The telescope aims to eventually chart one-third of the sky during its mission, capturing galaxies and stars. Scientists hope it will also shed light on the role of dark energy and dark matter in the universe.
The European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday released its first batch of data from the Euclid space telescope’s mission to create a 3D map of the universe in unprecedented detail.
The telescope, launched from Florida in 2023, is currently hovering 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) from Earth.
Over the course of its six-year mission, Euclid is expected to chart one-third of the sky, encompassing 1.5 billion galaxies.
While in orbit, it’s tasked with gathering data on how the universe has expanded over time and shedding light on the mysterious forces of dark energy and dark matter.
The new data released Wednesday covers only 0.5% of what the telescope will ultimately scan during its entire mission and represents just a week of Euclid’s observation time.
Still, it marks “a new milestone for our dark universe detective,” ESA Science Director Carole Mundell said at a press conference.
What are dark energy and dark matter?
These invisible forces are believed to make up 95% of the universe, yet little is known about the role they play.
Dark matter is believed to be the glue that holds galaxies together, while dark energy pulls them apart by making the universe expand faster and faster over time.
Euclid allows scientists to look back in time and track the interaction between these forces over the history of the universe.
While Wednesday’s data did not provide any major revelations on this front, researchers are hopeful the telescope could provide more insights closer to the end of the mission.
What did the new data show?
The new data covered three areas of the sky containing 26 million galaxies. The most distant was 10.5 billion light years away. A light year is 9.5 trillion kilometers.
“It is exploring more distant objects in the universe with a greater amount of sky explored than any survey before for objects so far away,” said astrophysicist Chris Duffy of Lancaster University in England, one of the scientists involved in the research.
The new Euclid data included a detailed catalog of more than 380,000 galaxies of various shapes and sizes. They were classified according to features such as spiral arms and central bars as well as traits that indicate a galactic merger.
This represents “the first chunk of what will be the largest-ever catalog of the detailed appearance of galaxies,” said Euclid scientist Mike Walmsley of the University of Toronto.
The next release of Euclid data is planned for October 2026. That is expected to cover an area 30 times larger than Wednesday’s data.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
DW News
