The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Example of a cloud event captured by ESA’s Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera on 15 December 2009 over the equator. The cloud formation reaches a maximum altitude of 40 km and spans 830 km horizontally. It shows interesting features such as the ‘blobs’, which include a detached tilted element in the north–south direction, suggesting that it is shaped by the action of meridional winds. The event occurred close to the spring equinox for the northern hemisphere suggesting it is a condensate cloud of water-ice particles.
From top to bottom, the images were taken on 15 December 2009 at 06:48:41, 06:49:25, 06:50:51, 06:51:25 and 06:52:19 GMT.