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!
Signatures of hydrogen and carbon chains known as organic aliphatic compounds detected in different astronomical sources: the interstellar medium, based on observations of the Galactic Centre (top); Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, based on observations performed with the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on ESA's Rosetta mission (middle); and insoluble organic matter extracted from meteorites that we have found on Earth (bottom).
The similarities between the composition of Rosetta's comet and the interstellar medium, asteroids and meteorites indicate that the comet contains unaltered presolar material from the primordial cloud that went on to form the Solar System.
Full story: Building blocks of life spotted on Rosetta’s comet hint at composition of its birthplace