Immediately after the Big Bang, almost 15 billion years ago, the Universe was extremely hot. Matter as we know it today did not exist and the mechanism that led protons and electrons to form into stars, galaxies and living beings still remains an unsolved mystery.
Europe has developed a series of powerful space observatories to analyse light in the whole electromagnetic spectrum. The NASA/ESA Hubble telescope and ESA’s XMM-Newton and Integral are studying the Universe beyond the visible, observing how stars form, evolve and die, and monitoring galaxies and exotic celestial objects, such as black holes.
In 2009 Herschel will investigate how stars and galaxies are born using long-wavelengths never covered before. Planck will observe fossil radiation in the early Universe to improve our knowledge about its origins and evolution.
In 2013 Gaia will map an unprecedented number of stars allowing astronomers to chart the most accurate three-dimensional map of our Galaxy and revolutionise our understanding of the Milky Way.
The joint NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope will look deeper into space to provide scientists with new insights about the birth and evolution of planetary systems.
