The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid mission has released its first data batch with the light from more than a billion objects
ESA’s next map of the Universe, using data from the Euclid telescope, is set to be its best yet, covering an area of sky as big as 9500 full moons.
The Dark Universe Detective is the UK-based team working on the Euclid telescope whose mission is to map the dark Universe – discovering and researching dark matter and dark energy.
Laying the foundation for a new map
Named the DR1-Foundation, the data batch contains around 13 months of observations and is the first data batch release for the Euclid telescope since it was launched in 2023. It gives scientists the first pieces they need to create a 3D map of the cosmos and begin to understand dark energy, dark matter, and the cosmic web.
The data batch includes spectra, images, and sky mosaics.
ESA director of science, professor Carole Mundell, said: “These are far more than beautiful pictures; today marks a scientific milestone in our study of the cosmos. This major Euclid data release represents the largest space-based survey of its kind, laying the foundation of future discovery in a new regime for astronomy and demonstrating the excellence of European technology, science and international collaboration.”
DR1-Foundation also includes a vast number of cosmic objects, including:
- Over 900 million galaxies
- Around 15 000 strong gravitational lensing candidates
- Over 60 million quasar candidates, the brilliant cores of distant galaxies
- The spectra from more than 160 million sources
- Euclid Wide Survey results from 1900 deg² of sky – a total of 1.7 million GB of data
“This is a change in scale”
The Euclid telescope provides deep and wide surveys of the sky, unimpeded by the Earth’s atmosphere, which blurs or dims images, utilising its capabilities and wide coverage in both visible light and near-infrared light to capture more cosmic objects than any previous survey.
This includes the largest ever catalogue of strong gravitational lenses, which are usually extremely rare, only forming when light travelling to Earth from other distant galaxies is distorted by another galaxy in the foreground. The catalogue from Euclid is the largest ever and larger than all the previous catalogues combined.
Valeria Pettorino, ESA Euclid project scientist, explained: “This is a change in scale from Euclid’s previous releases, which included a few days of observations over around 60 deg² of sky. We’re now releasing more than a year of data covering a significantly larger area. This unlocks ground-breaking science.”
Natalie Lines of the University of Portsmouth, UK, and member of Euclid Consortium, added: “Strong lensing provides unique insight into the dark Universe, allowing us to ‘weigh’ individual galaxies, including their invisible dark matter, and explore how the Universe is expanding. Over 10 years ago, we forecast that Euclid would revolutionise the field of strong lens discovery. That day is finally here.”
Barbara Sartoris of JL Lagrange laboratory, and fellow Euclid Consortium member, said: “Euclid doesn’t just look far back in time – it does so across huge areas of sky. This gives us an unprecedented view of large samples of ancient galaxy clusters that were previously out of reach. We will explore these in the coming months to learn how these giants grew, and decipher what they reveal about the dark Universe.”