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 from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) shows the star system Beta Pictoris. An edge-on disc of dusty debris generated by collisions between planetesimals (orange) dominates the view. A hotter, secondary disc (cyan) is inclined by about five degrees relative to the primary disc. The curved feature at upper right, which the science team nicknamed the 'cat’s tail', has never been seen before. A coronagraph (black circle and bar) has been used to block the light of the central star, whose location is marked with a white star shape. In this image light at 15.5 microns is coloured cyan and 23 microns is orange (filters F1550C and F2300C, respectively).
[Image description: A wide, thin horizontal orange line appears at the centre, extending almost to the edges, a debris disc seen edge-on. A thin blue-green disc is inclined about five degrees counterclockwise relative to the main orange disc. Cloudy, translucent grey material is most prominent near the orange main debris disc. Some of the grey material forms a curved feature in the upper right, resembling a cat’s tail. At the centre is a black circle with a bar. The central star, represented as a small white star icon, is blocked by an instrument known as a coronagraph. The background of space is black.]