On October 15, 2024, ESA’s Euclid space mission revealed the first part of its vast map of the Universe, featuring millions of stars and galaxies in a stunning mosaic of 208 gigapixels.
This mosaic includes 260 observations made between March 25 and April 8, 2024. In just two weeks, Euclid captured 132 square degrees of the Southern Sky in remarkable detail, covering an area over 500 times larger than the full Moon.
This initial release is just 1% of the extensive survey Euclid will carry out over six years. The mission aims to observe billions of galaxies, examining their shapes, distances, and movements up to 10 billion light-years away, ultimately creating the largest 3D map of the cosmos.
CREDIT
ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration
The map already contains about 100 million sources, including stars from our Milky Way and distant galaxies. Notably, around 14 million of these galaxies could aid scientists in studying the influences of dark matter and dark energy on the Universe.
ESA’s Euclid celebrates first science: New views of the Universe
Valeria Pettorino, Euclid Project Scientist at ESA, highlighted that this stunning image is just the beginning. Over the next six years, the mission will map more than a third of the sky. The spacecraft’s advanced cameras captured an impressive number of objects, revealing intricate details, such as the spiral galaxy’s structure, even when zoomed in 600 times.
A striking feature in the mosaic is the dim, light blue clouds between stars in our galaxy, known as “galactic cirrus.” These clouds, made of gas and dust, resemble cirrus clouds and are detected by Euclid’s sensitive visible light camera because they reflect light from the Milky Way. They also emit far-infrared light, as observed by ESA’s Planck mission.
ESA’s Euclid reveals its first full-color images of the cosmos
This mosaic serves as a preview of what the Euclid mission will uncover. Since it began routine science observations in February, 12% of the survey has been completed. A release of 53 square degrees of the survey, including previews of the Euclid Deep Field areas, is planned for March 2025. The first year of cosmology data is expected to be shared with the scientific community in 2026.