{"id":42231,"date":"2026-09-01T15:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/42231\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T15:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:56:17","slug":"media-invitation-europlanet-science-congress-epsc-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/42231\/","title":{"rendered":"Media invitation: Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"EPSC2026<\/p>\n

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image:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Logo of EPSC2026<\/p>\n

view more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Credit: Europlanet<\/p>\n

The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2026 will be held in hybrid format at the Amare arts venue in The Hague, Netherlands, and online, from 6\u201311 September 2026.<\/p>\n

EPSC2026 covers the full spectrum of planetary research and technology across over 125 scientific sessions, keynotes, debates and community events. Topics include the latest results on the Solar System, exoplanetary and interstellar bodies, current and upcoming missions, ground-based observations, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in planetary science, planetary defence, the emergence of life in our Solar System and beyond, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Around 1200 planetary scientists from over 40 countries in Europe and around the world are expected to attend the conference.<\/p>\n

The Hague \u2013 the first place in the Netherlands to host EPSC \u2013 has a special connection to planetary science. The world\u2019s first written account of an astronomical observation using a telescope was published in The Hague, and the city was the birthplace of Christiaan Huygens, the telescope pioneer and discoverer of Saturn\u2019s moon Titan. In the run-up to and during the week of the conference, a comprehensive public outreach programme will engage the local community with the city\u2019s history and planetary science through a walking tour, concerts, arts installations, lectures and schools\u2019 events.<\/p>\n

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend EPSC2026. Media registration is free. Any bona fide media delegates can register by e-mailing\u00a0aheward@europlanet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Press briefings will be livestreamed and press notices on presentations of interest to the media will be issued by the EPSC2026 Press Office during the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Details of the scientific sessions and the presentation abstracts can be found at the official website:\u00a0https:\/\/www.epsc2026.eu<\/a><\/p>\n

An overview of the programme can be found here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.epsc2026.eu\/epsc-2026-schedule-overview.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Details of the walking trail and other public events in The Hague can be found here:\u00a0https:\/\/denhaag.com\/en\/the-hague-planet-trail<\/a><\/p>\n

The meeting hashtag is #EPSC2026<\/p>\n

Press Briefings<\/p>\n

Monday 07 September, 11:00 CEST: ESA\u2019s Hera Mission \u2013 Countdown to Arrival at Didymos\/Dimorphos and looking ahead to RAMSES and Apophis\u00a0<\/p>\n

In November 2026, ESA\u2019s Hera mission will arrive at the Didymos binary asteroid system to make a detailed survey of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, which was impacted by NASA\u2019s DART mission in September 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During this press briefing, along with giving updates on the status and plans for the mission post-arrival, the Hera team will unveil a revolutionary way for the public to engage with the mission and become part of its space adventure.<\/p>\n

There will also be updates on the ESA\/JAXA RAMSES mission, which will rendezvous with\u00a0asteroid (99942) Apophis and accompany it on its flyby of Earth on 13 April 2029.<\/p>\n

Speakers:<\/p>\n

\tMichael K\u00fcppers, ESA Hera Project Scientist, ESA-ESAC, Spain
\n\tPatrick Michel, Hera Mission Principal Investigator, RAMSES ESA Project Scientist and Director of Research at CNRS, Observatoire de la C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, France.
\n\tHeli Greus, Hera and RAMSES ESA project teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wednesday 09 September, 12:45 CEST: Arrival of the ESA\/JAXA BepiColombo Mission at Mercury<\/p>\n

After an eight-year journey, the ESA\/JAXA BepiColombo mission will arrive at Mercury this autumn. Separation of the European and Japanese orbiters from the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) will take place on 3 September, followed by orbit insertion on 21 November, and the separation of the ESA Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA Mio spacecraft on 9\u201310 December. From that moment on, BepiColombo will be officially the first two-spacecraft mission at Mercury. The science phase of the mission will begin in April 2027.<\/p>\n

This press briefing will give an update on the status of the spacecraft following MTM separation, and provide an overview of the next steps during this exciting time in the BepiColombo mission.<\/p>\n

Speakers:<\/p>\n

\tSanta Martinez, Mission Manager
\n\tIgnacio Tanco, Head,\u00a0Inner Solar System Missions Unit
\n\tGeraint\u00a0Jones, Lead ESA Project Scientist
\n\tGo Murakami, JAXA Project Scientist.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image:\u00a0 Logo of EPSC2026 view more\u00a0 Credit: Europlanet The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2026 will be held in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-42231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-hague","tag-the-hague"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}