ALT Illustration showing BepiColombo cartoon characters Bepi and Mio waving. To the left of the characters, a text reads ‘Welcome BepiColombo to Mercury!’. On the lower part of the image, we see part of planet Mercury on the left, and the hashtag WelcomeToMercury on the right.

ALT Illustration showing cartoon characters Bepi and Mio waving in the centre. Bepi represents ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mio is JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. Together they are part of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission. On the right side of the image, we see the ESA logoon the top and part of planet Mercury on the bottom. On the left side of the characters and underneath them, a text reads ‘Welcome BepiColombo to Mercury! Get ready to celebrate BepiColombo’s arrival at Mercury. Craft a welcoming message as a drawing, song, poem or any other art form. The prize is a trip to ESA’s BepiColombo event in Germany. Enter at esa.int/WelcomeToMercury by 25 October 2026. Hashtag WelcomeToMercury’.

ALT A spiral galaxy viewed at an angle, with a bright central bulge and winding spiral arms. The arms form a ring around the galaxy, without appearing to reach its centre. Prominent red-brown dust lanes weave through the arms, which are also dotted with bright blue and reddish regions of star formation. The galaxy is set against a dark background scattered with stars and faint distant galaxies.

ALT Internal research fellow performing X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

ALT A purple-pink-coloured patch of Mars, which is lighter on the left and darker on the right. A dark line runs from the top centre towards the bottom right, dividing the light and dark areas. At the centre of the image is a sharp light-coloured crater. Less sharp craters are scattered over the rest of the image. At the bottom left is a bright white-blue triangular patch, it looks icy. A small scale bar at the bottom right indicates that north is to the right, and that a line approximately one tenth of the image width is 50 km long.

ALT Person sitting in front of a computer, smiling.

ALT A star-forming region. It is blanketed in thick clouds of gas and dust, millions of kilometres across, that form swirling patterns. Bright stars are scattered throughout the clouds, with the densest cluster situated in the centre of the scene. Each is crowned with six long points created by the optics of the telescope’s mirrors. In the upper right, a couple of hidden stars blast out long, glowing jets of material. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Luhman, C. Alves De Oliveira, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

ALT Photo with Lorenzo: ‘Selfie during interview recording, Expedition Sound podcast host Zsofi Szalavari with research fellow Lorenzo Speri’

ALT Photo with Valeria: ‘Selfie during interview recording, Expedition Sound podcast host Zsofi Szalavari with Euclid Project Scientist Valeria Pettorino’