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.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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In Australia, you can see a lot of red soil, which is red for the same reason that Mars appears red: iron oxide.
This image was taken by Dylan O’Donnell, a keen amateur photographer from Byron Bay, and highlights ESA’s deep-space tracking dish at New Norcia, in Western Australia, about 120 km from Perth.
Dylan recently examined a sample of western Australian soil up close, and wrote: “The grains are covered with fine red dust, and small black rocks. I dragged a strong magnet through the sample, which separates out the black – it’s iron! The red dust of course is the oxidised iron, which flakes away from the original metal literally covering the Earth in rust – exactly like Mars. Coastal sand has iron in it too, and you can separate it with a magnet – but this red sand from Australia’s interior has a much higher ratio.”
New Norcia station routinely communicates with spacecraft orbiting Earth, watching our Sun or scanning the Universe. Its 35 m-diameter ‘big iron’ dish can also link to missions exploring comets or studying planets like Mars or Venus.
Last year, it won the honour of making ESA’s most distant catch ever, receiving radio signals from the international Cassini orbiter at Saturn, transmitted across 1.44 billion km of space. It will continue listening to Cassini this year as the orbiter makes its ‘Grand Finale’ tour of the ringed planet.
Today, 26 January, is also Australia’s national day. Best wishes to everyone Down Under!
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