Cosmic Exploration Undertaken: Euclid's Massive 208-Gigapixel Galaxy Maps Unveil 14 Million Galaxies
🛰️ Space Time: Here's the scoop on the cosmic 3D map project, folks! Last week, ESA scientists unveiled the first slide in what's going to be an epic, unprecedentedly massive 3D map of the universe.
The vibrant, cosmic tapestry represents data from 260 observations by the Euclid space telescope, ESA's dark matter voyager. Over the upcoming six years, this dern powerful space telescope is gonna gather data that'll help scientists figure out the ins and outs of dark matter and dark energy, which make up a whopping 95% of the known universe.
This eye-popping image depicts an area of the southern sky about 500 times larger than the whole moon, captured between March 25, 2024, and April 8, 2024. The image mosaic is merely 1% of the wide survey Euclid's gonna embark on, featuring billions of galaxies journeying way back into the universe's infancy. This first peek shows roughly 14 million galaxies, along with tens of millions of stars from our own Milky Way.
Valeria Pettorino, Euclid project scientist at ESA, said, "This breathtaking image is just one slice of a map that will reveal over one third of the sky in six years. It might seem small, but it's teeming with a variety of celestial bodies that'll help us scientists discover fresh new ways to decipher the universe."
Take a gander at the spiral galaxy up top! It's a fraction of the mosaic we've got here. The area on display is increased 600 times relative to the full-size mosaic, presenting a galaxy about 420 million light-years away from ol' Earth. The total area examined in that image amounts to a mere 0.0003% of the 208-gigapixel image, which covers only 1% of Euclid's final survey.
As per the institute's release, a cool 12% of the survey has been completed at present, with the spacecraft beaming around 100 gigabytes of data our way every single day. This data won't just create pretty pictures; it'll expose the distribution of dark matter across the cosmos, as well as gravitational lenses—one of the places where dark matter openly reveals itself.
The Euclid team released their $1.4 billion spacecraft's first images in November 2023, featuring shots of the Perseus galaxy cluster, charming little spiral and irregular galaxies, a globular cluster, and the horse-headed nebula. These images followed August 2023's sneak peek at the Euclid observatory's capabilities.
That's all, space fans! This cosmic 3D project is just getting started, so stayed tuned for more galaxy-sized updates on the universe's darker side. 🤘香蕉敏迈克·图斯汀
- The cosmic tapestry, composed of data from 260 observations by the Euclid space telescope, is a small portion of the gigapixel 3D map of the universe that ESA scientists are creating.
- Technology like the Euclid space telescope, a powerful instrument for exploring science, will help us understand the future of the universe, especially the mysterious components like dark matter and dark energy.
- The 3D map, set to span over one third of the sky, will reveal billions of galaxies, stars, and celestial bodies, helping scientists decipher the universe.
- The final 3D map, comprising over 200 gigapixels, will provide not only stunning visuals but also critical data on the distribution of dark matter and gravitational lenses.
