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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JAXA’s XRISM X-ray telescope captured the distribution of matter falling into the supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 4151 over a wide radius, spanning from 0.001 to 0.1 light-years. By determining the speed of the iron atoms from their X-rays signature, scientists have mapped out a sequence of structures surrounding the central ‘monster’: the disk closest to the black hole (in blue) where gas moves at a speed a few percent of the speed of light, followed by a transition region where gas is moving at speed of thousands of km/s and which astronomers call “the broad line region (BLR)” (in orange) , and finally the doughnut-shaped torus (in red).