The ESA has just revealed the latest results obtained by the Euclid satellite with images four times sharper than those we can take with ground telescopes, covering vast areas of the sky at an unparalleled depth using both visible and infrared light. This is a promising development for this mission expected to help answer the biggest open questions in cosmology, especially regarding the nature of dark energy and matter.
The 1990s saw the dawn of precision in cosmology with the establishment of the concordance model (so named because several independent measurement techniques led to consistent results), now known as the standard cosmological model. It postulates the existence of dark matterdark matter, necessary to explain the existence of galaxies today, and a mysterious dark energy accelerating the expansion of the universeuniverse observable for about 5 billion years.
Despite two decades of research, including experiments like AMS or the LHC, the nature of dark matter continues to elude us (assuming it exists and without considering the alternative theory of MOND)), and we still do not understand the nature of dark energy that will determine the fate of the observable cosmos, and our own in the distant future.
The Euclid mission aims to map the large-scale structure of the Universe and help us understand two of its mysterious components: dark matter and dark energy. It required international collaboration involving over 300 organizations including CEA and more than 1,500 researchers from 15 countries, for over 10 years. Listen to the mission’s challenges with David Elbaz, an astrophysicist at CEA. © CEA
The noosphere has thus acquired new tools to unravel these mysteries, as demonstrated by the European Space Agency (ESA) launching the Euclid space mission on July 1, 2023. In the video above, David Elbaz, an astrophysicistastrophysicist at CEA, provides some details on this, explaining, among other things, the use of gravitational lensing effects.
The gravitational lens. Nearly six months ago, members of the Euclid collaboration provided five initial spectacular images obtained by the satellite. They interviewed cosmologist Alain Blanchard. Today, five more images have been released along with a batch of scientific articles and press releases on the state and initial results of the Euclid mission available on arXiv.
One month after Euclid’s launch, the European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the Euclid consortium, revealed the first observations captured by the satellite during its flight. This marks a significant step for the satellite designed to uncover the secrets of dark matter and dark energy. Astronomer Jean-Charles Cuillandre decrypts and comments on these first portraits of the Universe captured by Euclid. The unique images demonstrate the exceptional performance of the satellite for its cosmological mission. © CEA
Unprecedented Results with Euclid!
Valeria Pettorino, one of the leading scientists of the Euclid mission, commented on the latest results, stating, “Euclid is a unique and revolutionary mission, and these are the first sets of data to be made public – it’s a significant step. The images and scientific discoveries associated with them show an impressive diversity of observed objects and distances. They encompass a variety of scientific applications and yet represent only 24 hours of observations. They provide just a glimpse of what Euclid can achieve. We look forward to six more years of forthcoming data! This space telescope aims to address the biggest open questions in cosmology. And these initial observations clearly demonstrate that Euclid is more than up to the task.”
The Euclid satellite was launched on July 1, 2023, on a Falcon 9 rocket. The CEA presents its involvement in this exceptional project. With Euclid and its two VIS and NISP instruments, the international community hopes to clarify the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Through a series of videos, mission participants share their work, expectations, and feelings! Listen to the testimony of Valeria Pettorino, an astrophysicist at CEA who has been involved in the Euclid project for 16 years. © CEA
Carole Mundell, the scientific director of ESA, also noted, “It is not an exaggeration to say that the results we observe with Euclid are unprecedented. The first images from Euclid, released in November, clearly demonstrated the vast potential of the telescope to explore the Universe.”
Dark Universe, and this second series is no different. The beauty of Euclid is that it covers large areas of the sky with a lot of detail and depth, and it can capture a wide range of different objects in the same image – from the faintest to the brightest, from the farthest to the closest, from the most massive objects (galaxy clusters) to the smallest planets. We get both a very detailed and very wide view. This amazing versatility has led to many new scientific results which, combined with the results of Euclid’s studies over the coming years, will significantly change our understanding of the Universe.