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 22 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!
ESA's Proba-2 satellite observed four partial eclipses while observers in parts of South America witnessed a total solar eclipse on 2 July.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, totally or partially blocking the Sun from Earth’s point of view. From Proba-2's perspective in Earth orbit the Moon crossed the satellite’s field of view four times.
The video was produced from images taken by Proba-2’s SWAP imager, which images the Sun in ultraviolet light revealing the turbulent nature of the Sun's surface and corona – the Sun's extended atmosphere – stretching into space.
During this eclipse the satellite was passing through the South Atlantic Anomaly at the time of the largest occultation. In this region the spacecraft is exposed to higher levels of radiation. The increased flux of energetic particles falling on the satellite's detector is the cause for all the bright dots and streaks in the images.