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 image show the difference in the extent of Arctic permafrost in 1997 compared to 2019. Arctic permafrost stores nearly 1700 billion tonnes of frozen and thawing carbon. Anthropogenic warming threatens to release an unknown quantity of this carbon to the atmosphere, influencing the climate in processes collectively known as the permafrost–carbon feedback. Sometimes permafrost can thaw rapidly, but scientists are unsure why and what these abrupt thaws mean in terms of feedback loops. This makes it difficult to predict how the climate will be affected in the future. Thanks to an ESA–NASA initiative, new research digs deep into understanding the complexities of permafrost thaw and how carbon is released over time.
Read full story: Permafrost thaw: it’s complicated