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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This image of the dusty debris disc surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from Webb’s innovative Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), half of which was contributed by Europe. It reveals three nested belts extending out to 23 billion kilometres from the star. The inner belts – which had never been seen before – were revealed by Webb for the first time.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, as well as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have previously taken sharp images of the outermost belt. However, none of them found any structure interior to it.
These belts are most likely shaped by the gravitational forces produced by unseen planets.
[Image description: An orange oval extends from the 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock positions. It features a prominent outer ring, a darker gap, an intermediate ring, a narrower dark gap, and a bright inner disc. At the centre is a ragged black spot indicating a lack of data.]