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Best of Science images

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A selection of images showing ESA's missions to explore the Universe and the Solar System and their results.

Finding the ashes of the first stars

New stars shed light on the past

COS-B, 1975-1982, Europe's pioneer gamma-ray observatory

Our Galaxy in the gamma-ray

IUE, 1978-1996, from comets to quasars in the ultraviolet

Surveying the sky

Exosat, 1983-1986, Europe's first insights into the X-ray cosmos.

The Milky Way in the X-ray

Hipparcos, 1989-1993, pinpointing stars

Organising stars

Hubble Space Telescope, 1990-in operation, revolutionising astronomy

The Antennae galaxies.

ISO, 1995-1998, a window on the dusty Universe

Newborn stars

XMM-Newton, 1999-in operation, studying violent phenomena in space

The Lockman Hole

Intergral, 2002-in operation, investigating the exotic and powerful Universe

Artist's impression of a gamma-ray burst

Herschel, 2009, focusing on the birth of stars and galaxies

Cluster of stars

Planck, 2009, looking back in time

The early Universe

Lisa Pathfinder, 2010, testing technologies for the detection of gravitational waves

Artist's impression of a black hole

Gaia, 2011, our galaxy as never seen before

The galaxy M74

JWST, 2013, far into the Universe

A dramatic view of the Orion Nebula

The Solar System

Giotto, 1985-1992, close encounter with Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet

Ulysses, 1990-2008, studying the uncharted poles of the Sun

Solar emissions

SOHO, 1995-in operation, monitoring the Sun

The Sun's outer atmosphere

Cassini-Huygens 1997-in operation, exploring Saturn and Titan

First image of Titan's surface

Cluster, 2000-in operation, focusing on Sun-Earth interactivity

Illustration of the Earth's magnetosphere

Mars Express, 2003-in operation, global view of the Red Planet

Martian Valleys, Iani Chaos region

SMART-1, 2003-2006, Europe to the Moon

Lunar craters

Rosetta, 2004-2015, rendez-vous with a comet

Halley's Comet

Venus Express, 2005-in operation, lifting the veil on Venus

Vortex at Venus' South Pole

BepiColombo, 2014, exploring Mercury

Mercury

ExoMars, 2016, seraching for life

Water on Mars?

European Space Agency

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