Dark matter-hunting Euclid mission shares its first full-color images of the universe.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid telescope has shared its first full-color images of the universe, revealing a breathtaking tapestry of galaxies, stars, and cosmic structures. The images were released on November 7, 2023, and provide a glimpse into the mission's ambitious goal of mapping the distribution of dark matter and dark energy, the two mysterious substances that make up about 95% of the universe.
The images were captured using Euclid's VIS imager, which is sensitive to visible light. They show a swathe of the sky containing millions of galaxies, each emitting light that has traveled for billions of years to reach our eyes. The images are also peppered with stars, both in our own Milky Way galaxy and in far-off galaxies.
In addition to their beauty, the images are also scientifically valuable. They will be used to calibrate Euclid's instruments and to test its ability to accurately measure the shapes of galaxies. The shapes of galaxies are a key clue to the distribution of dark matter, which is invisible to telescopes but can be inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter.
Euclid is scheduled to begin its six-year science mission in early 2024. Over the course of its mission, it will map the shapes and distributions of billions of galaxies, up to 10 billion light-years away. This vast dataset will allow scientists to build a detailed 3D map of the dark universe, and to shed light on the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
"These first full-color images are a testament to the incredible capabilities of the Euclid telescope," said Yannick Mellier, Euclid's project scientist. "They are a taste of what we can expect from Euclid over the next six years, as it unravels the mysteries of the dark universe."
The release of the images was met with excitement from the scientific community. "These images are truly stunning," said astrophysicist Vera Rubin, who is not part of the Euclid team. "They show us the universe in a new light, and they give us a tantalizing glimpse of what Euclid can achieve."
The Euclid mission is a collaboration between the European Space Agency, NASA, and other national space agencies. The telescope was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, on July 1, 2023, and is now positioned at the L2 Lagrange point, a stable location about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.