The space mission will research 10 billion years of cosmic historical past to grasp why our universe’s growth is accelerating.
This artist’s idea reveals the Euclid spacecraft shortly after launch. Credit score: ESA. Acknowledgement: Work carried out by ATG underneath contract for ESA., CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The universe’s growth is dashing up, and astrophysicists need to know why.
On July 1st, the European House Company (ESA) is ready to launch a brand new space telescope, Euclid. With contributions from NASA, the mission will search to grasp the unknown trigger for the accelerating growth, known as darkish vitality, and its results on the evolution of our universe.
The Euclid spacecraft measures about 14.5 ft (4.4 meters) lengthy, or in regards to the common dimension of a canoe, and homes a 1.2-meter telescope. It is going to catch a experience to space aboard House X’s Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Euclid’s launch shall be live-streamed on ESA’s YouTube page and ESA’s Web TV.
Preparing
After launch, Euclid will observe a course to its remaining orbital location, the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. (That is additionally the place the James Webb House Telescope orbits.) It is going to take Euclid about 4 weeks to get to L2, which is situated about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, the place the craft will face away from the Solar.
As soon as in orbit, mission operators will activate and confirm that Euclid’s two devices are functioning. Euclid’s group will calibrate the telescope and put together it for observations one to a few months after launch.
The mission will create the universe’s largest and most correct 3D map by observing billions of galaxies out to a distance of 10 billion light-years. In total, Euclid will survey greater than a 3rd of the sky. With these observations, scientists will piece collectively how and large-scale buildings of the universe have expanded over time. The mission additionally goals to uncover extra about gravity’s position within the universe and the conduct of dark energy and dark matter.
The darkish universe
Since its start, the universe has been increasing. After discovering this reality, researchers at first thought that the gravity of matter strewn all through space would finally slow the expansion. As an alternative, after observing supernovae within the Nineteen Nineties with the Hubble House Telescope, astronomers discovered that about six to eight billion years in the past, the universe’s growth started accelerating, though nobody understands why.
The phenomenon driving the acceleration is known as darkish vitality, which is completely different from dark matter. About 68 % of the universe is fabricated from this darkish vitality. Euclid will search for the affect of darkish vitality or adjustments in gravity’s affect all through the universe over time by observing how galaxies have clustered collectively throughout completely different cosmic eras in its historical past.
Dark matter, alternatively, consists of particles and is estimated to make up 27 % of the total contents of the universe. Darkish matter is invisible, making it troublesome to detect. However like regular matter, dark matter has mass and gravity, a pretty pressure. So, astronomers can observe it not directly, reminiscent of when galaxy clusters warp the sunshine of objects behind them, known as gravitational lensing. As a result of all of the seen matter seen in galaxy clusters is inadequate to create the precise warping results noticed, researchers imagine dark matter provides the added gravity for the distortions. So, Euclid will research the buildup of dark matter all through the universe utilizing gravitational lensing.
Two telescopes
Euclid isn’t the one telescope aiming to reply very important questions on our universe’s historical past and future. NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman House Telescope by Might 2027, which can group up with Euclid to review cosmic acceleration.
“Twenty-five years after its discovery, the universe’s accelerated growth stays one of the urgent mysteries in astrophysics,” mentioned Jason Rhodes, a senior analysis scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and deputy undertaking scientist for Roman and the U.S. science lead for Euclid, in a statement. “With these upcoming telescopes, we are going to measure darkish vitality in several methods and with much more precision than beforehand achievable, opening up a brand new period of exploration into this thriller.”
