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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A pair of coalescing black holes, massive and dense monsters spiralling around each other. Just before merging into a single, even more gigantic black hole, they release a huge amount of energy in the form of gravitational waves - fluctuations in the fabric of space time.
This image shows a computer simulation of the gravitational waves that would ripple away from the black hole collision.
Gravitational waves were directly detected for the first time by the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in 2015, and the discovery was announced on 11 February 2016.