2023-07-31 22:21:26
A European space telescope has captured galaxies and twinkling stars in its first images following a million-mile journey from Earth. Euclid is on a mission to shed light on two of the greatest mysteries of the universe: dark energy and dark matter. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that “spiral and elliptical galaxies, stars near and far, star clusters and much more” can be seen in the images released on Monday, although the instruments used captured a portion of the sky smaller than the full moon. Euclid was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 1 and reached its destination – a control point known as the second Lagrange point. The European Space Agency described it as a “milestone” that indicates the telescope will achieve its goals. Image: Pic: ESA The black and white images were taken by Euclid’s Visible Light Instrument (VIS), which will continue to take “sharp” snapshots of billions of galaxies to measure their shapes, according to the space agency. Meanwhile, red images were taken by the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NISP) instrument, which will measure the amount of light the galaxies emit at each wavelength. “It is very interesting and emotional to see these first images,” said project manager Giuseppe Racca following more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid. “It’s even more incredible when we think we’re seeing just a few galaxies here, produced with minimal system tuning. “A fully calibrated Euclid will eventually observe billions of galaxies to create the largest 3D map of the sky ever.” Image: An early test run of the NISP instrument. Pic: ESA Image: Pic: ESA The development of the Visual Information System (VIS) was led by Mark Cropper of University College London. The European Space Agency stressed that the footage is “early test images” taken to check the instruments and review how to improve the spacecraft, and “more detailed” images will be released at a later date. Read more: British-made satellite deliberately crashes into Atlantic Ocean ‘non-human biology’ has been found at crash sites, whistleblower claims Euclid’s six-year mission aims to examine the dark universe to better understand the cause of its rapid expansion. The captured images will help astronomers gain insight into the elusive dark matter, which is particles that do not absorb, reflect or emit light. Dark matter can’t be seen directly, but scientists know it exists because of the effect it has on things that can be observed directly. They believe it “binds galaxies together creating an environment for stars, planets, and life.” The mission will also probe dark energy, which is believed to be pushing galaxies apart, causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. The UK contributed £37m to the £850m mission.
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