First Section of Euclid’s Space Telescope Map of the Universe Revealed | Astronomy

The first part of what will be the largest 3D map of the universe ever made has been revealed, showing 14 million galaxies – not to mention tens of thousands of stars in our own Milky Way – in incredible detail.

Launched in 2023 and operated by the European Space Agency (Esa) with contributions from NASA, the Euclid mission will take its first snapshots in November of that year and in May 2024.

The goal of Euclid is to enable the creation of a 3D map in time and space of the universe, in an attempt to illuminate its evolution and, as a result, shed light on the mysterious phenomena of dark energy and dark matter, which together make up 95% of the universe.

The newly released data is a 208 gigapixel mosaic and covers 1% of what will be the final map.

The finished map is expected to involve six years of observations and will take in a third of the sky, with observations expected to capture trillions of galaxies up to 10 billion. light years.

Prof Mat Page, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London (UCL), who heads Euclid’s VIS (Visible Instrument) camera, said that before Euclid no one had ever imaged such a large area of ​​sky in such high resolution.

The goal of Euclid is to enable the creation of a 3D map in time and space of the universe. Photo: Esa

“Even the zoomed images do not show the full resolution of Euclid’s spectacular VIS camera,” he said.

“Before Euclid, we would never have been able to see the faint cirrus clouds of the Milky Way and pick out every single star that illuminates them in super-high resolution.

“And this is only a small fraction of the full area that Euclid will investigate, so in the end we will have a truly astronomical harvest of discoveries.”

Images released by Esa highlight the area of ​​the sky covered by the new mosaic, along with the mosaic itself and zoomed views inside it.

Esa said that areas of light blue visible in the mosaic were galactic cirrus clouds that sit between stars in the Milky Way.

A zoomed view of a swirling galaxy. Photo: ESA

These wispy clouds, made up of gas and dust, reflect optical light so they can be captured by the mission’s super-sensitive visible light camera.

Zoom in further on the mosaic and other features can be seen, including the spiral galaxy NGC 2188 and the galaxy cluster Abell 3381.

In a view zoomed in 600 times compared to the original mosaic, a distant swirling galaxy is visible in incredible detail.

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