FLORIDA: The Euclid space telescope, a European-built orbital satellite, was successfully launched into space on Saturday from Florida, embarking on a mission to unravel the mysteries of the cosmic phenomena known as dark energy and dark matter. These unseen forces, accounting for 95% of the known universe, have long perplexed scientists.
Carried by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the telescope named Euclid, in honor of the ancient Greek mathematician often referred to as the “father of geometry,” lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). The launch was broadcast live on NASA TV.
With a budget of $1.4 billion, the European Space Agency (ESA) mission aims to revolutionize astrophysics and potentially redefine our understanding of gravity. Euclid is expected to operate for at least six years.
After a short journey, Euclid will be released from the Falcon and embark on a month-long voyage to its destination: a solar orbit located approximately 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth. This position, known as the Lagrange Point Two or L2, offers gravitational stability between the Earth and the sun.
Euclid to Explore Evolution of “Dark Universe”
Euclid’s primary objective is to explore the evolution of the “dark universe” by employing a wide-angle telescope to survey galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away, extending beyond our own Milky Way galaxy. Equipped with sophisticated instruments, the 2-ton spacecraft will measure the intensity and spectrums of infrared light emitted by these galaxies, enabling precise determination of their distances.
The mission focuses on two fundamental components of the dark universe: dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter, although invisible, is believed to shape and structure the cosmos, while dark energy explains the long-observed acceleration of the universe’s expansion since the 1990s.
Euclid’s ambitious inquiry reflects the significance of its mission. Scientists estimate that dark energy and dark matter collectively constitute 95% of the cosmos, while the observable ordinary matter comprises a mere 5%.
Led entirely by ESA, with NASA contributing photodetectors for its near-infrared instrument, the Euclid Consortium comprises more than 2,000 scientists from 13 European nations, the United States, Canada, and Japan.
Originally planned for launch using a Russian Soyuz rocket, the mission was redirected to SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, due to the conflict in Ukraine and the lack of immediate availability in Europe’s Arianne rocket program.
While the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope provides unprecedented clarity in studying specific objects from the early universe, Euclid’s mission is to uncover the hidden fabric and mechanics of the cosmos. By meticulously charting over 1 billion galaxies in 3D, spanning more than a third of the observable universe, Euclid aims to decipher the properties of dark matter and dark energy encoded in the shapes and positions of these galaxies.
As Euclid maps the cosmic history of the past 10 billion years and observes subtle changes in galaxies’ shapes and positions, scientists anticipate revealing intricate variations in cosmic acceleration, indirectly exposing the forces behind dark energy. Additionally, Euclid will contribute to understanding dark matter by studying gravitational lensing, the faint distortions in visible galaxy shapes caused by unseen material warping space.
Beyond its primary objectives, Euclid is poised to become a treasure trove for all fields of astronomy for several decades, according to Yannick Mellier, Euclid Consortium lead and astronomer at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris.
