Nearly a year after its launch, the Euclid space telescope has released a new set of images along with its first scientific data.
Euclid is a wide-angle space telescope equipped with a 600-megapixel camera to capture visible light. It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium.
The new set includes images of newly formed stars and planets in the Messier 78 nebula, the NGC galaxy, the galaxy cluster Abell 2764, and the Dorado galaxy group.
"These images reflect only 24 hours of Euclid's observation. They are not only beautiful but also very informative, containing a wealth of scientific data. This is why we have released ten scientific papers describing these results," Valeria Pettorino, the European Space Agency's Euclid project scientist, told RFI.
Pettorino explained that the mission aims to address fundamental questions about the Universe, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy, as well as the reasons behind the accelerating expansion of the Universe.
Pettorino noted that Euclid will achieve these goals with its two instruments: a 600-megapixel camera for observing in the visible range and a near-infrared spectrophotometer, which not only captures images but also measures distances and spectra of galaxies.
