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 topic
Astronomy with orbiting telescopes has established itself as an indispensable branch of miodern astronomy. European missions have contributed to fascinating discoveries and enabled scientists to look deep into space and back to the very origin of the Universe. This Exchanges programme focuses on the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope, the XMM/Newton Observatory as well as the fascinating observatories ESA is currently developing
The 6-minute A-roll contains split audio with an English guide track and is complemented by a B-roll.
SCRIPT
Fifteen billion years ago, a tiny nucleus smaller than a speck of dust, expanded in a big bang and formed our entire universe.
Since decades scientists have tried to understand this singular event. How did the big bang happen, and why? The origin of the Universe is one of the oldest scientific questions and perhaps the actual origin of science.
Today, the scientific community still has no final answer, but very pointed questions. Some of them can only be answered with telescopes in space that look from high above the Earth's atmosphere deep into space, into the most distant regions of the universe, at events that happened billions of years ago.
Since the early 1970s, the European Space Agency has launched scientific space missions. Many unexpected results have changed the way we see the universe today.
The Hubble Space Telescope, a joint ESA and NASA project, has made some of the most dramatic observations in the history of astronomy.
Operating high above the disturbing atmosphere, Hubble has loo