Contest: Space Weather
Have you ever wondered what the weather’s like in space?
Hello space explorers, welcome to this month’s Space Gallery Competition with your friend, Paxi! This month, we’ll be celebrating the launch of a very friendly satellite: Smile. This satellite will study the solar wind, not real wind, but a stream of tiny particles coming from the Sun at very high speed. You can think of it like invisible space rain!
Luckily, Earth has a massive umbrella against this driving rain, called the magnetosphere. But just like our feet might get wet under heavy rain even when we carry a good umbrella, when the solar wind is strong enough some particles can still sneak through Earth’s magnetic shield.
When this happens, amazing things can appear in the sky!
The solar wind brings a lot of energy, lighting up our skies with the beautiful northern and southern lights, also called aurorae. But space weather events could have a huge effect on the technology you use on Earth.
The Smile satellite will help us answer lots of questions, giving us a complete picture of how Earth reacts to space weather. What do you think Smile will see?
Will it explore the aurorae, dancing among the lights? Or maybe it will hide under Earth’s umbrella, looking for tiny drops of particle rain slipping through?
Show me your Smile!
Theme: Space Weather
Deadline: 30 April 2026
Artwork could be a drawing, a painting, model or even something digital… use your imagination!
Get creative and show us your imagination through art!
We will select the best entries which will go into the Space Gallery and will receive a special prize from the European Space Agency.
Check out the ESA Kids website regularly to see who our monthly winners are!
Upload your artwork in the form below or send it to: ESA Education, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, PO Box 299 NL-2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Please note: artwork cannot be returned. Due to the large number of entries we receive each month, we do not send letters to participants acknowledging receipt. Only the winners are contacted by ESA.
Maximum age limit for competition entries is 12.
