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 view of the Large Magellanic Cloud is a composite of images taken by AKARI at far-infrared wavelengths (60, 90 and 140 microns). The Large Magellanic Cloud is a neighbour galaxy to the Milky Way.
Interstellar clouds in which new stars are forming are distributed over the entire galaxy. The bright region in the bottom-left is known as the 'Tarantula Nebula' and is a very productive factory of stars.
This figure is a part of a data set covering a sky portion of about 17 000 by 17 000 light-years.