MADRID 15 Oct. () –
The Euclid mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed this Tuesday the first part of its large map of the Universe, showing millions of stars and galaxies.
This first fragment of the map, which is a huge 208 gigapixel mosaic, contains 260 observations made in just two weeks. This mosaic represents only 1% of the extensive study that Euclid will capture over six years, as reported by the ESA.
This first fragment of the map was revealed this Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan (Italy) by the director general of ESA, Josef Aschbacher; and the Director of Science, Carole Mundell.
The mosaic contains 260 observations made between March 25 and April 8, 2024. In just two weeks, Euclid covered 132 square degrees of the southern sky in impeccable detail, more than 500 times the area of the full Moon.
This mosaic represents 1% of the extensive study that Euclid will carry out over six years. During this study, the telescope will observe the shapes, distances and movements of billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away. In this way, you will create the largest 3D cosmic map ever made.
This first piece of the map already contains around 100 million sources: stars in our Milky Way and galaxies beyond. Some 14 million of these galaxies could be used to study the hidden influence of dark matter and dark energy in the Universe.
“This stunning image is the first part of a map that, in six years, will reveal more than a third of the sky. It is just 1% of the map, but it is packed with a wide variety of sources that will help scientists to discover new ways of describing the Universe,” says Valeria Pettorino, Euclid project scientist at ESA.
The probe’s highly sensitive cameras captured an incredible number of objects in great detail. If the mosaic is enlarged to maximum detail, the intricate structure of a spiral galaxy can still be clearly seen.
A special feature visible in the mosaic is the faint clouds between the stars of our own galaxy, which appear in light blue against the black background of space. They are a mixture of gas and dust, also called “galactic cirrus” because they look like cirrus clouds.
Euclid is able to see these clouds with its supersensitive visible light camera because they reflect optical light from the Milky Way. The clouds also glow in far-infrared light, as seen by ESA’s Planck mission.
The mosaic published this Tuesday is a preview of what is to come from the Euclid mission. Since the mission began its routine scientific observations in February 2018, 12% of the study has been completed.
Publication of 53 square degrees of the study, including a preview of areas of the Euclid Deep Field, is planned for March 2025. The first year of cosmological data from the mission will be published to the community in 2026.
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