The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the first, razor-sharp images sent by the Euclid space telescope, designed to unlock the secrets of dark matter and dark energy – hidden forces thought to make up 95 per cent of the universe.
The images released on Tuesday showed a nebula resembling a horse’s head and never-before-seen distant galaxies, described by Euclid scientist Jean-Charles Cuillandre as “a range of objects from the galactic zoo in terms of diversity, colours and shapes”.
The ESA, which leads the six-year mission with US space agency NASA as a partner, said the images were the sharpest of their kind, showcasing the telescope’s ability to monitor billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away.
The images spanned four areas of the relatively nearby universe, including 1,000 galaxies belonging to the massive Perseus cluster just 240 million light years away, and more than 100,000 galaxies spread out in the background, ESA said.
Scientists believe vast, seemingly organised structures such as Perseus could only have formed if dark matter exists.
Euclid blasted off in July on the world’s first-ever mission aiming to investigate enduring cosmic mysteries partly by charting one-third of the sky – encompassing two billion galaxies – to create what has been billed as the most accurate 3D map of the universe ever.
After joining fellow space telescope James Webb at a stable hovering spot approximately 1.5 million kilometres (more than 930,000 miles) from Earth, Euclid started sending back its first observations.
ESA chief Josef Aschbacher said in a statement that Euclid’s first five images were “awe-inspiring and remind us of why it is essential that we go to space to learn more about the mysteries of the universe”.
Here are the five images, starting with the one closest to Earth and moving out into the cosmos:
Stellar nursery called Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, and part of constellation Orion, captured by Euclid [European Space Agency/Reuters]
Horsehead Nebula
A giant red horse seems to rear its head against a background of swirling stars, some still being formed in a stellar nursery.
The Horsehead Nebula – also known as Barnard 33 – is 1,375 light years away.
The horse’s head is, in fact, dark clouds in front of ultraviolet radiation coming from Sigma Orionis, which is the eastern star on the belt of the Orion constellation.
The Horsehead Nebula has been observed before, but the Euclid telescope is the first to deliver such a complete view in just an hour, thanks to its wide lens.
Scientists hope that by scouring through Euclid’s observations of the nebula, they will find previously unseen Jupiter-sized planets, as well as stars still in their infancy.
A globular cluster called NGC 6397, second-closest globular cluster to Earth, located about 7800 light years away, captured by Euclid [European Space Agency/Reuters]
Globular cluster NGC 6397
At 7,800 light years away – but still in our Milky Way galaxy – this cluster is a collection of hundreds of thousands of stars bound together by gravity.
“Currently no other telescope than Euclid can observe the entire globular cluster and at the same time distinguish its faint stellar members in the outer regions from other cosmic sources,” Euclid Consortium scientist Davide Massari said in a statement.
Scientists hope to use Euclid’s observations to spot stars trailing, such as globular clusters as they travel through our galaxy.
“The surprising thing is that we don’t see these stars trailing,” Euclid project scientist Rene Laureijs told the AFP news agency.
“One of the theories is that there might be dark matter around the globular cluster, which keeps all the stars together,” he said.
The ESA hopes Euclid will shed more light on dark matter and dark energy, which remain shrouded in mystery.
An irregular-shaped dwarf galaxy called NGC 6822, which is located 1.6 million light-years from Earth, captured by the Euclid telescope [European Space Agency/Reuters]
An irregular galaxy
Not all galaxies are pretty spirals like our own. Images of the irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 6822, some 1.6 million light years from Earth, have been captured before, including by the James Webb Space Telescope.
However, Euclid is the first to be able to capture the whole galaxy in barely an hour.
As is often the case in the early universe, this galaxy’s stars are low on metal, and the scientists hope that analysing them will shed light on how galaxies evolve.
A spiral-shaped galaxy called the hidden galaxy, also known as IC 342 or Cadwell 5, captured by Euclid [European Space Agency/Reuters]
The hidden galaxy
The spiral galaxy IC 342 earned the nickname the “hidden galaxy” because it can be difficult to spot behind the disc of our own Milky Way.
It is relatively nearby – in galactic terms at least – some 11 million light years from Earth.
However, Euclid’s infrared vision was able to peer through the dust to spot never-before-seen globular clusters, ESA said.
Galaxies belonging to the Perseus cluster and others further away, captured by Euclid [European Space Agency/Reuters]
Perseus cluster
ESA described this image as “a revolution for astronomy”.
It depicts the Perseus cluster, which contains a thousand galaxies some 240 million light years away.
But in the background there are more than 100,000 additional galaxies, some 10 billion light years away, ESA said. Many of those distant galaxies have never been spotted before.
Laureijs said it was “very exciting” when the team saw the image for the first time and found low-level light coming not from the cluster, but from stars left over from collisions between galaxies.
That these stars were not being pulled back into the galaxies could suggest the presence of dark matter, he said.
Laureijs emphasised that this remains “circumstantial evidence,” and that future research could reveal more about dark matter’s distribution throughout the universe.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
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.
