Our Solar System was formed 4.5 billion years ago. Since then its planets and moons have all evolved in very different ways and Earth became the cradle of life. To understand how the Solar System works and why Earth is unique, ESA has launched a series of highly successful missions.
Mars Express is exploring the red planet, providing us with spectacular 3D colour views of its surface, and has found traces of water in the form of ice, permafrost and vapour.
Venus Express peers into the dense Venusian atmosphere to study the dramatic greenhouse effect. Huygens travelled 7 years to land on Titan, revealing an extraordinary world similar to a primordial Earth.
Rosetta is on its way to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 to confirm whether comets brought water and life to Earth.
In the coming years BepiColombo will fly to Mercury, the least explored planet in the inner Solar System, to study the formation and the evolution of a planet close to the Sun.
ExoMars will be the first European mission to land and operate a rover on the red planet. It will use new science and technology to research traces of life.
