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 view of the Andromeda galaxy, also known as M31, with measurements of the motions of stars within the galaxy. This spiral galaxy is the nearest large neighbor of our Milky Way.
The background image, obtained with NASA's Galex satellite at near-ultraviolet wavelengths, highlights regions within the galaxy where stars are forming.
Blue symbols mark the locations of bright young stars that were used to measure the motion of the galaxy, and yellow arrows indicate the average stellar motions at various locations, based on data from the second release of ESA’s Gaia satellite. A counter-clockwise rotation of the spiral galaxy’s disc is evident.
The precision of these measurements is expected to improve with the future Gaia data releases.