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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Artist’s impression depicting a compact object – either a black hole or a neutron star – feeding on gas from a companion star in a binary system.
Since gas cannot fall in from all directions in a rotating system, it forms a swirling disc around the compact object. This causes matter to heat up and emit light at many wavelengths, especially X-rays. However, not all the gas in the disc is swallowed, and some of it is blown away in the form of winds or jets.
Scientists using ESA's XMM-Newton have discovered gas streaming away at a quarter of the speed of light from two very bright X-ray binaries, known as ultra-luminous X-ray sources, that are located in nearby galaxies. The discovery confirms that these sources conceal a compact object accreting matter at extraordinarily high rates.