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benefits for science
We **enable** scientific discovery
We **enable** scientific discovery
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Through its pioneering missions, ESA’s Science Programme equips the scientific community with the means to achieve significant advances in astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary science and fundamental physics. Its open-access digital data library is the gateway to discovery, allowing a high level of research productivity to be sustained worldwide, and reinforcing leadership among Member States.
A Global Impact
Fuelling worldwide scientific research with ESA data
In 2024:
3700+

Unique refereed papers using data from ESA-led missions

1800+

Unique refereed papers using data from ESA’s partner-led missions

16.3%

Of all space science papers published worldwide used ESA mission data

science archives
Building a digital library of the Universe

Data from all ESA Science missions, capturing data for over 25 missions spanning more than 40 years of discovery, are preserved in the comprehensive digital library hosted at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain. Open to all, this remarkable Science Data Centre serves more than 100 terabytes of data to over 30 000 users worldwide per month. By providing curated, validated data and advanced tools for accessing and analysing observations, ESA’s open-data policy facilitates scientific progress across all fields of space science. 

The digital library is a vital scientific resource. More than half of all scientific papers about ESA missions draw on data from the archive – with an impressive 100% of all Gaia papers using the archive. Remarkably, more than half of the papers are authored by researchers not originally involved in the missions, highlighting the immense value that ESA brings to the wider science community.

Astronomical data is also presented in ESASky, a web-based portal that enables anyone to visualise data from a wide range of missions across the entire sky in multiple wavelengths.

Examples
Leading the way in space science
Mapping the Milky Way

ESA is a pioneer of precise stellar mapping. Hipparcos was the first satellite ever devoted to astrometry, and revolutionised the field of precision astronomy, measuring the positions, distances and movements of stars 200 times more accurately than achieved from ground-based astronomers over the centuries. Gaia continued the noble European legacy of star charting, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects to redefine the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood. It is the most prolific generator of scientific papers of all ESA missions.

Interactive Star Mapper visualisation, based on Hipparcos data. Credit: ESA.

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Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko just a few hours before the comet reached the closest point to the Sun along its 6.5-year orbit. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Chasing comets

ESA is a world leader in daring comet missions. Giotto captured the first close-up image of a comet’s nucleus in 1986. Rosetta was the only mission to rendezvous with and follow a comet on its journey around the Sun. Its historic rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from 2014 to 2016 also saw the first deployment of a lander – Philae – to a comet’s surface. Europe’s next step for thrilling comet exploration lies with the innovative Comet Interceptor mission. This novel mission will wait in Earth orbit, ready to race towards an as-yet undiscovered first-time visitor to our Solar System, providing unique access to pristine cometary material.

Detecting invisible forces

ESA makes the seemingly impossible possible. Planck created the most detailed map of the temperature fluctuations left over from the Big Bang, fundamentally improving our understanding of the initial phase of the Universe and the presence of dark matter and dark energy. Euclid is picking up the baton to probe these invisible forces that control the growth of structure and the expansion of the Universe in greater detail than ever before. It will create an immense map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across more than a third of the sky, by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. Its vast and unique dataset will benefit all branches of astronomy.

The Horsehead Nebula, by Euclid. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselm.

more about space science
Discover our science missions

Explore a subset of the ESA Science Programme missions here. Additional mission pages are in progress.
The currently available mission pages are ESA's flagship missions launched from 2013 and to be launched (L-class), and the ones in development (M- and F-class).

Asset Publisher

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ESA's billion star surveyor
Gaia
Gaia is determining the position of nearly two billion objects, creating the largest and most precise 3D map of the Milky Way.
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Exploring the habitability of Saturn’s Icy Moons
L4 to Enceladus
The first flagship mission of Voyage 2050 will explore Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, searching for clues about the potential for life.
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Understanding why Venus is so different from Earth
Envision
Envision will provide a complete view of Venus from its inner core to upper atmosphere to determine how and why Venus and Earth evolved so differently.
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First gravitational wave detector in space
LISA
LISA will be the first space-based gravitational wave observatory, studying fluctuations in spacetime produced by powerful events such as merging black holes.
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Visiting a pristine comet
Comet Interceptor
Comet Interceptor will be the first mission to fly by a pristine comet as it enters the inner Solar System.
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Exploring the dark Universe
Euclid
Euclid is exploring the nature of dark energy and dark matter, revealing the history of the Universe’s accelerated expansion and the growth of cosmic structure.
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Advanced telescope for high-energy astrophysics
NewAthena
NewAthena will map hot gas structures to determine their physical properties, and search for supermassive black holes.
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the sun up close
Solar Orbiter
Solar Orbiter is studying the Sun up close, collecting high-resolution images and data from our star and its heliosphere.
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Imaging Earth’s magnetic environment
Smile
Smile will build a complete understanding of the Sun-Earth connection by measuring the solar wind and its dynamic interaction with the magnetosphere.
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Investigating Mercury's mysteries
BepiColombo
BepiColombo is Europe’s first mission to Mercury, sent to study the mysterious planet’s interior, surface, atmosphere and magnetosphere to understand its origins.
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Analysing exoplanet atmospheres
Ariel
Ariel will perform a chemical census of a large and diverse sample of exoplanets by analysing their atmospheres.
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Exploring the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants
Juice
Juice is on its way to Jupiter to perform detailed investigations of the gas giant and assessing the habitability potential of its large icy satellites.
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Terrestrial planet hunter
Plato
Plato will study terrestrial planets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars, and characterise these stars.
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