The European Space Agency has released its first major batch of data from the Euclid space telescope, including observations of more than 900 million galaxies.
The release, unveiled on Thursday, covers about 13 months of observations and totals 1.7 petabytes of data, or 1.7 million gigabytes. The surveyed patch of sky is equal to about 9,500 times the size of the moon as seen from Earth.
Euclid launched from Florida in 2023 to map the large-scale structure of the universe and probe dark matter and dark energy. Its goal is the largest three-dimensional atlas of the cosmos ever made, covering more than a third of the sky by 2031.
Thursday’s release covers only 14 percent of the total area Euclid is due to survey in visible and near-infrared light over six years. The full results on dark energy and dark matter will follow when the data release is completed next year, according to the agency.
The new dataset also includes about 15,000 strong gravitational lens candidates, more than the total found in the previous half century. Astrophysicist Valeria Pettorino, the ESA’s Euclid project scientist, said the haul shows the mission is already reshaping how astronomers study the forces that shaped the universe.
Source: Reuters
