The British-backed Euclid Space Telescope has sent back its first incredible images of distant galaxies on its mission to unlock the mysteries of the dark universe.
The European Space Telescope, named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, captured bright stars and galaxies after making a million-mile journey from Earth.
It was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on July 1 and reached its destination, a vantage point known as the Second Lagrange Point, where the gravitational forces of Earth and the Sun are approximately equal, creating a stable spaceship location.
The European Space Agency (ESA) called it a “milestone” indicating that the two-tonne telescope will achieve its goals, which is to shed light on two of the biggest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter, which make up 95 percent of the universe.
He said “spiral and elliptical galaxies, near and distant stars, star clusters and much more” could be seen in the images released Monday, despite the fact that the instruments involved captured a smaller slice of the sky than the full moon.
The British-backed Euclid Space Telescope has returned its first incredible images of distant galaxies. Pictured: The red images were captured by the Near Infrared Photometer and Spectrometer (NISP) instrument which will measure the amount of light galaxies emit at each wavelength.
While some galaxies are very easy to spot, many more are fuzzy blobs hidden among the stars, waiting to be revealed by Euclid in the future.
In this image, light from Euclid’s telescope had passed through a ‘grism’ before reaching the detector. This device splits the light from each star and galaxy by wavelength, so each vertical ray of light in the image is a star or galaxy.
The black-and-white images were taken by Euclid’s Visible Light Instrument (VIS), which will then capture ‘sharp’ shots of billions of galaxies to measure their shapes, according to the space agency.
The red images were captured by the Near Infrared Photometer and Spectrometer (NISP) instrument which will measure the amount of light galaxies emit at each wavelength.
Project manager Giuseppe Racca said: “After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it is exciting and hugely emotional to see these first images.
‘It’s even more incredible when we think that we see only a few galaxies here, produced with minimal system tuning.
“The fully calibrated Euclid will finally observe billions of galaxies to create the largest 3D map of the sky.”
The development of the VIS was led by Mark Cropper of University College London.
He said: “I am moved by the beauty of these images and the abundance of information contained within them.”
The ESA stressed that the snapshots are “early test images” taken to check the instruments and review how the spacecraft can be refined, and a new set of “more detailed” images will be released at a later date.
A two-ton telescope, named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, began its million-mile journey from Cape Canaveral in Florida on July 1.
The goal of the mission, led by the European Space Agency (ESA), is to better understand two mysterious components that make up 95 percent of the universe: dark matter and dark energy. Pictured: CGI of Euclid
Euclid was due to launch last year on a Russian Soyuz rocket, but after the invasion of Ukraine, ESA signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Falcon 9 rocket.
Scientists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory led the development of the optical camera known as VIS, a scientific instrument that will take images of the distant universe.
Euclid’s six-year mission aims to peer into the dark universe to better understand why it is expanding rapidly.
The captured images will help astronomers better understand the elusive dark matter, particles that do not absorb, reflect or emit light.
Dark matter, which unlike normal matter neither reflects nor emits light, binds galaxies together creating the environment for stars, planets and life.
The mission will also explore dark energy, which is believed to drive galaxies apart, causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate.
The UK has contributed £37m to the £850m mission, with scientists playing a key role in the design and construction of the probe and leading one of the two science instruments on board.
Euclid was due to launch last year on a Russian Soyuz rocket, but after the invasion of Ukraine, ESA signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Falcon 9 rocket.
After taking off at 16:12 GMT on July 1 from Cape Canaveral, it took Euclid about a month to reach its destination.
