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 false-colour image of two density waves in Saturn's A ring was made from the stellar occultation observed by the Cassini-Huygens Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UIS) instrument when the spacecraft was 6.8 million kilometres from Saturn.
Bright areas indicate the denser regions of the rings. The bright bands in the left part of the image are the 'peaks' of a density wave caused by gravitational stirring of the rings by Saturn's moon, Janus. A smaller density wave in the right half of the image is produced by the moon Pandora.
The UIS was built at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.