Reminder: Final Media Invitation for EPSC-DPS2025 and Details of Media Briefings on RAMSES and Juno Missions
Joint Meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science (EPSC-DPS2025), 7-12 September, Helsinki, Finland
The Europlanet Science Congress 2025 will be held jointly with the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Science (EPSC-DPS2025) from 7–12 September 2025 at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland. With around 1800 participants expected to join in person and online, it will be the largest planetary science meeting held to date in Europe.
Press briefings will be livestreamed and press notices on presentations of interest to the media will be issued by the EPSC-DPS2025 Press Office during the meeting.
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Two press briefings will be held during the week:
- Monday, 08 September 2025. Topic: RAMSES mission to asteroid Apophis
- Thursday, 11 September 2025. Topic: Recent Discoveries with the Juno Mission.
To attend press briefings in-person, please register as media for EPSC-DPS2025 by emailing press@europlanet.org. The press briefings will take place in the Press Conference Room, which can be accessed from the Press Entrance to the Congress Wing on the Mannerheimintie side of Finlandia Hall. To attend online, please follow the Zoom registration links below.
16:30-17:15 EEST (UTC+3), Monday, 08 September 2025
EPSC-DPS2025 Press Briefing: Update on the RAMSES mission to asteroid Apophis
ESA’s Space Safety programme has started preparatory work for its next planetary defence candidate mission – the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (RAMSES). Its main objective is the characterisation of the asteroid (99942) Apophis before, during and after its close encounter with Earth in April 2029. The findings will provide crucial knowledge on the properties and response of a small asteroid to external actions (here, Earth’s tidal forces), and therefore improve our ability to defend our planet from any similar object found to be on a collision course in the future. The briefing will give an update on the mission goals, payload, development and international participation. Europe’s space ministers will decide at ESA’s Ministerial Council in November 2025 whether to support RAMSES for launch.
16:30 EEST: Welcome
Anita Heward, Press Officer, EPSC-DPS2025.
16:35 EEST: Speakers
- Monica Lazzarin (University of Padova) and Patrick Michel (CNRS / Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur): RAMSES science and payloads.
- Paolo Martino (RAMSES Project Manager, ESA): RAMSES project status.
- Seiji Sugita (University of Tokyo and Science Management Board of RAMSES): Japanese participation in RAMSES.
To attend online, please follow this registration link and you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live stream.
12:45-13:30 EEST (UTC+3): Thursday, 11 September 2025
EPSC-DPS2025 Press Briefing: Recent Discoveries with the Juno Mission
This press briefing will focus on several recent discoveries with the Juno Mission, including in-situ and remote observations of the ultraviolet footprint of the moon Callisto by the Juno spacecraft.
12:45 EEST: Welcome
Anita Heward, Press Officer, EPSC-DPS2025
12: 50 EEST: Speakers
- Scott Bolton: Recent discoveries with Juno.
- Vincent Hue: In-situ and remote observations of the ultraviolet footprint of the moon Callisto by the Juno spacecraft.
To attend online, please follow this registration link and you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live stream.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Directions to Finlandia Hall can be found at: https://finlandiatalo.fi/en/finlandia-hall/location-transportation/
Details of all scientific sessions and presentation abstracts for EPSC-DPS2025 can be found at the official website: https://www.epsc-dps2025.eu
An overview of the programme can be found here:
https://www.epsc-dps2025.eu/programme_overview.pdf
The meeting hashtag is #EPSC-DPSC2025
CONTACTS
Anita Heward
EPSC-DPS2025 Press Officer
+44 7756 034243
aheward@europlanet.org
press@europlanet.org
Keith Cooper
EPSC-DPS2025 Press Officer
press@europlanet.org
Thibaut Roger
EPSC-DPS2025 Press Officer
press@europlanet.org
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About the Joint Meeting of the Europlanet Science Congress and the Division of Planetary Sciences (EPSC-DPS)
The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC), established in 2006 as the European Planetary Science Congress, is the largest planetary science meeting in Europe. It covers the entire range of planetary sciences, with an extensive mix of talks, workshops and poster sessions, as well as providing a unique space for networking and exchanges of experiences.
EPSC joined forces for the first time with the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) for a joint meeting in Nantes, France, in 2011. This was followed by DPS-EPSC 2016 in Pasadena, EPSC-DPS 2019 in Geneva, and the return to the United States for the DPS-EPSC 2023 meeting in San Antonio. This year will mark the third iteration of a joint European-based meeting. The intent of the joint meetings is not only to connect the European and North American planetary science communities, but also to consolidate two major meetings and motivate planetary scientists from all over the globe to attend.
Follow on social media (Bluesky, X and LinkedIn) with the hashtag #EPSC-DPS2025 for updates on the meeting.
Sharing Material at EPSC-DPS2025
Due to author copyright privileges, it is prohibited to retain or share any scientific material contained in any oral or poster presentation or supplementary material if a presenter has marked the material as “restricted” and/or used the “no-sharing” icon.
About Europlanet
Europlanet (www.europlanet.org) is a non-profit association and membership organisation that provides the planetary science community with access to research infrastructure, services and training. The Europlanet Association Sans But Lucratif (AISBL), established in 2023, builds on the heritage of a series of projects funded by the European Commission between 2005 and 2024 (Grant Numbers 871149, 654208, 228319 and RICA-CT-2004-001637) to support the planetary science community in Europe and around the world.
About the DPS
The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), founded in 1968, is the largest special-interest Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Members of the DPS study the bodies of our own solar system, from planets and moons to comets and asteroids, and all other solar-system objects and processes. With the discovery that planets exist around other stars, the DPS has expanded its scope to include the study of extrasolar planetary systems as well. The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community, which it achieves through publishing, meeting organization, science advocacy, education and outreach, and training and professional development.
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 23 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia are Associate Members.
ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
