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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The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has been observing the Sun for 25 years. In that time, SOHO has observed two of the Sun’s 11-year sunspot cycles, as solar activity waxes and wanes. This montage of 25 images captured by the spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope provides a snapshot of the changing face of our Sun. The individual images show gas with a temperature of about two million degrees Celsius in the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona, which extends millions of kilometres from the Sun. The brightest images occur around the time of solar maximum, when the Sun’s magnetic field is strongest and highly dynamic, changing its configuration and releasing energy into space.