On Monday (July 31), the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope sent its first images back to Earth. And while these seminal portraits are certainly mesmerizing, they also confirm that the space observatory’s instruments are working in tip-top shape.
Euclid’s success so far is really exciting because, to put it simply, this machine’s purpose is to map out the dark side of our universe by analyzing billions of galaxies that reside up to about 10 billion light-years away. Better yet, the agency also says this ambitious map will be in “3D,” because it’ll include the element of time to show how those realms evolved in tandem with a maturing cosmos.
“The outstanding first images obtained using Euclid’s visible and near-infrared instruments open a new era to observational cosmology and statistical astronomy,” Yannick Mellier, astronomer at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris and Euclid Consortium lead, said in a statement. “They mark the beginning of the quest for the very nature of dark energy.”
Euclid launched on July 1 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Now floating about a million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth, it joined the James Webb Space Telescope on July 28 at what’s known as the second Lagrange point. Over the next few months, scientists will continue testing the machine until it starts officially developing its epic cosmic survey.
We’ll get more into what a dark-universe-hunting machine means in a bit, but first, let’s discuss Euclid’s stunning, star-filled images.
This image was taken during commissioning of Euclid to check that the focused VIS instrument worked as expected. Because it is largely unprocessed, some unwanted artefacts remain. For example you can see some cosmic rays that shoot straight across. (Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA)
The images you see above were taken with an instrument on Euclid called VIS, which stands for “Visible Instrument.” As its name suggests, VIS captures the universe through the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that’s visible to human eyes, wavelengths between 550 and 900 nanometers.
On the left, you can see VIS’ full field of view — and on the right, a zoomed-in version. ESA likens the range of the close-up to about one quarter the width and height of the full moon as seen from Earth.
Some highlights of VIS’ portraits include cosmic rays shooting straight across the field, a wealth of unmissable glittering stars, and most importantly, a few fuzzy blobs. Those blobs, ESA explains, are galaxies Euclid will investigate further while developing a highly detailed map of our universe, dark energy and all.
“Ground-based tests do not give you images of galaxies or stellar clusters, but here they all are in this one field,” Reiko Nakajima, VIS instrument scientist, said in the statement. “It is beautiful to look at, and a joy to do so with the people we’ve worked together with for so long.”
Next, we get to NISP, which stands for Euclid’s Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer. As ESA puts it, NISP has two roles. First, it can image galaxies in infrared light, or light invisible to human eyes that falls between about 950 and 2020 nanometers on the electromagnetic spectrum. The James Webb Space Telescope also taps into such infrared wavelengths, which is why scientists often say it’s unveiling an invisible universe. It quite literally is.
Second, NISP can measure precisely how much light each galaxy emits — this latter bit can tell us how far away those galaxies are.
Euclid’s telescope collected light for 100 seconds to enable NISP to create this image. During nominal operation, it is expected to collect light for roughly five times longer, unveiling many more distant galaxies. (Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA)
The NISP images you see above are pretty similar to the VIS set in that the left side includes NISP’s full field while the right shows a zoomed-in section.
But before reaching the NISP detector, deep space light captured by Euclid also passes through some cool filters. And that offers some pretty awesome results. These filters can do things like measure brightness at a specific infrared wavelength, which helps with NISP’s galactic distance measurements.
“Although these first test images are not yet usable for scientific purposes, I am pleased that the telescope and the two instruments are now working superbly in space,” Knud Jahnke, from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg who works on Euclid’s NISP instrument, said in a statement.
And in fact, one of these filters is why NISP offered us a third test image.
A NISP image taken by Euclid with the grism filter. (Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA)
Besides looking like an early 2000’s computer screensaver, this image is important because each streak represents an individual light spectrum of a galaxy or star. Euclid has a device known as a “grism” that can basically split cosmic light into a full spectrum of wavelengths before sending the data to NISP.
With this process, scientists can determine how far away a certain galaxy is, for instance, as well as what the galaxy is chemically made of.
“We’ve seen simulated images, we’ve seen laboratory test images,” William Gillard, NISP instrument scientist, said in the statement. “It’s still hard for me to grasp these images are now the real universe. So detailed, just amazing.”
Now, if you’ve still been stuck on the fact Euclid can help us understand the dark universe, here’s what that means.
What’s next for Euclid?
Dark energy and its partner-in-crime, dark matter, constitute some of the biggest and most fascinating questions to exist in astronomy today. Neither phenomena can be seen by human eyes, yet still appear to be holding our universe together.
For starters, space is constantly expanding outward in every direction like an unpoppable balloon. But the weird thing is, this ballooning seems to be happening at speeds scientists can’t quite account for with all the visible stuff in our universe. Thus, something else must be acting to accelerate the cosmic expansion. Scientists call that “something” dark energy.
Meanwhile, within the expanding universe, there seems to be some sort of glue making sure galaxies are held in place and dictating the way they’re arranged. For example, scientists calculate that intergalactic gas and stars often move around as though there’s extra gravity pulling on them. Presumably, this is because some sort of invisible material surrounds the galaxies these objects live in (perhaps like a halo) and therefore exerts gravitational forces on them. That unseeable “glue” is known as dark matter.
Dark matter and dark energy aren’t necessarily made up of one, or even two, things. They could be made up of a bunch of different components. Scientists just use these as bulk terms to describe gaps in our understanding.
All we know for sure, right now, is that the dark universe exists.
But if Euclid’s mission of exquisitely mapping the universe over the next six years or so pans out, perhaps scientists will gain some clues as to what the dark universe truly is.
RELATED STORIES:
This is because, as dark matter and energy interact with things in space, laying out the distribution and evolution of those things can tell us where the dark universe fits into the story.
“I have full confidence that the team behind the mission will succeed in using Euclid to reveal so much about the 95% of the universe that we currently know so little about,” ESA director, General Josef Aschbacher, said in the statement.
“After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it’s exhilarating and enormously emotional to see these first images,” Euclid project manager, Giuseppe Racca, said in the statement. “It’s even more incredible when we think that we see just a few galaxies here, produced with minimum system tuning. The fully calibrated Euclid will ultimately observe billions of galaxies to create the biggest-ever 3D map of the sky.”
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!
“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
Related Stories:
Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
