The spectacular photos taken by ESA that will help us understand dark matter and energy

They stand out for their spectacular nature, but especially for their scientific importance.

The Euclid project has revealed five new images of the universe that we will show you below. This is the name of the mission headed by the European Space Agency (ESA) whose objective is to create the largest 3D map of space to better understand dark matter and energy, elements that make up up to 95% of the universe.

What each photo shows

Below we embed the photos taken by the mission. Its definition is amazing, since it allows glimpse the universe in great detail, even with celestial bodies at a distance of 10,000 light years. If you want to save one and set it as your wallpaper, you can do it without problems, you just have to download it to your device and follow this tutorial.

What is each photo:

1. Messier 78: star viber wrapped in stardust. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi
2. Abell 2390: galaxy cluster. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi
3. NGC 6744: spiral galaxy. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi
4. Abell 2764: galaxy cluster. Also visible in the image is the bright star V*BP-Phoenicis/HD 1973. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi
5. Two galaxies merging. Both are part of Dorado, a group of galaxies. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

A key project to understand energy and dark matter

In July 2023, the Euclid project took off, which in November already released its first five images. Now we have received another five. Until 2030 it will help us map the cosmos.

According to ESA, “Euclid will trace the hidden web-like foundations of the cosmos, map billions of galaxies across more than a third of the sky, explore how the universe formed and evolved throughout cosmic history, and study the most mysterious of its fundamental components: dark energy and matter.

These two elements are key in the universe. Dark matter forms around 25% of this and dark energy, 70%. Dark matter is an invisible substance five times more common than “normal” matterwhile “Dark energy” is what we call what causes the universe to expand gradually faster.. Its existence is known, but knowing what dark matter is made of and how dark energy behaves is a mystery.

Through Euclid we will better understand both concepts and the universe itself, since it will generate a cosmic map that will cover almost a third of the sky. It will take images of places located up to 10,000 million light years away. This map will allow us to examine “how the strength of dark matter has varied over time” according to NASA, which is contributing to the mission.

“Euclid is a unique and innovative mission and these are the first data sets to be made public, it is an important milestone” says Valeria Pettorino, ESA’s Euclid project scientist. “The images and scientific findings obtained are impressively diverse in terms of objects and distances observed. They include a variety of scientific applications and yet represent only 24 hours of observations. They are just a sample of what Euclid can do “We are looking forward to receiving data for the next six years,” he concludes.

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