Editor’s note: The new Euclid telescope images were released at 5:00 a.m. EDT (1200 CEST). You can see the five new views of space here in our image release history.
The European Space Agency (ESA) will release five new images from the Euclid Space Telescope today (May 23). And, well, if the previous set of photos is anything to go by – space fans should be in for an absolute treat.
“Five new portraits of our cosmos were captured during the Euclid phase of early observations, each revealing incredible new science,” ESA officials said in a statement. “Euclid’s ability to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos is something you won’t want to miss.”
The new images will be revealed at 5:00 AM EDT (1200 CEST) and will be accompanied by an incredible 10 scientific papers. You can watch the data release live on ESA’s YouTube channel.
Connected: Euclid’s ‘dark universe’ telescope thaws from millions of miles away
As an appetizer for the occasion, perhaps we can recall the amazing space images this mission has provided so far.
The story of Euclid so far
Launched July 1, 2023, from Cape Canaveral, Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Euclid is a wide-angle space telescope carrying a 600-megapixel camera that observes space in visible light, a near-infrared spectrometer, and a photometer that is used to determining the redshift of galaxies. Knowing the redshift allows scientists to understand how fast distant galaxies are moving away from our planet.
Euclid’s main mission is to investigate the two most mysterious elements of the universe: dark energy and dark matter. These phenomena together make up what is often called the “dark universe”.
Dark energy is the alternate name given to any force that causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate. Dark matter, on the other hand, is a form of matter that is effectively invisible because it does not interact with light. This means that scientists know that it is not “ordinary” matter made up of electrons, protons and neutrons that includes the stars, planets, moons and our bodies. Dark matter can only reveal its presence through its interaction with gravity, which in turn can affect ordinary matter and light. To be clear, however, neither dark matter nor dark energy are necessarily made of one thing. Both can be made of many things – or perhaps they really are made of one homogeneous thing.
The point is, we just don’t know.
However, dark energy is estimated to make up about 68% of the energy and matter budget of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 27%. This means that the dark universe makes up 95% of the stuff in the universe, and the stuff we actually understand makes up only about 5%.
So, dubbed the “detective of the dark universe” because of its specific toolkit, Euclid clearly has its work cut out for it. But sure enough, the first official images from the space telescope, released on November 7, 2023, after its first four months in space, showed it was up to the task.
Just above is one of the first images the public saw from the Euclid telescope. This is a snapshot showing about 1000 galaxies, all belonging to the Perseus cluster. Located about 240 million light-years from Earth, this cluster is one of the largest structures in the known universe.
Mapping galaxies at such vast volumes is key to understanding how dark matter is distributed and how this distribution has affected the evolution of the universe.
In addition to the wealth of galaxies in the Perseus cluster, the image shows another 100,000 much more distant galaxies, each containing up to hundreds of billions of stars. Observations of distant galaxies in large numbers like this are key to Euclid’s revelation of how dark energy pushes these galaxies apart faster and faster, accelerating the expansion of the space between them.
Just because Euclid laid eyes on vast swaths of galaxies doesn’t mean he can’t impress with images of single galaxies.
Another of Euclid’s first images we got to look at was somewhat ironic for an instrument charged with revealing the dark elements of the universe. This is because it identifies the galaxy IC 342, also known as the “Hidden Galaxy”.
This galaxy is about 11 million light-years from Earth and is difficult to image because it lies behind the bright, dusty disk of the Milky Way. However, this did not stop Euclid from capturing an amazing image of this once hidden spiral galaxy. To do this, the space telescope uses its near-infrared instrument, which is an advantage because the gas and dust of the Milky Way’s disk are less efficient at absorbing infrared light than other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
To unravel the mysteries of the dark universe and create a detailed 3D map of the cosmos, Euclid would have to see galaxies 10 billion light years away, seeing the universe as 13.8 billion years old, as it was less than 4 billion years ago The big Bang.
These galaxies probably won’t have the neat spiral arrangements of the Milky Way or even the Hidden Galaxy. Most galaxies in the early universe were “speckled,” poorly shaped, irregular galaxies that served as building blocks for larger galaxies.
To prepare for observing these distant and early galaxies, Euclid’s first images included a view of the more local irregular galaxy, NGC 6822, located just 1.6 million light-years from Earth.
Although they offer us impressively bright images, Euclid will not only focus on galaxies during its mission.
As the image of NGC 6397 above shows, the space telescope will also observe globular clusters. And, thankfully, globular clusters are just as beautiful. These are conglomerations of hundreds of thousands of stars bound together by gravity, and are some of the oldest structures in the known universe.
NGC 6397 is the second closest globular cluster to Earth at about 7,800 light years. Globular clusters like NGC 6397 orbit the Milky Way’s disk and may hold clues about the evolution of our galaxy, or at least other galaxies that harbor such structures.
Euclid will excel at studying globular clusters because, unlike other telescopes, it has a wide enough field of view to capture entire globular clusters in a single image, just as it did for NGC 6397.
So much of the Euclid mission will focus on the unknown, but the latest image from the first batch of Euclid releases actually showed us a familiar celestial object in a whole new light. The Dark Universe Detective has managed to create a stunningly detailed panoramic view of the Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33.
Located about 1,380 light-years from Earth and located near the eastern part of Orion’s belt, the Horsehead Nebula is one of the closest star-forming clouds of gas and dust to the Solar System. It’s also a remarkable sight.
Although numerous telescopes have imaged the Horsehead Nebula in the past, none have captured this region of the Orion Molecular Cloud in such a wide and sharp view. What’s even more stunning about this image is that it only took Euclid an hour of observation time to create it. It’s no wonder that professional and amateur astronomers and space fans alike are excited about the upcoming May 23 data release.
To that end, as breathtaking as the images described above are, there’s a good chance the best will come from Euclid as it begins to fulfill its mission objectives while shedding curious light on the dark universe.
We’ll have to wait until Thursday morning to see what the next crop of Euclid images brings us, and to see how this dark universe sleuth begins to live up to its lofty mission expectations after almost a year in space. But then again, if his past is any indication of his future, it’s hard to imagine anything but information-rich beauty from these images.
