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 artist's animation depicts the possible detection of a planet candidate in an X-ray binary in the M51 ("Whirlpool") galaxy called M51-ULS. This system contains either a neutron star or a black hole in orbit with a star about 20 to 30 times the mass of the Sun (large blue star). The neutron star or black hole is pulling material from its companion star, creating a disk of material that glows in X-rays (red, orange, and yellow). Astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescopes detected a decrease in the X-rays from M51-ULS over about a 3-hour period. They interpret this dimming as being a "transit," when a planet passing in front of the disk along the line of sight to Earth and blocks some or all of the light. This is depicted in the animation as the planet moves across the view from left to right and the bright light from material close to the neutron star or black hole briefly dims. By searching for exoplanets — that is, planets outside our Solar System — using this X-ray technique, scientists hope to look for these worlds at much greater distances than have previously been possible.