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 high-resolution image shows the Sun in ultraviolet light, revealing the Sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona. It was taken by Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, assembled from 25 images taken on 22 March 2023.
Taken at a wavelength of 17.4 nanometres, in the extreme (high-energy) ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, this image shows charged gas (plasma) with a temperature of around a million degrees Celsius moving around the Sun.
The most striking features in this image are the bright lines and loops coming from active regions on the Sun's surface. These match the regions of sunspots seen in the visible light image, magnetic map and velocity map taken by Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument on the same day.
Assembled from multiple high-resolution images taken by EUI, the diameter of the Sun's disc is spanned by around 8000 pixels.