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
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Sprites and presides filmed in the countryside near Nýdek in the Czech Republic. Although ESA’s Swarm mission did not record this particular event, the video shows how quick these transient luminous events are. Remarkably, during similar events, photographs have been taken from the ground at the exact same time as the event was recorded in the Swarm mission’s data, leading to better insight into how this type of lightning propagates into space.
Read full story: The curious incident of Swarm and sprites in the night-time