> Science The European Space Agency's (ESA) Flyeye telescope has opened its eyes for the first time. With its first image released on June 5, the telescope has began a new chapter in scanning the skies for new near-Earth asteroids and comets. The picture presents a view of Milky Way's neighbour - the Andromeda galaxy - which took just one sixteenth of the telescope's full field of view. ESA’s newest planetary defender has opened its ‘eye’ to the cosmos for the first time.https://t.co/M0IiqIhivZ The Flyeye telescope’s ‘first light’ marks the beginning of a new chapter in how we scan the skies for new near-Earth asteroids and comets. pic.twitter.com/wy2K7DZUoO — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) June 5, 2025 Apart from Andromeda, ESA also shared pictures of Flyeye tracking asteroids 1991 VH and 2025 HQ hurtling through space. A future network of up to four Flyeye telescopes spread around the world will use their wide field of view to survey the sky each night and identify new asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth. pic.twitter.com/0P1mzG5UH9 — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) June 5, 2025 Flyeye has been jointly developed by ESA and Italian aerospace company OHB Italia and its design is inspired by an insect's compound eye. It is capable of scanning the sky more than 200 times as large as the full Moon in a single exposure, giving it an edge over conventional telescopes. Flyeye telescope's design. Image: ESA The telescope's wide field of view will be used to survey the sky each night to identify new asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth. It is officially called Flyeye-1 and is the first of a network of four telescopes to defend Earth from risky asteroids.