Euclid Unveils 900 Million Galaxies and 15,000 Lensing Cases in First Major Data Release
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Nov 12
Euclid Unveils 900 Million Galaxies and 15,000 Lensing Cases in First Major Data Release
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Nov 12
Summary
Euclid’s first major data release covers about 14% of its planned sky map and delivers the biggest high-resolution view of the universe yet, with more than 900 million galaxies and over 60 million potential quasars.
About 15,000 probable strong gravitational lensing cases stand out in the release, up from roughly 1,000 previously known, giving researchers a much larger sample to test how dark matter is distributed and clumps.
That matters because Euclid was built to probe the “dark universe” — dark energy and dark matter are thought to account for about 70% and 25% of the cosmos respectively.
Launched in 2023, the ESA mission aims to map a third of the sky across more than 10 billion years of cosmic history, with scientists expecting around 170,000 lensing cases by mission end.
A further data release due next summer is expected to add galaxy-distribution results and weak-lensing measurements that could help build a map of dark matter across the universe.