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Why is going to space crucial to map dark matter?
A key promise of the Euclid mission is to explore the evolution of the dark Universe. The foundation of this ambitious program is a large optical and near-infrared imaging survey. Euclid’s cosmic map will depict more than one billion galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, making it the biggest and most detailed cosmological data set of our age. How does the quality of the first Euclid images compare to another reference cosmological data set, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Imaging Survey?
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What is and what could be dark matter?
Dark Matter is not one of the powerful sith lord in the Universe, but is one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics. It refers to a transparent form of matter that does not interact with light, making it invisible to our telescopes. Nevertheless its presence can be inferred through its gravitational effects on usual visible matter and the large-scale structure of the Universe.
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What is and what could be dark energy?
There is no doubt in the science community, the expansion of the universe is accelerating! The reason behind this acceleration is one of the most challenging contemporary puzzles, and this is where the concept of dark energy comes in. Accounting for 68% of the energy in the universe, dark energy is at the same time responsible for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. However, the crucial question remains: What could dark energy be?
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How do we know the Universe is expanding?
The idea of an expanding Universe is one of the most remarkable discoveries in the field of cosmology. It might seem counterintuitive at first, as we usually perceive the world around us as relatively static but it revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos and challenged our perception of the Universe as an unchanging entity. Let’s delve into the fascinating evidence that supports this groundbreaking idea.
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What’s in Euclid’s First Light images?
Euclid’s “First Light” engineering images show a lot of things. There are obviously some astronomical objects, but also some stranger features that are not. The reason is that these images are “raw”, they have not been digitally treated the ways as needs to be done to create science-ready images. They contain a lot of features that are properties of the detectors used, but also unwanted internal reflections of the optics, as well as cosmic rays that hit all space telescopes. Converting these images into science-ready data is the task of the Euclid Science Ground Segment, which has developed a huge and very detailed data treatment (“data reduction”) pipeline over many years.
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Euclid sees ‘First Light’
The Euclid satellite spacecraft is now officially an observatory: Euclid’s two instruments are seeing ‘First Light’ – recording the first engineering observations of the sky with a fully aligned and focussed telescope.
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