ESA’s Euclid Mission Stuns Researchers With Quality Of First Images

Four months after launch, the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft has sent back its first stunning color images. The five images, which were officially unveiled to the media today at ESA’s European Space Operations Center here in Darmstadt, Germany, highlighted the mission’s techical prowess.

The five early release images capture details of both clusters of distant galaxies as well as a globular cluster of old stars within our own Milky Way Galaxy with unprecedented sensitivity and precision.

The mission, with contributions from NASA, is on the cusp of starting its routine science of imaging galaxies over a third of the sky in hopes of finally revealing the mysteries behind the dark universe.

That is, the true nature of dark matter and dark energy, which is thought to make up as much as 95 percent of the known universe. Incredibly, each image only represents an hour of observing time for the 1.2-meter telescope now on station at the gravitationally stable Earth-Sun LaGrange point 2.

All five are really exciting in that they showcase different aspects of Euclid’s ability to take wide, deep and high resolution visible and near infrared images, Jason Rhodes, Euclid’s U.S. Science lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told me here in Darmstadt.

The Perseus Galaxy Cluster In All Its Glory

The undisputed star of the early image release was without doubt the Perseus galaxy cluster, which is arguably most emblematic of the kind of data the team needs to fulfill its mission in understanding dark matter and dark energy.

Euclid’s image shows 1000 galaxies belonging to the Perseus Cluster, and more than 100,000 additional galaxies further away in the background, says ESA. One of the most massive structures yet known in our cosmos, the Perseus Cluster lies only 240 million light years away.

It’s formed by a dark matter filament; that’s what we think, Rene Laureijs, Euclid’s project scientist, told me here in Darmstadt. These galaxies come together there because of the gravitational pool of dark matter as well, he says.

In the official image, says Laureijs, you see low level, brightness and the spacecraft’s vis (visible) instrument is so good, that you can see background stars disrupted from their galaxies. But they still lie under the gravitational influence of the cluster’s dark matter, he says.

Globular cluster NGC 6397. Located within our own Milky Way, some 7800 light-years away, NGC 6397 is a collection of hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravity; the second-closest globular cluster to earth, says ESA. Currently, no other telescope but Euclid can observe an entire globular cluster in one single observation, and at the same time distinguish so many stars in the cluster, says ESA.

What we want to study here is to see how this globular cluster drags through our galaxy, says Laureijs. If you do the modeling, you will see a gravitational tidal tail due to stars which are trailing behind while this globular cluster is going to our galaxy, he says.

What Is Dark Matter And Dark Energy?

Dark matter determines the gravitational effects between and within galaxies and initially caused the expansion of the universe to slow down, says ESA. Dark energy, in contrast, is responsible for its current accelerating growth.

By measuring with unprecedented accuracy, the shapes of billions of galaxies over billions of years of cosmic history, Euclid will provide a 3d view of the dark matter distribution in our universe, says ESA. Euclid will reveal how it has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history – and from this, astronomers can infer the properties of dark energy, dark matter and gravity, ESA notes.

As for Euclid’s potential to shed light on the unexpected?

When we look 10 billion years back in time, we look at all the galaxies in this timespan and all the galaxies that have evolved since that time, says Laureijs. Six billion years ago, suddenly all the stars start to form in these galaxies in a very energetic way, he says. This is all very complex, and we have no clue how it exactly takes place. I think that Euclid can say a lot about this, says Laureijs.

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