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.
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Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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An image of Puppis A in X-ray light, taken as part of the test and calibration campaign of Einstein Probe. Puppis A is the remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred 4000 years ago, the bright dot in the centre is the remnant star. The cloud-like structure surrounding it comes from hot material generated and expelled during the supernova. Einstein Probe’s Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) took this image. Accompanying this image, FXT also delivered a spectrum of the source tracing the energy distribution of its light. This enables scientist to find out which are the elements present in this supernova remnant.
Read more about Einstein Probe’s first images
[Image Description: This image shows a supernova remnant that looks like it has the texture of a dried apricot. The remnant shows a brightness variation, being brighter in the upper left part and darker in the bottom right. In the middle of the apricot-like structure is a bright yellow dot, which stands out on top of the darker orange colour of the remnant.]