The Euclid telescope is creating the largest 3D map of the universe. Here’s the first piece.
The European Space Agency’s Euclid mission has released its first image, revealing the secrets of the universe’s hidden dark matter and dark energy.
This is just a sneak peek of what’s to come, as Euclid embarks on a six-year mission to map the evolution of the universe in unprecedented detail.
This ambitious endeavor aims to shed light on the mysterious forces driving the universe’s expansion, offering unprecedented insight into the universe’s history, structure, and composition.
Launched in July 2023, Euclid’s initial journey included a month-long process to travel to its designated Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth, where it would be placed in a gravitationally stable position to conduct its groundbreaking research.
Now, Euclid has reached this crucial location, its optical systems are ready, and it’s beginning to deliver on its promises.
“Euclid is about to reveal its power and will lead us to a deeper understanding of what drives the cosmic expansion and what dark energy and dark matter are,” said Giuseppe Racca, ESA’s Euclid project scientist.
Euclid is a space observatory equipped with two powerful instruments: a visible light camera, VIS, to capture images of distant galaxies and a near-infrared spectrometer and photometer, NISP, to analyze the light emanating from these galaxies and infer their distance.
These sophisticated instruments allow Euclid to meticulously analyze the distribution of galaxies, measure their redshift, and gather information on their shapes and properties.
By precisely plotting the distribution of billions of galaxies over vast stretches of the universe, Euclid will produce an intricate three-dimensional map, stretching back 10 billion years in cosmic history.
This meticulous reconstruction of the universe’s architecture is vital to unraveling the mysterious forces shaping its evolution.
At the heart of Euclid’s mission is the quest to comprehend the perplexing nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Dark matter is an elusive form of matter that accounts for about 85 percent of the total matter in the universe, yet it does not emit, absorb, or scatter light, making it practically undetectable by traditional methods.
Similarly, dark energy, thought to permeate the fabric of the cosmos, remains an enigmatic entity, playing a crucial role in driving the universe’s accelerated expansion, an observation first made by astronomers studying distant supernovae.
This perplexing phenomenon, however, defies a straightforward explanation.
Euclid aims to tackle these daunting enigmas.
The first released images captured by the VIS instrument depict a vibrant field teeming with galaxies, each offering a glimpse into the history of the universe.
Though this initial data only showcases a fraction of what Euclid is destined to collect, its mere existence signals the commencement of an epoch-defining mission.
Euclid’s six-year observational journey has only just begun. The universe’s secrets will soon be unveiled.
