Talk about a wide-angle lens! In July, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Euclid mission in order to deploy a space telescope capable of mapping the large-scale structure of the universe, observing the billions of galaxies spanning one-third of the sky, and recording images of star systems as far as 10 billion light-years away from Earth. This six-year effort seeks to understand the structures and development of the so-called “dark universe,” which refers to the estimated 95% of the cosmos that is made of dark matter and dark energy. The Euclid Space Telescope sent back its first images this month, bringing some of this vast expanse to light.
No, this exploration of dark energy is not the premise for a book about battling wizards, but the images are surely fantastical. Euclid’s initial findings have captured the spiral galaxy IC 342 or Caldwell 5, nicknamed the “Hidden Galaxy” because it has previously been obscured by the busy nexus of our own Milky Way and located about 11 million light-years from Earth. The telescope’s innovative view is a result of optics that enable it to take near-infrared images of a large amount of space in a single shot, delivering unprecedented wide-angle views with sharpness and visual acuity.
“Our high standards for this telescope paid off,” Giuseppe Racca, ESA’s Euclid project manager, said in a statement. “That there is so much detail in these images is all thanks to a special optical design, perfect manufacturing and assembly of telescope and instruments, and extremely accurate pointing and temperature control.”
Euclid also delivered images of the impressive Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, a dark cloud formation approximately 1,375 light-years away from Earth and part of the Orion constellation. The formation is named for its appearance as a horse rising from a foggy galactic mist. Again, this is outer space and not a battle between wizards … but for a non-astrophysicist, Euclid has provided stunning evidence that the dark universe is still full of marvels.
“We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail,” said René Laureijs, ESA’s Euclid project scientist, in a press statement. “They are even more beautiful and sharp than we could have hoped for, showing us many previously unseen features in well-known areas of the nearby Universe. Now we are ready to observe billions of galaxies, and study their evolution over cosmic time.”
Another bombshell snapshot is Eculid’s view of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The image, termed “a revolution for astronomy” by the ESA, showcases not only the 1,000 galaxies within the Perseus cluster, but 100,000 additional galaxies in the surrounding area. Each of these galaxies might comprise up to hundreds of billions of stars, offering a humbling view of the vastness of outer space, capturing faint galaxies previously unseen by humans, and creating a visual effect of — you guessed it — infinite, glittering wizard dust.
The images, in all their incredible detail, can be explored in high resolution through the ESA website. These initial images mark a heartening start to Euclid’s ambitious mission “to map, at a high sensitivity, more than one-third of the celestial sphere within six years,” and subsequently create the largest 3D cosmic map ever made. Euclid is well on its way to working its magic and further enhancing our understanding of astrophysics — and if that’s not space wizardry, what is?
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