Here are the much anticipated 10 images taken by the Euclid "Dark Matter Hunter" space telescope.
The images and accompanying papers were presented today at a gathering by the Euclid Consortium. We have seen the first image before.
These are part of the Euclid Early Release Observation program. The first results from Euclid’s wide and deep main surveys will take until fall, first cosmology papers at least until late 2025.
Launched on July 1, 2023, the Euclid space telescope is operating in a Lissajous/halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point.
Other space telescopes in orbit around L2 include Gaia and JWST.
Unlike a Halo orbit, a Lissajous orbit precesses after each revolution. Both orbits are unstable and require periodic (~monthly) thruster firings for station-keeping.
These papers are not part of #ESAEuclid's core cosmology mission, but explicitly of a pre-survey science showcase. So no cosmology in them! We'll have to wait until 2026 for that.
But 100s of non-cosmology science papers can be expected until then.
This is a 8kx8k image of Abell 2390, a galaxy cluster 2.7 billion light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus. The image, ~34 million light years across, contains over 50,000 galaxies.
The 2nd image is a zoom in into the central region of the 1st image. It shows several arcs cause by gravitational bending/lensing of light from distant galaxies caused by the mass of intervening galaxies and their associated dark matter.
This is an 8kx8k image by Euclid of the reflection nebula Messier 78.
M78 is a vibrant nursery of young stars that are forming within the complex filaments of interstellar gas and dust.
The image, taken in visible and IR wavelengths, contains over 300K new objects, including sub-stellar objects like brown dwarfs and free-floating or ‘rogue’ planets 🌎🏴☠️.
Location: Near Orion's belt
Distance: 1,300 ly
FOV: 0.722°
Size: 16 ly
Finally, after months of work, the #ESAEuclid Early Release Observation images, data, first science results, and #Euclid mission reference papers have been released. You can read more in our blog post, which has links to the papers, the press releases, and everything else:
In 45min (noon CEST today) #ESA and the @ec_euclid will release 5 more #ESAEuclid Early Release Observation images to the world. Accompanied by the first release of Euclid ERO science data, as well as 15 reference and science papers.
Tomorrow, 23 May, 12:00 CEST, #ESA and the @ec_euclid will present 15 papers, including first #astronomy results:
5x #ESAEuclid reference papers about the main mission, the instrumentation, and related cosmological simulations
10x Early Release Observation #science papers, ranging from ... near to far
At the same time ESA will make 5 new ERO images public and the underlying science images. This programme was observed before the start of Euclid's main survey.
1112 authors for a space mission 🛰️ reference paper seems ... adequate 🤷🏽😯😁
We, the @ec_euclid will publish five main reference papers aimed at the astronomy community about the #ESAEuclid mission, the #Euclid instruments, both cosmology and other astronomy science possibilities, as well as the cosmological simulations used to test all procedures.
Available coming Tuesday, 23 May, 12:00 CEST (and on arXiv a few hours later). Stay tuned!
Expect new images and first science results from #ESAEuclid coming Thursday, 23 May. Five new stunning images, first ten science papers plus five #Euclid reference publications.
There will be broadcast by #ESA as well as press and paper releases by ESA and us. Stay tuned!
What is #ESAEuclid? It's a physics experiment and an #ESA space mission 🛰️ - but foremost it's a project imagined, designed, built, and operated by more than 2000 scientists, engineers, and technicians 👩🔬 👨💻 👩🔧.
We are now starting a series of #blog-posts showcasing a cross-section of the people behind #Euclid
You might recently have heard about ice buildup on #ESAEuclid's mirrors? 🧊 This was expected from experience with previous missions also for #Euclid and "de-icing" procedures were developed before launch and now refined. They involve warming up mirrors by a few 10°C. 🌡️
#ESA has now carried out the first de-icing campaign - and Euclid gained 15% of sensitivity within a few minutes. ✅
All the background, links to #ESA info, and an interview here:
#Euclid is a #space#telescope 🛰️ to escape #Earth's atmosphere, absorbing infrared-radiation and creating wobbly images. But space also has "weather". Given the currently active #sun 😎 and warnings of "geomagnetic storms" here's an intro blog post into "space weather" 🌪️ and how it affects the #ESAEuclid satellite.
We wish everyone around the globe a good start into 2024. The closing year 2023 marked a central milestone for us, the successful #launch and #commissioning of #ESAEuclid.
2024 will surely provide new challenges, but foremost the start of our #science sky surveys! In the next 12 months #Euclid will observe more than 2000 square degrees of the sky with hundreds of millions of #galaxies and #stars. The data floodgates will open - and amazing science will result!
Wow, a week ago #ESA released the first full-colour images from our #ESAEuclid mission. We ourselves are still impressed, but apparently so were others 😯. We collected a number of media reactions on our website:
Today I'm attempting #Heidelberg-#Madrid by #rail in one day. 6 trains from #tram to #TGV. Made train no 1 at 6:39. ETA in Madrid is 23:45.
Biggest challenge might be the regional train to Mannheim. Due to illness of personnel at least 1 of the 3 trains I could take simply isn't running, which means that one of the others will be crowded and hence delayed ...