'Euclid "dark universe" telescope captures 1st full-color views of the cosmos'
On Tuesday (Nov. 7), astronomers hailed the Euclid telescope's ability to capture stunning intricacies of the universe in remarkably few hours as they revealed the mission's first portfolio of full-color images.
"We have never seen astronomical images like this before, containing so much detail," René Laureijs, Euclid project scientist, said in a statement prior to the unveiling. "They are even more beautiful and sharp than we could have hoped for, showing us many previously unseen features in well-known areas of the nearby universe."
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The hope is to uncover the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy by studying billions of galaxies that reside up to 10 billion light-years away from Earth. And sure enough, much to the excitement of the team's scientists, a few of these faraway objects already appear in Euclid's first batch of images.
In one go, the telescope can look at large swaths of sky — areas almost 100 times bigger than what the James Webb Space Telescope can observe, scientists shared on Tuesday. Each of Euclid's high-resolution images also includes over 600 million pixels, which is how they allow astronomers to clearly see far into the distant universe. All in all, Euclid took a total of one single day to capture all five cosmic objects we see, chosen for public appeal as well as scientific value.
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The clouds around the Horsehead nebula have already dissipated, while the
Horsehead's pillar will fall apart in another 5 million years.
Image credit: ESA
madness! 