2023-10-17 11:00:04
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid satellite has overcome an initial hurdle and is now operational. After a temporary loss of its guide stars due to a cosmic misidentification, the mission is on the right track.
Credit: ESA
This satellite is designed to explore the mysteries of dark matter (In astrophysics, dark matter (or dark matter), translation from English…) and dark energy (In cosmology, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy filling the entire Universe…), two great enigmas in cosmology (Cosmology is the branch of astrophysics which studies the Universe as a system…). Black matter makes up 85% of the matter in the Universe. govern it.), but remains invisible. As for dark energy, it is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the Universe.
Launched on July 1, Euclid reached Lagrange point 2, a gravitationally stable position, in four weeks. But the operators noticed a problem: its guidance sensor had difficulty locating the guide stars necessary for its navigation. the science and all the techniques that make it possible to :). The cause was cosmic rays, charged particles emitted by the Sun (The Sun (Sol in Latin, Helios or Ήλιος in Greek) is the star…).
Credit: ESA
To resolve this problem, ESA teams have developed a software fix. After extensive testing, the guidance sensor works as expected. “We tested the update step by step under real conditions,” said Micha Schmidt, head of operations at Euclid satellite.
Euclid is now ready to resume its performance verification phase, interrupted in August. “This phase will last until the end of November, but we are confident that regular scientific observations can begin afterwards,” added Giuseppe Racca, project manager (A project manager in IT is the person responsible for monitoring the smooth running of of…) Euclid.
Euclid will map about a third of the sky, reaching back 10 billion years into the past. It will examine 3D models of galaxies to understand the evolution of the 13.8 billion year old Universe and the role of dark matter in it.
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