Euclid Space Telescope Sends Back First Images of the Cosmos

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid space telescope has released its first test images. New Scientist reports: Euclid launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on 1 July and took about a month to reach its final orbit about four times as far from Earth as the moon. While it sailed to its destination, researchers on Earth were hard at work turning on and calibrating its two cameras. The telescope's first images show that both cameras are working as expected, peering into the universe in both visible and infrared light. These images show an area of the sky about one-quarter the area of the full moon, but over the course of its six-year mission Euclid is expected to observe an area about 300,000 times larger, covering about a third of the entire sky.

"We see just a few galaxies here, produced with minimum system tuning," said Giuseppe Racca, Euclid's project manager at ESA, in a statement. "The fully calibrated Euclid will ultimately observe billions of galaxies to create the biggest ever 3D map of the sky." Once the instruments are fully calibrated, which is expected to take a few months, Euclid will begin mapping. The ultimate goal is to figure out the distribution of matter in the universe, measuring how it clumps and moves, which will give scientists unprecedented insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Cosmos Image

[smittyoneeach]

Cosmos image?
Nerdy stimmage.
Prickly bristleage?
Sudsy winnage.
Burma Shave

A great idea

[Bob_Who]

I guess I am a space age kid, but when it comes to human fascinations, the Cosmos tops the list. Photography of it is something we all can enjoy. I feel fortunate to be around to see this stuff all come into view in my lifetime.

Re:

[stealth_finger]

Then they zoom out and reveal it was the underside of an old pan.

Re:A great idea

[Tarlus]

Yeah, but the cool part is that it's an old pan on another planet

Re:

[Tablizer]

But the next generation gets 3-breasted green space-babes.

This is Awesome.

[Motleypuss]

I've got nothing. Glad I'm alive to see the results of such a telescopic monster.

Calibrating standards

[g01d4]

The ultimate goal is to figure out the distribution of matter in the universe

This is all grand and glorious but I'd also like to see really accurate (on the order of, or even less than a milli-magnitude) color band photometry for the large number of stars being observed. Such a catalog of 'standards' would be useful for everyone (especially in the serious amateur community) doing light-curves.

Wait, Cape Canaveral? In Florida?

[jonadab]

Why on earth would a European space agency use a launch site on the other side of a medium-sized ocean from Europe? Are they doing this in partnership with NASA and the article just didn't mention it? What's going on here?

Re:

[jonadab]

(To be clear, I don't begrudge them the use of the site or anything; it just seems like a really odd choice for them, given how far away it is.)

Re:

[trinarybit]

It looks like this was in partnership with NASA, (and Canada, and Japan) and went up on a Falcon. The payload is easier to move (like, not on its own) than the rocket.
Also, looks like ESA just got their own European launch site...in northern Norway, which doesn't have as many benefits for equatorial launch.

Telescope

[jeffreyanderson1]

Stunning images from the Euclid space telescope! It's awe-inspiring to witness the wonders of the cosmos through cutting-edge technology. Excited for more discoveries to come!