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Some of the many differently shaped galaxies caught by Euclid during his first observations of the deep field areas. | Credit: ESA/EuClid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, Image processing by M. Walmsley, M. Huertas-Company, J.-C. Cuilland
The European Space Agency (ESA) has just released the first batch of data from the innovative EuclideWho is built to study the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy in the universe.
The study data published on March 19 include the initial scans of three regions that Euclid will monitor regularly, as well as detailed classifications of over 380,000 galaxies -Only 0.4% of galaxies scientists expect a catalog during the planned six -year life of the mission.
“With the release of the first data from the study of Euclid, we unlock a treasure trove of information to immerse themselves and deal with some of the most intriguing questions in modern science”, “” Carole MundellDirector of ESA’s science, said in a statementS
Euclid, which started in July 2023 and began collecting data in February 2024, aims to Map the large -scale structure of the universeS Understanding this structure through the forms, sizes and distribution of galaxies can help scientists determine the nature of dark matter and dark energy – Two mysterious phenomena that together make up approximately 95% of the universe but do not interact with light and therefore cannot be studied directly.
“Euclid’s full potential to learn more about dark matter and dark energy from the large -scale structure of the space network will only be reached when it has completed its entire exploration.” Clotilde LaigleIn the statement, a scientist consortium with Euclid on Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris. “Still, the volume of this first data edition already offers us a unique first look at the large -scale organization of Galaxies, which we can use to learn more about the formation of galaxy over time.”
Related: “The universe has thrown us a crooked ball: the largest space card so far reveals that we may have received the dark energy completely wrong
The March 19 edition includes a scan of each of the deep field regions, three areas of the sky that Euclid will be revised repeatedly to observe far in UniverseS In these original images, the telescope filmed 26 million galaxies, the farthest of which is 10.5 billion light years. (A light year is the remote light in one year – approximately 5.9 trillion miles or 9.5 trillion kilometers.)
This increased image of Euclid’s deep field to the south contains a small part of the galaxies that the telescope will depict during its six -year mission. | Credit: ESA/EuClid/EuClid Consortium/NASA, Image processing by J.-C. Cuilllandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi
“We will observe each deep field between 30 and 52 times during Euclid’s six -year mission, every time improving the resolution of how we see these areas and the number of objects we manage to watch” Valeria PetroinoA scientist about the EuClid project in ESA, said in the statement. “Just think about the discoveries that await us.”
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In the course of his planned mission, Euclid is likely to capture images of 1.5 billion galaxies, sending about 100 gigabytes of data back to the ground every day. To process this tsunami of information, Euclid scientists turn to artificial intelligence (AI). Last year, nearly 10,000 volunteers with a civic scientific project Galaxy Zoo Helped training the AI ”Zoobot” algorithm to recognize various galaxies’ characteristics, such as spiral weapons, in Euclid’s early images.
“We are looking at galaxies from the inside, from how their internal structures govern their evolution to how the external environment shapes their transformation over time,” Lagel says in the statement. “Euclid is a gold mine of data and its impact will be far away, from the evolution of the galaxy to the greater picture of the cosmological goals of the mission.”