What is the purpose of the Euclid space telescope?

What is the purpose of Euclid space telescope?

Euclid is a spacecraft carrying a wide-angle space telescope with a 600-megapixel camera to record visible light and a near-infrared spectrometer and photometer to determine the redshift of the detected galaxies.  It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium and was launched on 1 July 2023. 

The purpose of the Euclid mission is to better understand dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe. To achieve this, the telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. 

Euclid will explore how the universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.  The mission will also discover new phenomena and test theories of physics beyond the standard model. 

How does Euclid work?

Euclid uses two instruments to observe the sky in visible and near-infrared wavelengths: the VISible imager (VIS) and the Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP).

The VIS captures high-resolution images of galaxies and measures their shapes, which are distorted by the gravitational lensing effect of dark matter. This allows Euclid to map the distribution of dark matter and infer its properties. 

The NISP measures the distances and velocities of galaxies by detecting their spectra and photometry. This allows Euclid to determine their redshifts, which indicate how much they have been stretched by the expansion of the universe. This allows Euclid to measure the effects of dark energy on the cosmic expansion and test different models of its nature. 

Euclid will scan across the night sky in a systematic way, covering an area of 15,000 square degrees, equivalent to more than a third of the entire sky.  It will observe about 10 billion galaxies, reaching out to redshifts of about 2, which corresponds to looking back in time about 10 billion years. 

What are the expected results and benefits of Euclid?

Euclid is expected to provide unprecedented insights into the origin, evolution and fate of the universe, as well as its fundamental constituents: dark energy, dark matter and gravity. 

Euclid will test whether dark energy is a cosmological constant, as predicted by Einstein's general relativity, or a dynamic field that changes over time and space, or a sign of new physics beyond our current understanding. 

Euclid will also measure how dark matter clumps together and interacts with ordinary matter and radiation, shedding light on its nature and origin. 

Euclid will also probe how gravity behaves on large scales and whether it deviates from general relativity, which could have implications for quantum gravity theories. 

Euclid will also discover new phenomena that are not predicted by current models, such as primordial gravitational waves, exotic particles or extra dimensions. 

Euclid will also benefit other fields of astronomy and science, such as galaxy formation and evolution, stellar populations, planetary systems, astrophysics and cosmology. 

Euclid will also foster international collaboration and innovation in science, technology and education, involving more than 1,000 scientists from 16 countries in Europe and beyond.

Source: 

(1) Euclid (spacecraft) - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid_%28spacecraft%29.

(2) ESA - Euclid - European Space Agency. https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid.

(3) Euclid, the space telescope aiming to unlock the secrets of the .... https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/stories/2023-06-euclid-the-space-telescope-aiming-to-unlock-the-secrets-of-the-universe.

FAQ's

How big is the mirror on the Euclid telescope?

1.2 meters The Euclid payload module is managed by Airbus Defence and Space, Toulouse, France. It consists of a Korsch telescope with a primary mirror 1.2 meters in diameter, which covers an area of 0.91 deg2.

What instruments are used in the Euclid mission?

To achieve its ambitious scientific goal, Euclid is equipped with a 1.2 m reflecting telescope that feeds the two innovative scientific instruments: VIS, which takes very sharp images of galaxies over a large fraction of the sky, and NISP, which can analyse galaxies' infrared light by wavelength to accurately establish ...

What is the role of telescope in exploring the universe?

To date, the telescope has studied more than 40,000 cosmic objects, providing views astronomers were unable to capture from the ground. In addition to blocking certain wavelengths of light altogether, Earth's atmosphere is made up of shifting pockets of air that cause the twinkling appearance of stars in the night sky.

What is the name of the space telescope seen here orbiting Earth?

The Hubble Space Telescope is named in honor of astronomer Edwin Hubble.