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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In this artist’s impression, matter is stripped from a white dwarf orbiting within the innermost accretion disk surrounding 1ES 1927’s supermassive black hole. Astronomers developed this scenario to explain the evolution of rapid X-ray oscillations detected by ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite. The oscillations could suggest that a massive object, like a compact star, is embedded in the accretion disk, and is rapidly orbiting the black hole on its way to being swallowed.
ESA’s LISA mission, due to launch in the next decade, should be able to confirm the presence of an orbiting white dwarf by detecting the gravitational waves it produces.
[Image description: In the lower half of the image, a colourful disk, mostly orange and white, swirls around a black ellipse that looks like a hole. Within the disk, a small white ball appears to whizz around leaving a pinkish trail; above the disk and the black hole, an electric-blue jet of wispy material is rising and fills the top part of the image]