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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
This image depicts the spiral galaxy NGC 3810, which in 2023 was included in a Hubble programme to improve the accuracy of distance measurements made using Type Ia supernovae. This was only possible because a white dwarf in NGC 3810 had just gone supernova, and Hubble captured this image before the supernova faded from view.
Supernovae are named for their year of discovery, followed by an incrementing tag of letters — a, b, and so on. Nowadays, with automated surveys, thousands of supernovae are discovered every year, and so this one received the name SN 2022zut, as the eighteen thousand, one hundred and forty-second found in 2022!
Learn more about this galaxy and Type Ia supernova at the main image, here.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, with a shining core in the centre and winding spiral arms. A bright point in the galaxy, just below the core, has been marked with a white circle and the text “SN2022zut”.]