Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA) 1st July 2023: at 17:12 (CET Time) the EUCLID Telescope was launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. After less than a year the European Space Agency (ESA) mission, in collaboration with NASA, keeps sending back ground-breaking images from space. For astrophysicists, the results obtained so far are only the tip of the iceberg.
The snapshots realized are at least four times sharper than the ones provided by a ground-based telescope and similar to those acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope, but covering an area 175 times larger and with unparalleled depth. The Euclid satellite houses a 1.2 metre diameter mirror telescope and two scientific instruments, the VIS (VISible Instrument) a camera that is sensitive to visible light and is providing an accurate measurement of the distribution of matter in the universe and the NISP instrument consisting of a spectrometer and a photometer that is responsible for taking images from the telescope and measuring the redshift of light caused by the expansion of the universe
There was a lot of Italy in this mission with fundamental contributions from ASI, INAF, INFN, several Italian universities, OHB Italia, SAB Aerospace, Temis; Thales Alenia Space Italia and Leonardo
Five are the Euclid shots that made the hearts beating of more than 2,000 scientists from 300 institutes in 13 European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada and Japan.
Abell 2390
A cluster of galaxies (over 50,000) that allows the effect of visible and dark matter within the cluster to be seen, acting as a gravitational lens (distribution of matter that can bend the trajectory of transiting light in a way similar to an optical lens).
Messier 78
A nursery of stars in formation shrouded in interstellar dust, 1300 light years from pur Planet.
NGC 6744
One of the largest spiral galaxies in the local Universe, where star formation activity is evident. This galaxy, thirty million light years away from the Earth, is an example of the type of galaxy in which most stars in the local Universe currently form. Euclid’s wide field of view covers the entire galaxy, with incredible visibility.
Abell 2764
A galaxy cluster (top right), comprising hundreds of galaxies within a vast halo of dark matter about a billion light years away.
Dorado group of galaxies
In this image, Euclid captures the galaxies ‘in action’ as they merge to create beautiful tail and shell-like structures., Euclid is able to capture tiny (star clusters), larger (galaxy cores) and extended (tidal tails) features all in one frame..
> Read more ASI website on: https://www.asi.it/2024/05/galassie-stelle-e-ammassi-ecco-le-nuove-spettacolari-immagini-di-euclid/
Photo Credits
Space Telescope Euclid (source: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, J.-C. Cuillandre/CEA Paris-Saclay, G. Anselmi )
