Scientists at the European Space Agency today revealed the first part of what will be the largest three-dimensional map of the universe ever.
The shimmering blue-violet fabric displays data from 260 observations made by the Euclid space telescope, the agency’s advanced dark matter observatory. Over the expected six-year lifespan of the telescope, it will gather data that will help scientists understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which together make up 95% of the known universe.
The image, which is 208 gigapixels in size, shows an area of the southern sky about 500 times the size of the full moon, observed between March 25, 2024, and April 8, 2024. The mosaic image represents only 1% of the wide survey that Euclid will eventually capture, which will include billions of galaxies stretching far back in the universe. This first image shows 14 million galaxies, in addition to tens of millions of stars from our Milky Way galaxy.
Valeria Pettorino, project scientist for Euclid at the European Space Agency, said in a statement issued by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy: “This stunning image is the first piece of the map that will reveal more than a third of the sky over six years.” “This represents only 1% of the map, yet it is full of a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the universe.”
The above image of the spiral galaxy is part of the mosaic at the top of this article. The region in the image has been enlarged by about 600 times compared to the full-size mosaic, showing a galaxy located approximately 420 million light-years away from Earth. The total area of the above image is only 0.0003% of the 208 gigapixel image, which in itself represents only 1% of the total comprehensive survey by Euclid.
According to the Institute’s statement, about 12% of the survey has been completed so far, with approximately 100 gigabytes of data being sent to Earth from the spacecraft every day. This data will do more than just create beautiful images, as it will guide scientists to the distribution of dark matter throughout the universe, as well as the phenomena in which dark matter appears, such as in gravitational lenses.
The Euclid team published the first images of the spacecraft worth $1.4 billion in November 2023, showcasing the capabilities of the space observatory. Those images included snapshots of the Pegasus galaxy cluster, spiral and irregular galaxies, a globular cluster, and the Horsehead Nebula, following test images unveiled to the public in August 2023.
