2023-11-10 15:10:39
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The Horsehead Nebula is located regarding 1,375 light-years from Earth. It was photographed by Esa’s Euclid space telescope. © ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The first images from the Esa space telescope “Euclid” show hundreds of thousands of galaxies. In the future, the mystery of the “dark universe” should be solved in this way.
Darmstadt – On July 1, 2023, the ESA space probe “Euclid” was launched into space, and now the European space agency ESA is showing the first images from the space telescope. “We have never seen such astronomical images that contain so much detail before,” says René Laureijs, “Euclid” project scientist, in a statement from ESA. “They are even more beautiful and sharper than we might have hoped for, and show us many previously unseen features in known regions of the nearby universe.”
The “Euclid” space telescope is scheduled to enter routine operation in early 2024 and then help answer a big question in astronomy: What is the dark universe all regarding? “Euclid” is intended to collect data that will help researchers find out how dark matter and dark energy shaped our universe. In fact, the universe is said to consist of 95 percent dark energy and dark matter. But research doesn’t understand what it actually is.
The Perseus cluster, photographed by Esa’s Euclid space telescope. You can see 1,000 galaxies that belong to the cluster and in the background more than 100,000 galaxies, some of which have never been seen before. © ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
In search of the “dark universe”: ESA’s “Euclid” space telescope
The problem: The presence of both causes only very subtle changes in the appearance and movement of things in the universe. In order to reveal this “dark” influence on the visible universe, “Euclid” will observe the universe over the next six years – up to a distance of ten billion light years. This is how the largest 3D map of the cosmos is to be created.
What’s special regarding Euclid’s view of the cosmos is his ability to produce a remarkably sharp visible and infrared image of a large portion of the sky in just one sitting. That’s why the first images from the space telescope were awaited with great anticipation. Esa has published a total of five recordings.
First images from “Euclid” show hundreds of thousands of galaxies – “Revolution for astronomy”
Among other things, they show the Perseus cluster, a cluster of galaxies 240 million light years away. The image shows 1,000 galaxies that belong to the Perseus cluster, as well as more than 100,000 galaxies that are further away – “a revolution for astronomy,” writes Esa regarding the image.
The spiral galaxy IC 342 is nicknamed the “Hidden Galaxy”. It was photographed by Esa’s Euclid space telescope. © ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
“Many of these faint galaxies have never been seen before,” says an image description from ESA. “By mapping the distribution and shape of these galaxies, cosmologists can learn more regarding how dark matter shaped the universe we see today.” The Perseus Cluster is one of the largest structures known in the universe. Astronomy has already shown theoretically that galaxy clusters like Perseus can only form if dark matter exists. “Euclid” is now intended to show that it actually exists.
Because even if dark matter is needed to explain the universe, no one has yet practically proven it or even seen it. It is expected that “Euclid” will observe a third of the sky over the next six years and image billions of galaxies. This data should then also show what influence dark matter and dark energy have. “Now we are ready to observe billions of galaxies and study their evolution over cosmic time,” emphasizes Laureijs. (tab)
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