July 1 telescope Euclidbelonging European Space Agency (ESA), went into space with the goal of unraveling the greatest mysteries of the Universe. The first images were published in November and caused a great stir. Now a new batch has shown that it was, in fact, just an appetizer and that this telescope still has something to show for it.
Total published 5 images, accompanied by 10 scientific studies that clarify everything the photographs imply. Euclid’s main goal was to study the expansion of the Universe, as well as to reach such distant points of the Universe that other telescopes could not approach.
This is achieved through a combination of high resolution sensors. targets both near-infrared and visible light. It is true that similar measurements were also made by James Webb. However, each telescope has some advantages that the other does not, so they make an ideal team in space. The just published images of Euclid are a perfect example of this.
Euclid’s mission gains momentum
Euclid’s main goal is to explore the evolution of the dark universe. To understand what this means, we will have to travel back 13.7 billion years to the same country. big Bang. After that explosion that gave rise to the birth of the Universe, it swelled with enormous speed. As more matter was created, it was pulled toward it by gravity, so the universe expanded at a constant rate. However, it was noticed that 5 billion years The rate of expansion of the Universe has accelerated.
All this is explained by the existence of a certain type of energy, the influence of which exceeds the force of gravity. Since it is unknown what it is and where exactly it comes from, it was called dark energy.
Euclid is responsible for studying this dark energy. To do this, take pictures of distant places. In space, the further away an image can be captured, the further it travels in time. Both Euclid and James Webb, who specialized in infrared measurements, managed to obtain very, very distant images. “James Webb” achieves more, but “Euclid” is able to see areas 100 times wider. Because the James Webb has been running longer, we now have more images captured with it. But there is nothing to envy about what Euclid has just published.
The first discoveries of the telescope
In Euclid’s images one can see such phenomena as newborn planets who float freely extragalactic star clusters newly identified and new dwarf galaxies low mass in a cluster of nearby galaxies. In addition, it became possible to feel dark matter distribution and intracluster light in galaxy clusters. And the matter doesn’t end there. Telescope caught very distant bright galaxies the first billion years of the Universe.
All of this suggests time travel, which could take us to the point where dark energy has overcome gravity. Little by little the mystery will be revealed and the dark energy will have more and more light.
Euclid captures images at breakneck speed
All we got to see was a compilation of how much Euclid was able to photograph. As explained in a statement by the scientists responsible for the project, in just one day The telescope was able to create a catalog of more than 11 million objects in visible light and another 5 million in infrared light.
This catalog included 29 galaxies which are a map of the first 1000 million years of the Universe. And here’s the most interesting thing: all this means only 1% fields that Euclid can cover. Therefore, in the coming years it is expected that thanks to the telescope we will be able to observe thousands of early galaxies. It would be something unique that would take us to the very edges of the Big Bang.
No doubt the images are beautiful, but knowing all this, we see that their scientific value goes far beyond their usefulness as wallpaper.
Source: Hiper Textual
