Landmark Data: The Euclid Telescope Begins Mapping the Dark Matter

The Euclid space telescope, launched by the European Space Agency last year, has revealed a stunning array of celestial objects, including galaxies, a vibrant star nursery, and a Milky Way-like spiral galaxy. This marks the second release of images from Euclid, which is on a six-year mission to map two billion galaxies across a third of the sky, focusing on dark matter and dark energy.

Euclid's recent achievements include an image of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2390, 2.7 billion light years away, containing over 50,000 galaxies. NASA's Jason Rhodes noted that Abell 2390 holds the mass of around 10 trillion suns. The cluster's gravity distorts light, indicating the presence of dark matter, which, along with dark energy, makes up 95 percent of the universe.

Another image offers the deepest view of Messier 78, a star nursery 1,300 light years away in the Orion constellation, highlighting star formation in unprecedented detail. This complements the James Webb Space Telescope's far-reaching capabilities. A third image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2764, despite a pointing error, shows Euclid's ability to detect faint objects near bright stars.

Euclid also discovered a previously unknown dwarf galaxy in the Dorado cluster, and captured the spiral galaxy NGC 6744, similar to the Milky Way, against a starry backdrop. These images, taken in just one day, demonstrate Euclid's powerful observational capabilities.

Initial scientific studies using Euclid's data have begun, including research on orphan stars in the Perseus cluster, indicating dark matter's influence. However, conclusions about dark energy are still premature. The mission has faced challenges, such as a delicate operation to remove ice clouding the telescope's view, with signs of ice possibly returning. The team is exploring solutions to address this issue.