Euclid’s observational skills are seen as a revolutionary step in understanding the structure of the universe.
Europe’s powerful new space telescope Euclid is designed to unlock the secrets of the universe. Euclid was launched on July 1, 2023 and is observing the dark universe 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This telescope will image about 10 billion galaxies to understand the dark energy that causes the universe to expand and the dark matter that makes up two-thirds of all matter in the universe. Euclid aims to provide a structural understanding of dark energy and dark matter. These two mysterious components are thought to have caused the universe to expand since the Big Bang.
Euclid’s observational capabilities are seen as a revolutionary step in understanding the structure of the universe. By measuring the bending of light around galaxies through the process of weak gravitational lensing, the telescope will detect the amount of dark matter and its spread across the universe. Euclid’s observations will provide new insights into the rate at which the universe is expanding and may reveal that this rate is accelerating as a result of dark energy.
Euclid is an entirely European mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA). Originally planned to be launched on a Russian rocket in 2022, after the Russia-Ukraine crisis in 2022, ESA decided to cut ties with Russia and launch the telescope on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Euclid’s 1.2-meter-wide main mirror and wide field of view allow it to cover an area 2.5 times larger than the full size of the Moon in each image. This is useful for studying not only galaxies, but also smaller-than-stellar objects lurking in the Milky Way.
Euclid is also at the center of a project to study interstellar objects, substellar objects such as brown dwarfs and gas giants much larger than Jupiter. This project will run from 2023 to the end of 2027 and, thanks to Euclid’s wide field of view, is expected to discover 100 times as many substellar objects as previously seen. Such observations are critical to our understanding of the missing links between star and planet formation.
Source: https://www.cioupdate.com.tr/haberler/euclid-teleskobu/
