Fresh images show off the Euclid space telescope’s ability to capture crisp pictures of vast swaths of sky
The first full-color science images from the Euclid space telescope showcase crystal-clear views of hundreds of thousands of galaxies, star clusters and other stunning cosmic objects.
Euclid launched in July to probe the fine details of this sprawling structure with a state-of-the-art 600-megapixel visible-light camera and a wide-field near-infrared spectrometer and photometer. The first images focus on what’s visible: spiral galaxies, elliptical swirls of stars and dandelion-puff-like clusters of stars pulled together by gravity.
Euclid’s view of the nearby spiral galaxy IC 342 highlights the telescope’s piercing gaze. This galaxy is normally hidden behind the Milky Way’s dust-and-gas-clogged central plane. Euclid’s near-infrared camera, however, can detect some of the heat coming off this neighboring galaxy that passes unscathed through this obscuring material. Researchers then use false color to translate these otherwise-invisible wavelengths into a visible image.
In one of the new images, the irregular galaxy NGC 6822 shimmers like a haze, and its star-forming regions appear as puffs of purple. The purple hue emerges from the galaxy’s mixture of ionized gas, which appears blue, and dust, which appears red. Another image spotlights the Horsehead nebula, a star-forming region in the “belt” of the constellation Orion.
“If we measure the shapes of these galaxies and average this together, we would see how these galaxies, thousands of them, are showing preferred orientations,” Hoekstra said.
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