Zoom into the first page of ESA Euclid's great cosmic atlas

Written by Copernical Team Wednesday, 16 October 2024 16:42

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Paris, France (SPX) Oct 16, 2024

On 15 October 2024, ESA's Euclid space mission unveiled the first segment of its vast cosmic map, showcasing millions of stars and galaxies. Presented at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, by ESA's Director General Josef Aschbacher and Director of Science Carole Mundell, this initial section is an impressive 208-gigapixel mosaic. Compiled from 260 observations conduc

Zoom into the first page of ESA Euclid's great cosmic atlas
by Erica Marchand
Paris, France (SPX) Oct 16, 2024

On 15 October 2024, ESA's Euclid space mission unveiled the first segment of its vast cosmic map, showcasing millions of stars and galaxies.

Presented at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, by ESA's Director General Josef Aschbacher and Director of Science Carole Mundell, this initial section is an impressive 208-gigapixel mosaic. Compiled from 260 observations conducted between 25 March and 8 April 2024, the map spans 132 square degrees of the Southern Sky, covering an area more than 500 times larger than the full Moon.

This mosaic represents just 1% of the extensive survey Euclid will complete over the next six years, which aims to study the shapes, distances, and motions of billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away. By the end of the mission, Euclid will have created the largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos.

Already, the first portion of the map captures about 100 million celestial sources, including stars from the Milky Way and distant galaxies. Among these, approximately 14 million galaxies can be used to explore the elusive effects of dark matter and dark energy in shaping the Universe.

"This stunning image is the first piece of a map that in six years will reveal more than one third of the sky. This is just 1% of the map, and yet it is full of a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the Universe," commented Valeria Pettorino, Euclid Project Scientist at ESA.

The space telescope's powerful cameras captured a remarkable number of objects in high detail. Even when zoomed in 600 times compared to the full view, the intricate structure of a spiral galaxy remains distinct in the mosaic.

A unique feature in the mosaic is the presence of faint interstellar clouds, known as "galactic cirrus," appearing in light blue against the dark background. These clouds, composed of gas and dust, reflect optical light from the Milky Way and also emit far-infrared radiation, as detected by ESA's Planck mission.

This initial mosaic serves as a preview of what the Euclid mission will deliver. Since beginning its routine scientific observations in February, the mission has covered 12% of the planned survey. A release of 53 square degrees of data, including a glimpse of the Euclid Deep Field regions, is anticipated in March 2025, with the first full year of cosmological data slated for release in 2026.