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 topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
The theta aurora as seen by NASA’s Image satellite on 15 September 2005.
The green lines show latitude and longitude lines and the outlines of the continents; Australia is to the right, South America is to the left and Antarctica is in the middle. The theta aurora is seen slightly off-centre, above the right-hand side of Antarctica in this orientation, its characteristic shape defined by the ‘bar’ connecting the auroral oval. The bright region to the left is ‘day glow’ (the sunlit atmosphere).
The resolution of the image is 256 x 256 pixels, which is the native resolution of the far-ultraviolet Wideband Imaging Camera.
Full story: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cluster/Origin_of_high-latitude_auroras_revealed