The European space telescope Euclid has released preliminary images from its near-yearlong space observations; particularly revealing are clusters of galaxies, including ‘Abell 2390’, which comprises around 50,000 galaxies.
This is a “splendid example” of the telescope’s capabilities, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), which released the images on Thursday.
Launched in July and tested in Liège, Euclid’s primary mission is to investigate the cosmic mysteries of dark matter and energy. It has mapped a third of the sky, comprising two billion galaxies, to create what has been hailed as the most accurate 3D map of the universe.
Valeria Pettorino, Euclid’s project scientist at the ESA, said the space telescope was intended to tackle the biggest questions in cosmology. She added that the initial observations demonstrate that Euclid is more than up to the task. The ESA noted that the images obtained are at least four times sharper than those taken by terrestrial telescopes.
The European agency unveiled five new images taken by Euclid, along with ten scientific articles related to them. The images disclose clusters of galaxies that have been challenging to observe until now.
These include ‘Abell 2390’ and its 50,000-odd galaxies. Another image exhibits ‘Messier 78’, a collection of newly formed stars and planets. Also presented to the public were images of the NGC 6744 galaxy, galaxy cluster Abell 2764’, and the Dorado galaxy group.
In just 24 hours, more than 11 million visible-light objects and five million infrared-light objects were detected by Euclid, according to the ESA. The agency celebrates this catalogue of data, which will ultimately allow a better understanding of the universe’s composition, it said.
