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 optical-ultraviolet image shows a face-on view of the
'grand-design' spiral galaxy M100, about 56 million light years away in the Virgo galaxy cluster. The galaxy is about 100 000 light years across, much like our own spiral galaxy. The position of supernova SN 1979C is marked with a white circle.
The image was taken with XMM-Newton's Optical Monitor in the B, U and UVW1 filters. The streak across the image is from an artifact caused by the camera.