New captivating images from Europe’s Euclid space telescope were revealed on Thursday, showcasing a dazzling array of galaxies, a colorful star-forming region and a spiral galaxy resembling our Milky Way.
The images mark the second release by the European Space Agency since Euclid’s launch last year on an unprecedented mission to investigate dark matter and dark energy.
The Euclid mission, spanning six years, aims to chart 2 billion galaxies across one-third of the sky, providing significant insights into the universe’s hidden components. This week also saw the publication of the first scientific results from the mission.
Rene Laureijs, Euclid project scientist, expressed his excitement about an image of a massive cluster of galaxies known as Abell 2390, AFP reported. Located 2.7 billion light-years away from Earth, the cluster encompasses more than 50,000 galaxies. Jason Rhodes from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted that Abell 2390 contains a mass equivalent to about 10 trillion suns.
One striking feature of the Abell 2390 image is the detection of dark matter — believed to constitute 95 percent of the universe — inferred from the gravitational distortion of light.
“There’s so much dark matter in this cluster that it severely bends the light from some of these background galaxies,” making them appear curved, Mr. Rhodes said.
Another image captured by Euclid is the deepest-ever view of Messier 78, a star nursery located 1,300 light-years away in the Orion constellation. The image shows stars in various stages of formation, emerging from vibrant purple and orange clouds.
Another image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2764 features a prominent yellow star against a black expanse. Despite a pointing error, the image demonstrated Euclid’s exceptional ability to capture faint objects near bright stars.
Euclid also discovered a previously unseen dwarf galaxy within the young Dorado cluster, surprising scientists familiar with the well-studied cluster. Another image highlights the spiral galaxy NGC 6744, which closely resembles the Milky Way, set against a backdrop of shining stars.
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