EXPLORING THE HIDDEN UNIVERSE
ARRAKIHS MISSION
The primary goal of ARRAKIHS is to map the faint stellar halos and low surface brightness structures around nearby Milky Way-like galaxies to unprecedented depth, providing a statistical view of how galaxies assemble and evolve.
THE MISSION
ARRAKIHS was selected by ESA in November 2022 as a Fast-Class (F-Class) mission candidate and formally adopted in June 2026 as ESA's second F-Class mission, with launch planned for 2030.
SCIENCE
ARRAKIHS is designed to address a central question in ESA’s Cosmic Vision: how do galaxies assemble their mass and structure through hierarchical accretion?
CONSORTIUM
Comprising a dedicated international collaboration, our team unites nearly 48 institutions from 17 different countries. Meet our team and organization.
The new fast mission in ESA's Science Programme.
ARRAKIHS will be the first space mission dedicated to observing the so called ‘ultra-low surface brightness’ Universe focusing on galaxy haloes.
ARRAKIHS returns to its origins to conclude a key phase of the mission in Santander
Around 150 people took part in the international meeting held at the Magdalena Palace, the...
Emulating the Universe with the ARTEMIS simulations
Entry prepared by S. Brown. A big question in Astronomy today is understanding how the...
How many galaxies should ARRAKIHS observe?
Entry prepared by A. Cooper. December 19, 2025 ARRAKIHS will explore galaxy stellar halos –...