![]() ![]() The Euclid VIS (or visible) instrument, built mostly in the UK, is designed to measure the positions and shapes of as many galaxies as possible to look for subtle correlations in this data caused by the gravitational lensing of the light, as it travels to us through the intervening dark matter. But Euclid also carries some of the biggest digital cameras deployed in space with fields of view hundreds of times greater than JWST’s. In size, Euclid is roughly the size of a truck compared to the aircraft-sized JWST. To do this, Euclid uses a relatively small telescope compared to JWST. The wider the field of view of the imaging instrument, the more of the universe it can observe. Euclid was thus born from the best of both concepts.Įuclid is designed to study the whole universe so needs instruments with wide fields of view. ![]() Both were compelling concepts and our team decided that both had merit, especially to provide a vital cross-check between them. ![]() My involvement in Euclid began in 2007 when I was invited by ESA to participate in an independent concept advisory team to assess two competing mission proposals called SPACE and DUNE.īoth used different techniques, and therefore different instruments, to study the dark universe, and ESA was struggling to decide between them. Euclid will join the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at this point and will be the perfect companion to that amazing space observatory. It’s where the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Earth balance out and provides a stable vantage point for Euclid to observe the universe. A light in the darkĪfter launch, Euclid will undertake a month-long journey to a region in space called the second Earth-Sun Lagrangian point, which is five times further from us than the Moon. This makes up about 70% of the energy in the universe.Įuclid will map this “dark universe”, using a suite of scientific instruments to shed light on different aspects of dark energy and dark matter. Many believe this acceleration is driven by an unseen force, which has been dubbed dark energy. Astronomers have shown that the expansion of the universe over the last five billion years has been accelerating faster than expected. We’ve known about it for a century, but its true nature remains an enigma.ĭark energy is similarly puzzling. It binds galaxies together and is thought to make up about 80% of all the mass in the universe. Unlike the normal matter we experience here on Earth, dark matter neither reflects nor emits light. It is scheduled to lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket, built by SpaceX, from Cape Canaveral in early July.Įuclid is designed to provide us with a better understanding of the “mysterious” components of our universe, known as dark matter and dark energy. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid satellite completed the first part of its long journey into space on May 1 2023, when it arrived in Florida on a boat from Italy. ![]()
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