The Euclid Space Telescope has revealed the “first page” of the cosmic atlas under construction. A portion of the cosmic map being constructed by Euclid was unveiled on Monday (October 15), showing tens of millions of stars in the Milky Way and some 14 million distant galaxies beyond our galaxy. is depicted.
This vast cosmic mosaic is built from 260 Euclidean observations collected between March 25 and April 8, 2024, and contains 208 gigapixels of data. The area shown is approximately 500 times the width of the full moon as it appears above Earth.
Perhaps most surprising, this mosaic will account for only 1% of the total amount of research Euclid will conduct over the next six years to track the shape, distance, and movement of galaxies 10 billion light years away. It’s not too much. Not only does this create the largest 3D map of the universe ever created, but the map’s vast scale is also dominated by dark matter and dark energy, which scientists collectively know as the “dark universe.” Help investigate mysteries.
“This amazing image is the first part of a map that will reveal more than a third of the sky in six years’ time,” Valeria Pettorino, Euclid project scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA), said in a statement. ” he said. “Although this is only 1% of the map, it is packed with a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the universe.”
Related: Euclid’s ‘Dark Space Detective’ telescope reveals new images of the universe – and they’re worth paying attention to
Is it a space atlas or a “dark space detective” case file?
Euclid, launched in July 2023, began scientific observations in February. Equipped with a 600-megapixel camera, this wide-angle space telescope can record visible and near-infrared light using a spectrometer. This will allow us to measure “redshift,” the change in the wavelength of light that reaches us that occurs as galaxies move away from the Milky Way.
By doing this for different galaxies, Euclid is able to measure the influence of dark energy, the mysterious force that causes the universe to accelerate, by expanding the space between galaxies.
“Euclidean is observing the universe in a completely new way, and there will be a massive census of galaxies,” Luz Ángela García Peñaloza, a cosmologist at Universidad ECCI, told Space.com. Ta. “Images that reveal information about the distribution of galaxies in the large-scale structure of the universe will provide some information about the nature of the dark side of the universe.
“We still need to wait a little longer to recover more samples of galaxies to infer cosmological parameters and rule out some existing models.”
Despite just two weeks of observations, the Euclid spacecraft’s sensitive cameras captured a wide range of celestial objects in great detail for this new release.
One of the features that fascinates scientists in this Euclidean mosaic is the dim clouds that stretch among the stars in the Milky Way. These appear in the wider image as light blue streaks against the black background of space.
These blue trails are a mixture of gas and dust and are sometimes called “galactic cirrus clouds” because they look like cirrus clouds above Earth. Euclid’s ability to visualize these clouds comes from the fact that they reflect light from the Milky Way and glow brightly in the far infrared.
By taking a broad view of the universe and then narrowing it down, the fine details facilitated by Euclid have allowed astronomers to zoom in very deep into the mosaic to find objects such as the shape of the spiral galaxy ESO 364-G036, located around 420 AD. You can see the complex structure. Millions of light years away.
This first page of the Euclidean space atlas, and the small fragment of the space map that will eventually be created, is just a preview of bigger things to come from this mission.
Approximately 12% of Euclid’s planned data collection has been completed, with publication of 53 square degrees of survey results, including a preview of the Euclid Deep Field region, scheduled for March 2025. Cosmological data for the first year of this mission will be available to the scientific community in 2026.
“This is just the beginning of what we can see in Euclid’s life,” García Peñalosa concluded. “Indeed, the best is yet to come! I am convinced that Euclid will reveal our understanding of the mysteries of the universe.”
ESA Director Josef Aschbacher and space agency science director Carol Mandel unveiled the Euclidean mosaic at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy.
