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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The Red-Green-Blue composite image (left) shows the ash plume from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull volcano and clouds, as seen by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) on 19 April 2010. The middle image shows the aerosol optical depth, and the right image shows the aerosol effective radius (indicating the ash cloud in red).