Saturday 1 July (Canada Day!), the ESA Euclid space telescope lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This next-generation astrophysics mission will spend the next few weeks flying to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, where it will spend the next six years observing a third of the sky. During that time, Euclid will observe billions of galaxies 10 billion light years away, resulting in the largest 3D map of the Universe ever created. This map will help astronomers and cosmologists solve the lingering mystery of dark matter and dark energy (DM and DE).
The mission was launched at 11:12 am EST (8:12 am PST) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the second stage separating approximately 2 minutes 45 seconds later. At about 3 minutes 37 seconds, the payload fairings came off. Forty-five minutes into the launch, ground controllers received confirmation Euclid it had separated from the second stage and arrived at Low Earth Orbit (LEO). For the next two weeks, Euclid will deploy its parasol and reach operating temperature before departing for L2 on July 29 (four weeks after launch).
Using its 600-megapixel camera, near-infrared spectrometer, and photometer (which measures the redshift of galaxies), Euclid will chart how the Universe has expanded over the past 10 billion years (~3 billion years since the Big Bang) up to the present . This coincides with the beginning of the “era of dark energy,” when the universe began to expand at a gradually accelerating rate. By mapping the large-scale cosmic structure of the Universe and how it has changed since then, Euclid will reveal more about the role gravity, dark matter and dark energy have played in space and time.
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Understanding the interplay of these forces is vital to solving the current “Crisis in Cosmology”. This includes the rotation curves of galaxies and how it does not conform to the amount of visible (“luminous”) matter they contain. Scientists noticed this during the 1960s, which gave rise to the theory that 85% of a galaxy’s mass was made up of some mysterious, invisible matter (hence the term “dark”). Speculation about the existence of dark energy began in the 1990s, thanks in large part to Hubble and its Deep Fields campaigns.
As scientists peered farther into the cosmos (and therefore, back in time), they noticed that cosmic expansion has been accelerating over the past four billion years. Combined with the unsolved mystery of dark matter, this has suggested that our theories of gravity (as described by General Relativity) are either wrong or that an unknown force is responsible for counteracting gravity on the grandest of scales. Based on the most widely accepted cosmological model – the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model – cosmologists estimate that dark energy accounts for about 72% of the mass-energy density of the Universe.
By measuring the influence of dark matter and dark energy, Euclid will help silence the ongoing debate about prevailing cosmological theories. Once Euclid reaches L2, where he will join James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), mission controllers will begin testing all spacecraft functions, test the telescope, and finally turn on the instruments. This will be followed by a two-month phase in which they will test and calibrate each of Euclid’s science instruments and prepare for the telescope’s first observations. Three months after launch, mission controllers will begin with the first phase of Euclid’s cosmic survey.
By 2027, it will be joined by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST), which will aid in the hunt for Dark Energy by providing more detailed analysis of objects mapped by Euclid. Check out the launch summary below, courtesy of ESA:
Further reading: ESA
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