The mission to create the largest 3D map of the Universe in history has presented more than 900 million galaxies, as well as around 15,000 potential manifestations of a phenomenon that could help unravel the mysteries of the "dark Universe", as part of its first major data release, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.
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The European Space Agency's "Euclid" mission, launched in July 2023, aimed to create the most extensive cosmic map, covering one-third of the sky and more than 10 billion years of cosmic history.
The goal is to shed light on the two greatest mysteries of the Universe: the nature of dark energy and dark matter. They are believed to account for approximately 70% and 25% of the Universe, respectively.
Professor Andy Taylor of the University of Edinburgh, who leads the mission's UK science ground segment, noted that although there have been other, larger sky surveys, none has had the same level of detail and information density as "Euclid". For comparison, the Hubble telescope produces images of incredible resolution, but covers a much smaller area of the sky.
"The technological breakthrough provided by "Euclid" is that we retain high resolution, but can now map enormous areas of the sky — vast volumes of the Universe," Taylor explained.
Now, following the first major data release from the "Euclid" mission, researchers have gained an unprecedented opportunity to view the cosmos. "This is the largest high-resolution image of the Universe we have ever had," Taylor noted.
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The publication notes that the released data cover around 14% of the total area of the sky that "Euclid" is intended to survey. They contain information on more than 900 million galaxies, as well as more than 60 million potential quasars — extraordinarily bright objects at the centers of distant galaxies, powered by the energy of supermassive black holes.
In addition, the dataset includes a number of candidates for a phenomenon previously considered rare — strong gravitational lensing. This is a magnification effect that occurs when one galaxy (often located within a galaxy cluster) lies directly in front of another, more distant galaxy. As Taylor explains, Einstein predicted that the gravitational influence of the foreground galaxy would warp spacetime, bending light from the background galaxy and creating visible bright arcs or rings. Importantly, this effect is greatly enhanced by the presence of dark matter, which increases the galaxy's mass and, consequently, its gravitational influence.
According to Taylor, by studying strong gravitational lensing, scientists can rule out various theories about the nature of dark matter. This is because the lensing process is affected by the distribution of this mysterious substance within a galaxy, which in turn depends on its properties.
Stephen Serjeant, a professor of astronomy at the Open University, agrees. "Strong gravitational lensing can reveal how exactly dark matter forms clumps. This provides important information about its type, since different kinds of matter can cluster in completely different ways," he said.
"So if we are looking for where the next breakthrough in understanding the properties of dark matter and what it really is will come from, there is a strong possibility (although no guarantee) that the answer may come precisely through the study of strong gravitational lensing."
Taylor noted that whereas experts previously knew of only around 1,000 cases of strong gravitational lensing, data from the "Euclid" (Euclid) mission contain around 15,000 probable cases, and by the end of the mission, an estimated 170,000 cases will have been identified.
Taylor added that a new batch of data is expected to be released next summer. It will contain the results of studies of both the distribution of galaxies and weak gravitational lensing — barely perceptible distortions in the images of distant objects caused by foreground dark matter.
"Using these distortion patterns, we can map the distribution of all the dark matter in the Universe," Taylor explained. He added that scientists would then be able to determine its statistical characteristics and compare the results with various theoretical models. "Depending on the type of dark matter and dark energy, we expect to see somewhat different patterns in the sky."
As the Euclid telescope generates more and more data, Taylor noted, there is still much exciting research ahead. "This opens up the possibility of observing the entire sky — the entire Universe — at high resolution. This means that we will see countless objects that have never been seen before and discover many new phenomena to study," he said. "No one person is now capable of reviewing all the data obtained by the Euclid telescope. There is simply too much of it."