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 is released as part of the Early Release Observations from ESA’s Euclid space mission. All data from these initial observations are made public on 23 May 2024 – including a handful of unprecedented new views of the nearby Universe, this being one.
This image is a higher resolution close-up cutout from a larger frame featuring the spiral galaxy NGC 6744. This frame shows the galaxy’s bulge and disc in detail. The central bulge is composed mostly of older, lower-mass stars, while the spiral arms host a diversity of stars. Most of NGC 6744’s star formation occurs in these arms, and this is marked by trails of bright, hot, blue-hued stars.
[Image description: The image shows a galaxy with many arms spiralling out from a bright centre. The centre is a bright sphere from which bright beams extend upwards and downwards to the arms. Dark vein-like structures run through-out the different arms. Stars are dotted throughout the image in an evenly distributed way.]