The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has taken images of galaxies, galaxy clusters and newborn stars in unprecedented detail
By Leah Crane
23 May 2024
Euclid’s image of the star-forming region Messier 78
Messier 78 ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence
The Euclid space telescope team has released its first science images. They show sparkling clusters of galaxies, an astonishingly sharp image of a nearby spiral galaxy and a colourful cloud of interstellar gas that is home to hundreds of thousands of young stars.
The above picture shows a star-forming region called Messier 78. Euclid is so much more sensitive than previous telescopes that it revealed more than 300,000 new objects in this image alone, most of them newborn stars. Some of those objects are also rogue planets, which float around on their own rather than orbiting stars. They were previously impossible to spot in this area.
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The next two images, below, are clusters of galaxies called Abell 2390 and Abell 2764. Many of Euclid’s future observations will show clusters like these – one of the telescope’s main goals is to map the cosmos’ dark matter, and the way that light from distant galaxies warps as it travels past these clusters is one way to spot dark matter’s gravitational effects.
Euclid’s view of Abell 2390 ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence.
Euclid’s view of a bright star near Abell 2764 ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence