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
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First impressions of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule (left) revealed a surprisingly familiar appearance to the comet that ESA's Rosetta spacecraft explored for more than two years (right).
NASA's New Horizons flew by Ultima Thule on 1 January 2019, with subsequent images and data suggesting that its two lobes are rather more 'squashed' like a pancake, with respect to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Ultima Thule, which sits beyond the orbit of Neptune in the outskirts of the Solar System, is about 34 km long, with the two lobes measuring about 19.5 and 14.2 km across.
By comparison, Comet 67P/C-G's two lobes measure 4.1 x 3.3 x 1.8 km and 2.6 x 2.3 x 1.8 km. The comet likely originated from the Kuiper Belt and now orbits around the Sun on a 6.5 year journey that takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest.