A telescope designed to study the darkest secrets of the universe left the Earth under the scorching rays of the sun. At 11:12 a.m. local time (17:12 CEST), the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Euclid probe ascended from its Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch site, surging skyward in a cloud of fire and smoke to take it to 1.5 million. The target is kilometers away, L2 Lagrangian point. From there, Euclid would spend at least six years scanning a third of the sky with unprecedented precision and sensitivity, helping to better understand two mysterious components of the universe: dark matter and dark energy.
The visible part of space is little more than a thin film of dusty matter on the surface of an enormous hidden world. An incredible 95 percent is “dark” according to accepted theoretical measurements and models. Not only does this mean that these parts of the universe cannot be seen, but also that neither their form nor their function nor their exact composition is known. Because what astronomers notice when they look from Earth into space does not match what theory predicts. The universe has been expanding at a faster rate since the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, although the expansion must be slowing due to the effects of gravity. And spinning galaxies like our own Milky Way would have to fly in all directions if it weren’t for some mysterious force holding everything together.
Euclid examining the sky | Euclid will survey the sky for six years, compiling the individual measurements into the largest visible and near-infrared cosmic survey ever conducted. The different shades of gray show the area that Euclid records each year. The overwhelming brightness of the Milky Way prevents the telescope from covering more than 35% of the sky.
with Euclid The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to shed light on this darkness bring. Equipped with a visible and near-infrared camera, the telescope is expected to observe billions of galaxies within a radius of about 10 billion light-years to create the largest and most accurate 3D map of our universe. More than 5,000 people were involved in the development and construction of the probe, which cost a total of €1.4 billion.
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