Images from the Euclid telescope provide new insights into the cosmos 2023
The first pictures obtained by a potent space telescope intended to produce the most intricate three-dimensional map of the universe’s “dark side” have been made public.
The Euclid telescope, which was launched by the European Space Agency in July, has released five observations from its orbital home one million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth. These observations include views of massive clusters of galaxies and stars as well as a stellar nursery.
Data from an area of the sky 100 times larger than what NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s camera can record can be captured by Euclid thanks to its wide perspective.
According to ESA officials, the new color images collectively highlight the scintillating beauty of space, the potential and capabilities of the telescope’s science instruments, which include a near-infrared camera/spectrometer and a visible light camera, as well as the level of detail it will be able to pick out across the universe.
In addition, the observations point to previously unknown facets of the universe that will aid Euclid in his primary goal of covering one-third of the sky over the course of the following six years.
“We have never before seen astronomical images with this level of detail.” They reveal many previously hidden features in well-known regions of the nearby universe, and they are even more exquisite and precise than we could have imagined. “We are now prepared to witness billions of galaxies and examine their development throughout cosmic history,” stated René Laureijs, the project scientist for Euclid at ESA, in a press release.
Euclid’s initial scientific images show Euclid concentrated on a variety of targets.
The telescope looked at over 100,000 other distant galaxies in the background, many of which had never been seen before, as well as the 1,000 galaxies that make up the Perseus Cluster. The galactic cluster is located 240 million light-years from Earth and is among the most massive known in the universe.
The image of the cluster that Euclid produced was the first to show so many of the galaxies inside in such detail. By charting the forms and locations of galaxies throughout space, astronomers can gain a deeper understanding of the universe’s structure.
Euclid’s large field of view and high sensitivity allow measurements of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster’s galaxies down to their faintest and outermost regions. We thus gain new insights into the late stages of galaxy evolution, when galaxies collide and merge, along with the numerous globular clusters that we discover in the incredibly sharp images,” said Matthias Kluge, a scientist at the Ludwig Maximilian University and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching.
Additionally, the telescope saw the spiral galaxy IC 342, also known as the “Hidden Galaxy” due to its location behind stars, gas, and dust that obscures it. Euclid used infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, to snoop out new information about the stars within this simulation of our own Milky Way galaxy.
The space observatory’s goal is to study a wide range of galaxies throughout the universe, including smaller ones that were prevalent in the early universe and functioned as the building blocks of more massive galaxies like the Milky Way.
Located 1.6 million light-years from Earth, NGC 6822 is an irregular dwarf galaxy with an Euclid view resembling those of the early universe.
Additionally, the telescope examined the NGC 6397 globular cluster. It is the second-closest celestial feature of its kind, 7,800 light-years from Earth. The gravitational pull of hundreds of thousands of stars holds globular clusters together like webs.
At this time, Euclid was the only telescope that could both determine the precise number of stars within a massive globular cluster and view the cluster in its entirety in a single observation.
The famous Horsehead Nebula, which is a component of the Orion constellation, was also captured in a very detailed panoramic view by the telescope. Young planets that are only visible from a distance may be found within the nebula, a massive cloud of gas and dust that acts as a nursery for newly born stars.
Koshy George, a research fellow in cosmology and structure formation at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University, said in a statement, “The early data from Euclid are stunning.” “The Visible Instrument and Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer instruments’ large field of view, clarity, and sensitivity allow us to discover many new details around the galaxies over a wider range than was previously possible.”
investigating the dark cosmos
Observing dark matter and dark energy, as well as producing the largest and most precise three-dimensional map of the universe, are the main objectives of the Euclid mission. Although dark matter has never been observed, it is thought to account for 85% of all matter in the universe. In the meantime, the expanding universe is believed to be expanding faster than ever, thanks to a mysterious force known as dark energy.
Astronomers Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaître discovered in the 1920s that the universe has been expanding since its creation 13.8 billion years ago. However, studies starting in the 1990s have revealed that the universe’s expansion accelerated approximately 6 billion years ago for an unknown reason.
Astronomers may be able to learn more about the composition of the universe, how its expansion has changed over time, and whether gravity is more complex than first appears if they can discover the true nature of dark energy and dark matter. Galaxies and stars are examples of objects that are distributed and move throughout the universe due to the influence of both dark matter and dark energy.
Euclid is intended to monitor billions of galaxies at a distance of 10 billion light-years in order to shed light on the possible stretching and tearing of matter over time by dark energy. Euclid will be able to see how the universe has changed over the last 10 billion years thanks to these observations.
The Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, who lived approximately 300 BC and is regarded as the father of geometry, was honored by the telescope’s name.
The telescope will catalog 1.5 billion galaxies and their stars during its observations, providing astronomers with a wealth of information about each galaxy’s composition, mass, and annual star formation rate. Euclid’s near-infrared vision may also provide light on objects in our own Milky Way galaxy that have not yet been discovered, like brown dwarfs and extremely cool stars.
“These beautiful Euclid images demonstrate that the mission is ready to help answer one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics,” said Carole Mundell, ESA Director of Science, in a statement. “Euclid will make a leap in our understanding of the cosmos as a whole.”
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