ESA's Euclid spacecraft unveils 'gold mine' of new scientific data
New data included deep-field space imagery and snapshots of thousands of different and distant galaxies that revealed the structure of the so-called "cosmic web."
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A collage of nine by five squares containing galaxies of many different shapes and viewed in different orientations. (Photo Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA)
March 19 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency's spacecraft Euclid on Wednesday released a treasure trove of new data in its quest to map and unlock mysteries of what scientists call the "dark universe."
New data included deep-field space imagery and snapshots of thousands of different and distant galaxies that revealed the structure of the so-called "cosmic web." It also included survey of some 380,000 galaxies, 500 new gravitational lens candidates and a plethora of other galactic clusters and active nuclei.
"The whole purpose of Euclid is really to put those two together to understand the nature of dark matter and dark energy and how they're coupled in the universe," Carole Mundell, ESA director of science, said Monday at a press conference.
"Really, Euclid is not only a dark universe detective, it's also a time machine," added Mundell. "We will look back 10 billion years in cosmic history."
The Euclid space telescope, which was launched July 2023, is tasked with collecting images that will be used to create the most detailed 3D model of the universe to date.
It began its observations in February 2024 and spent one week scanning three patches of the universe with bigger scans in the near distant future. It observed 26 million galaxies the furthest of which was roughly 10.5 billion light years away.
Its primary mission will end in 2030 and Euclid so far has taken only 0.4% of the total number of galaxies expected to be imaged over its lifespan.
The mass of dark matter dominates known galaxies and plays a key role in the galaxy's evolution.
About 35 terabytes of data were collected over the course of a week of observations of known galaxies in the first release of data.
"To give you a feeling that 35 terabytes of data are the equivalent of 200 days of video streaming at the highest quality," ESA's Euclid project scientist Valeria Pettorino said Monday.
"If you watch TV on your HDR, 4K with 60 frames per second for 200 days, then you would be that would be the equivalent of 35 terabytes," she added.
In February, Euclid spotted its first "extremely rare" Einstein ring in a galaxy "not too far away" nearly 600 million light years from Earth.
"The full potential of Euclid to learn more about dark matter and dark energy from the large-scale structure of the cosmic web will be reached only when it has completed its entire survey," stated Euclid Consortium scientist Clotilde Laigle.
ESA scientists say that in 2026 Euclid will release its first year observations in two petabytes of data, to be examined by artificial intelligence technology, equal to streaming 31 years of 4K TV, Pettorino continued.
"Yet the volume of this first data release already offers us a unique first glance at the large-scale organization of galaxies, which we can use to learn more about galaxy formation over time," Laigle says.
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