The European Space Agency (ESA) has unveiled the first piece of what will become the largest 3D map of the universe ever created, a breathtaking mosaic teeming with 14 million galaxies. This extraordinary achievement is the work of Euclid, a space telescope launched on July 1, 2023, specifically designed to probe the universe’s most elusive components: dark matter and dark energy.
The stunning new image, a 208-gigapixel mosaic, represents just a tiny fraction (less than 1%) of the vast sky Euclid is set to map. This remarkable telescope is on a mission to catalogue one-third of the entire night sky, capturing images of over a billion galaxies, some dating back a staggering 10 billion years.
“This stunning image is the first piece of a map that in six years will reveal more than one third of the sky,” explained Valeria Pettorino, a Euclid project scientist at ESA. “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.”
The released image is a composite of 260 observations collected over two weeks between March and April 2024. It encompasses a 132-square-degree section of the southern sky, an area more than 500 times the size of the full moon. This intricate map, containing 100 million sources of light, is just one tiny piece in the colossal cosmic jigsaw puzzle Euclid is assembling.
Upon completion, this monumental map will allow scientists to delve into the profound mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. These enigmatic entities, believed to constitute approximately 95% of the universe, remain invisible to direct observation. Scientists study them indirectly by observing their gravitational influence on the visible universe.
Dark matter’s presence is revealed through its warping effect on galaxies, while dark energy’s existence is evident in the relentless expansion of the universe.
Euclid has completed 12% of its ambitious mission. Further releases, including a preview of Euclid’s Deep Field areas, are scheduled for March 2025, and the mission’s first year of cosmology data will be unveiled in 2026. This remarkable endeavor promises to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos and shed light on the secrets hidden within the vast expanse of space.
