we can see the location of the ‘Halloween crack’ on Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf, highlighted in red. The former and current locations of the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley research stations are also marked.
Discovered on 31 October 2016, the swiftly lengthening Halloween crack prompted the temporary withdrawal of staff from the Halley VI research station for the duration of the 2017 Antarctic winter. Information from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites helped in making this decision.
The base had already been moved 23 km inland during last Antarctica’s summer months because another ice chasm (highlighted in red) had begun to show signs of growth.
In this image, Sentinel-1’s radar was also able to pick up lines in the snow and ice marking the researchers’ routes from the former location of the Halley VI station to the coast and to the Halloween crack. To help us identify them, these lines have been coloured in black.
This image was created by combining three Sentinel-1 radar scans in September and October. The colours in the Weddell Sea indicate changes in sea ice between the acquisitions. A ‘polynya’ – an area of open water surrounded by ice – is visible in the lower-central part of the image.
