INTUSK MAGAZINE

The first section of what will be the greatest 3D map of the universe ever created has been published, displaying 14 million galaxies and tens of millions of stars in our own Milky Way in stunning detail. 

The Euclid telescope sends back the first photos from the 'black universe' project. The Euclid mission, launched in 2023 and controlled by the European Space Agency (Esa) with support from NASA, sent its first images in November 2023 and May 2024.

Euclid's purpose is to enable the building of a 3D map in time and space of the universe in an attempt to understand its evolution and, as a result, shed light on the mysterious phenomena of dark energy and dark matter, which together account up 95% of the cosmos.

The newly disclosed data is a 208-gigapixel mosaic that represents 1% of the final map. The completed map is estimated to take six years of observations and cover one-third of the sky, with measurements capturing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light years.

Esa provided images that emphasise the area of sky covered by the new mosaic, as well as the mosaic itself and zoomed-in views within it. 

Esa identified the light blue patches in the mosaic as galactic cirrus clouds located between stars in the Milky Way. A zoomed-in image of a spinning galaxy View the image in full screen. 

These wispy clouds, made largely of gas and dust, reflect optical light and can be caught by the mission's ultrasensitive visible light camera. When you zoom in on the mosaic, you may see other objects such as the spiral galaxy NGC 2188 and the galaxy cluster Abell 3381.