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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An image of the star known as HD 88111, taken by ESA's Cheops exoplanet watcher during its in-orbit commissioning in early 2020. The star is located in the Hydra constellation, some 175 light years away from Earth, and it is not known to host any orbiting planets.
To demonstrate the stability of the satellite and instrument, Cheops took an image of this star every 30 seconds for 47 consecutive hours.
The images taken by Cheops are intentionally blurred: this deliberate defocusing is at the core of the mission’s observing strategy, which improves the measurement precision by spreading the light coming from distant stars over many pixels of its detector.
More information: Cheops observes its first exoplanets and is ready for science