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1 July 2023
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Astrophysics survey
Euclid is a pioneering space mission, surveying a third of the sky using two instruments – in visible and near-infrared light – and combining spectroscopy and photometry, galaxy clustering and cosmic shear studies in space for the first time. It is expected to capture images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies over six years, gathering tens of petabytes of data – an unprecedented volume for a space-based mission – to generate the most extensive catalogue of cosmic objects to date. Euclid is also ESA’s largest mission in terms of collaboration efforts, bringing together over 2 500 scientists and engineers from around the world to build and run the mission.
Euclid surveys a third of the sky (all the sky beyond the galactic plane) using two instruments. Credit: ESA/ATG
We want to challenge our knowledge of the cosmos by addressing key questions about dark energy, dark matter and cosmic expansion:
Investigate dark energy:
What is the nature of dark energy?
Study cosmic expansion:
How has the expansion of the Universe changed over time?
Map the Universe’s large-scale structure:
What is the structure and evolution of the cosmic web?
Test gravitational theories:
Is our understanding of gravity complete?
Investigate dark matter:
What is the nature of dark matter?
Euclid uses deep imaging and spectroscopy to map the large-scale structure of the Universe and study dark matter and dark energy. Its 1.2m mirror telescope collects the light to capture precise shapes and distances of billions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. A special component (named a dichroic filter) behind the telescope splits it into visible and infrared light. This is then passed to the two onboard instruments: the VISible instrument (VIS) and the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP). By analysing how light is distorted by gravity and measuring galaxy clustering, Euclid reveals how dark energy drives cosmic expansion and how dark matter shapes the Universe.
Weak gravitational lensing: how Euclid maps dark matter. Credit: ESA/Euclid Consortium/Cacao Cinema
Credit: ESA/ATG. Instruments list: VISible instrument (VIS), Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP)
Euclid builds on the foundation laid by Planck, the first ESA mission which mapped the cosmos and shaped our understanding of the early Universe. While Planck focused on the Universe's infancy, Euclid is studying later stages of its evolution, exploring its large-scale structure to investigate dark energy and dark matter.
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23 May 2024
Euclid is a European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from its Member States and NASA. The Euclid Consortium – consisting of more than 2000 scientists from 300 institutes in 15 European countries, the USA, Canada and Japan – is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its service module, with Airbus chosen to develop the payload module, including the telescope. NASA provided the near-infrared detectors of the NISP instrument.
The Fingertip Galaxy art piece created by visual artist Lisa Pettibone and Euclid instrument scientist Tom Kitching. Credit: ESA.
The team behind ESA’s Euclid mission has come together to create something special – a personal and collective galaxy-shaped fingerprint painting that was attached to the spacecraft prior to the launch. The collaborative nature of the artwork reflects the collaborative nature of the Euclid project overall; in both cases, people have come together to build something unique.
Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay) and G. Anselmi, sonification by K. Nielsen (DTU Space/Maple Pools).
An ethereal dance of misty clouds of interstellar dust with a myriad of distant stars and galaxies speckled like paint drops over a black canvas. This is a sonification of a breathtaking image taken by ESA's Euclid space telescope of the young star-forming region Messier 78.
The sonification offers a different representation of the data collected by Euclid, and lets us explore the stellar nurseries in M78 through sound. Close your eyes and listen to let the cosmic image be drawn by your mind’s eye, or watch as the traceback line in this video follows the sounds to colour the image from left to right.
Explore a subset of the ESA Science Programme missions here. Additional mission pages are in progress.
The currently available mission pages are ESA's flagship missions launched from 2013 and to be launched (L-class), and the ones in development (M- and F-class).
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