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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This image comes from the large archive of scientific observations performed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Currently more than 250,000 scientific Hubble observations are contained in this highly valuable archive and more are added all the time.
In this image singly ionised sulphur is shown in red, green represents neutral hydrogen, the blue-green colour comes from neutral oxygen and blue light is continuum light seen through a so-called Strömgren y filter. The full extent of the nebula is 12 arcseconds from tip to tip.
The original Hubble observations were obtained in 1998 by Susan R. Trammell from University of North Carolina, and were turned into a colour image by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre at European Southern Observatory, Munich and A.G.G.M. Tielens from the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in the Netherlands.
Photo: ESA & A.G.G.M. Tielens (SRON/Kapteyn Astronomical Institute)