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( Source: Margarita Balashova / iStockphoto )
In March 2024, the European Space Agency presented the results of the first observations made by the unique Euclid telescope. The results are fascinating, and the telescope is only at the very beginning of its six-year mission.
The European Euclid Space Telescope is named after the Greek mathematician who is considered to be the founder of geometry as a discipline in its own right and who was one of the most important figures in ancient Greece. Now, his name is being given to an instrument that has big goals: to create the largest 3D map of the Universe, which should help us unravel the mystery of its structure and the existence of dark matter and dark energy.
Dark matter and dark energy are terms that have been bandied about by scientists in recent years. It turns out that the visible part of the universe, i.e. planets, stars or galaxies, is only a very small part of its total mass. And the same goes for energy. In other words, in order to explain why the universe looks the way it does, we had to admit that the vast majority of what makes up the universe we can’t actually see and have no idea what it might be. So at least we’ve named these phenomena: dark matter and dark energy.
The question arises as to what use Euclid is to us if we are not able to observe these phenomena directly anyway. This is true, but fortunately we can observe them indirectly. We can do this by looking at the gravity that holds large objects together in the universe or, conversely, at the forces that try to tear it apart. But the universe is huge, and in order to observe what is happening in it, we need a truly perfect and gigantic map of it. And that’s exactly what Euclid will provide.
━━ Illustration of the EUCLID space telescope.
( Source: Elliptic Studio / Shutterstock )
Euclid made its first observations between 25 March and 6 April 2024, using its 600-megapixel main camera to image a portion of the sky equivalent to about five hundred lunar discs. About 100 million objects can be identified in the images, including 14 million galaxies, which are important for the map.
This is just one per cent of what Euclid is expected to image over the next six years. The images are being produced at the highest resolution yet and with great sensitivity. In just a few days, Euclid has gathered more information and data in this area than the Hubble telescope has in more than 20 years. The map then shows the giant structures that permeate the entire Universe, which suggest a lot about how dark matter is distributed. Hopefully, in this way, we will also come closer to uncovering its nature.
The European Space Agency (ESA), which is behind the Euclid mission, is an international organisation made up of several European member states. The Euclid mission is a collaboration between ESA and the scientific community across Europe, but also with other partners outside Europe.
