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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For a fine analysis of the energy of X-rays from an individual cosmic source, XMM's Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) will draw off about half the X-rays from two of the three telescopes. Showing 20 times more detail than did ESA's Exosat X-ray mission in the 1980s, RGS will make emission from particular chemical elements much easier to recognise. In this example, when XMM examines the segment with a black background in the Exosat spectrum, iron (Fe) and oxygen (O) emissions that merged there will be clearly separated. The source is the star Capella and the XMM/RGS spectrum is simulated. [Image Date: 1997-10-00] [97.11.015-004]