REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA—The Euclid Space Telescope has reached its destination orbit and on Monday (31/7/2023) the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed its first test images. Scientific operations telescope will start in October.
ESA says tests have shown it will be capable of fulfilling its mission. “After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it is very exciting and very emotional to see these first drawings,” said Euclid project manager Giuseppe Racca in a statement. Japan Today, Wednesday (2/8/2023).
After taking off from Florida, the satellite had traveled about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to its observation orbit. From there, Euclid would chart the largest ever map of the universe, spanning up to two billion galaxies in more than a third of the sky.
By capturing the light that takes 10 billion years to reach around Earth, the map will also offer a new view of the universe’s 13.8 billion year history. Its visible-light camera will allow it to measure the shape of the galaxy, while its near-infrared spectrometer and photometer—developed with NASA’s assistance—will allow it to measure how far it is.
But when the instrument was turned on, the researchers were spooked by “unexpected light patterns contaminating the image,” said the ESA.
An investigation led researchers to believe that “some sunlight crept into the spacecraft, perhaps through a small crack,” but that was only detected when Euclid was oriented in a certain way.
“By avoiding certain angles,” says ESA, Euclid’s imaging device “will be able to fulfill its mission.”
Scientists hope to use the information gathered to overcome what Racca previously called a “cosmic embarrassment” in that 95 percent of the universe is still unknown to humans.
About 70 percent is thought to be made up of dark energy, the name given to an unknown force that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate. Meanwhile, 25 percent is believed to be dark matter, which is thought to bind the universe together and compose about 80 percent of its mass.
Euclid earlier launched July 1 on a mission to shed more light on the elusive dark matter and dark energy.
2023-08-02 01:47:41
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