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
Go to topicThis movie is made by combining together individual images from the SWAP (Sun Watcher using APS detectors and imaging processing) instrument on ESA's Proba-2.
SWAP takes one new image of the Sun every minute. This is a marked improvement on its nearest predecessor: The EIT (Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) instrument on the ESA/NASA SOHO mission only takes a new image around every 15 minutes.
The shorter time interval between views should lead to new scientific discoveries and support space weather forecasting. In addition, SWAP has a broader view compared to EIT, being able to off-point from the solar centre to track if plasma leaves the Sun.