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 celestial sphere in galactic coordinates shows the arrival directions of the 27 highest energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) detected in visible wavelengths by the Auger ground telescopes in Argentina.
The energies are greater than 57 billion of billions of electron-volts, and are shown as circles. The positions of 472 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) within 75 megaparsecs, or about 245 million light years, are shown as red *s. The blue region defines the field of view of the Auger telescope and deeper blue indicates larger exposure.
The solid curve marks the boundary of the field of view. The closest AGN, Centaurus A, is marked as a white *. Two of the 27 cosmic rays have arrival directions within 3 degrees of this galaxy. The dashed curve delineates a region where large numbers of nearby galaxies, including AGNs, are concentrated.