Oct 22, 2024 21:00:00

The 'first 1%' of the space map created by the Euclid Space Telescope is released, allowing galaxies to be surveyed at 600 times magnification

European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Joseph Aschbacher and Science Director Carol Mandel unveiled the 'first 1%' of the universe map created by ESA's Euclid Space Telescope at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy on October 15, 2024.

ESA - Zoom into the first page of ESA Euclid's great cosmic atlas
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Zoom_into_the_first_page_of_ESA_Euclid_s_great_cosmic_atlas

Euclid's 208-Gigapixel glimpse into the Universe - YouTube


The Euclid Space Telescope, due to be launched by ESA in July 2023, aims to better understand dark matter , which is believed to make up 25% of the mass of the universe.

The orange area in the diagram below shows the area that the Euclid Space Telescope will observe. During its six-year mission, the telescope will observe about one-third of the sky, avoiding the Milky Way Galaxy at the center.

A portion of the space map created by the Euclid Space Telescope was released for the first time on October 15. The area shown in light orange in the figure below is what was released.

During the two-week observation period, the Euclid Space Telescope was able to observe 1% of its planned range.

The space mosaic was stitched together from 260 observations made between March 25 and April 8, 2024. It covers approximately 132

square degrees of the southern sky, an area equivalent to more than 500 times the size of the full moon as seen from Earth.

The publicly available image boasts a resolution of 208 gigapixels, and it's possible to zoom in and investigate in detail. Zooming in 3x looks like this.

This is what it looks like when zoomed in 12 times. You can see the spiral galaxy

NGS 2188 and the galaxy cluster Abell 3381.

We zoomed in 36 times to enlarge the central area of Abell 3381. You can clearly see the colors and shapes of galaxies of all sizes.

When magnified up to 150 times, it became possible to see the shape of

the disk surrounding the galaxy. The galaxy shown here is said to be located 4.2 million light years away from Earth.

When magnified 600 times it looks like this.

'This stunning map is the first part of a series that, in six years' time, will reveal more than a third of the sky,' said Valeria Petrino, from ESA's Euclid project. 'Although it represents just 1% of the map, it is full of various information that will help scientists discover new ways of describing the Universe.'