The Euclid mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) publishes this Thursday another batch of images with ‘unprecedented’ views of the universe, a ‘treasure’ that arrives almost eleven months after the launch of this space telescope, which is little by little completing what is intended to be the largest 3D map of the cosmos.
Two galaxy clusters, a vibrant stellar nursery shrouded in interstellar dust, A spiral galaxy and a group of galaxies evolving and merging are the protagonists of these five ‘impressive’ full-color snapshots that, according to ESA, go beyond beauty: they reveal new physical properties of the universe.
The new images – the first were published last November – They are part of Euclid’s early observations and they accompany the first scientific data from a mission that, over six years, will observe billions of galaxies at a distance of up to 10 billion light years, in more than a third of the sky.
The goal, create the biggest and most precise 3D catalog of the universe to try to advance our knowledge of the nature of dark matter and energy, the expansion of the universe and gravity.
Abell 2390
Euclid has noticed the galaxy cluster Abell 2390, which shows around 50,000 galaxies whose distances can be measured thanks to these observations. These clusters contain enormous amounts of mass, much of it in the form of dark matter, a form of matter that cannot be directly observed but which, along with dark energy, is assumed to make up most of the content of the universe.
The telescope use gravitational lenses as a fundamental technique to explore this dark universe. Dark matter does not emit light but exerts gravitational attraction and is fundamental to understanding the way the universe groups together, from the large structures of voids and superclusters of galaxies to the Milky Way.
Although it is invisible, Its presence distorts the light coming from distant galaxies. This effect is called “gravitational lensing” and can be observed by Euclid, revealing the distribution of dark matter throughout the universe.
Messier 78
Another photograph shows the star-forming region Messier 78, a vibrant nursery shrouded in interstellar dust. According to the ESA, the image is unprecedented: It is the first time that a photo of this young region has been obtained at this width and depth.
Euclid entered this environment with its infrared camera, discovering for the first time hidden regions of star formation, mapping its complex filaments of gas and dust, and discovering newly formed stars and planets.
NGC 6744
NGC 6744 is a typical example of the type of galaxy that currently forms most of the stars in the nearby universe. The telescope’s wide field of view covers the entire galaxy‘hunting’ not only the spiral structure on a large scale, but also ‘exquisite’ details on reduced scales.
Scientists are using this data to, among other challenges, understand how dust and gas are related to star formation; where stars are forming today; and unravel the physics underlying the structure of spiral galaxies, something that is still poorly understood.
Abell 2764
The galaxy cluster Abell 2764 comprises hundreds of galaxies within a vast halo of dark matter. Euclid captures many objects in this portion of the sky, including background galaxies, more distant clusters and interacting galaxies.
This complete view of Abell 2764 and its surroundings allows astrophysicists to determine the radius of the cluster and see its surroundings with distant galaxies still in the frame. Also seen here is a very bright star in the foreground, Beta Phoenicis.
Golden Group
Besides, Euclid picked up galaxies evolving and merging ‘in action’ in the Dorado galaxy group, with beautiful tidal tails – elongated region of stars – and envelopes seen as a result of ongoing interactions.
This data set is being used to study how galaxies evolve, improve models of cosmic history, and understand how galaxies form within dark matter halos.
To prepare these ‘first pages’ of the catalogue, Euclid needed 24 hours – not consecutive – of observation timeshowing more than 11 million objects in visible light and 5 million more in infrared light.
“I think the only word I can use to describe the images is amazing,” ESA Science Director Carole Mundell tells EFE: “I am an astrophysicist, I have seen many snapshots of the sky in my life, I have created them and I have combined my data, but Euclid has something very special.
Its wide field of vision, its incredible sensitivity to very dim light and its crystal clear vision. “When you put all that together, it’s almost an assault on the senses. You just have to stop for a moment and marvel that we were able, as a species, to invent this technology that offers this incredibly clear view of the cosmos. “It’s really beautiful.”
According to Mundell, when these results – which appear in ten articles in a scientific repository – are combined with future data, it will “significantly change our understanding of the universe.”
For Guillermo Buenadicha, coordinator of scientific operations at Euclid, This kind of “tasting” of images is spectacularbut we should not look at them only as “beautiful photographs”, but rather “as a description of the capabilities of a tremendous machine like Euclid.”
Good luck can’t imagine what Euclid will ultimately achieve in another five years. “That is the wonder of the mission,” he emphasizes to EFE from the ESA headquarters (ESAC) in Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, where the telescope data is stored and disseminated.
“We want to obtain the primordial science, which are the cosmological constants or the cosmological evaluation, but I am very sure that what we call secondary science, which in the end will not be so secondary, will far exceed that capacity. Let’s hope that many unforeseen things appear.”
