Nearly 900 million galaxies stand charted by the European Space Agency spacecraft, L’Express.fr reported as the mission released its first major data cache.
Launched in 2023, the telescope aims to build a three-dimensional map covering roughly one third of the sky and capturing over ten billion years of cosmic history.
The vast dataset includes more than 160 million sources with analyzed spectra. Researchers seek answers to two primary cosmological questions regarding the composition of the universe and the ongoing acceleration of its expansion.
No prior cartography matches the scale and precision achieved by the European mission. “Euclid représente un bond technologique : il conserve la haute résolution, mais nous pouvons aussi désormais cartographier d’immenses volumes du ciel,” Andy Taylor told The Guardian, describing the release as the largest high-resolution image of the universe ever produced.
Mapping dark matter forms a core objective for the mission because invisible mass purportedly binds galaxies together. Ordinary matter makes up only 5 percent of the universe, whereas dark matter accounts for an estimated 25 percent.
Instruments identify this hidden mass by measuring gravitational lensing effects where background galaxies appear stretched and distorted as their light passes foreground structures. The spacecraft has detected approximately 15,000 gravitational lens candidates compared to roughly 1,000 known previously.
An even larger component of the universe remains unexplained through particle physics. Dark energy constitutes roughly 70 percent of total cosmic content and acts as a property of space itself rather than a detectable particle.
Astronomers established in the 1990s that cosmic expansion is accelerating. Comparing galaxy distributions across different epochs will help researchers chart how this acceleration evolved over time.
Observed data allows physicists to test leading theoretical frameworks describing a universe where 95 percent of composition remains poorly understood. Cataloged objects and light distortions provide researchers with fresh metrics to evaluate large-scale structures.
The mission continues its multi-year survey schedule to cover targeted sectors of the night sky.
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