It is two years into a six-year mission to gather high-quality images that will help astronomers gain insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy.<\/p>\n
Prof Amara, from the Isle of Wight, hopes it will spark the imaginations of future space scientists.<\/p>\n
No previous space telescope has been able to combine the breadth, depth and sharpness of vision that Euclid can.<\/p>\n
The James Webb telescope, for example, has much higher resolution, but cannot cover the amount of sky that Euclid does in one shot.<\/p>\n
Experts from the University of Oxford are among those combing through the data the satellite is providing.<\/p>\n
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Professor Adam Amara said the images from the satellite were “almost works of art” [BBC]<\/p>\n
Reflecting on two years since the launch, Prof Amara said: “We have 2,000 people across the world working every day, night and day, to process these images and look for little gems in what we can find out about the universe.<\/p>\n
“It’s an incredible amount of effort people are putting in, and it’s wonderful to see the results as well.<\/p>\n
“To see the images come through and be even better than expected was absolutely incredible because we all had sleepless nights.”<\/p>\n
He said the images were “just breathtaking in themselves” and “almost works of art”.<\/p>\n
“We’re still in the middle of a journey. But what we’ve seen this year is the interim results,” he said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of them, led by people here in the UK, are already saying Euclid is delivering as good as and better than we expected.”<\/p>\n
He hopes Euclid will answer questions about dark matter and dark energy “which still remain a mystery”.<\/p>\n
“There isn’t an experiment like it in space. It’s unique,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It is going to unlock the secrets of the universe, but it is going to take time.”<\/p>\n
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Sriraksha, Astha and Harry are Professor Amara’s students [BBC]<\/p>\n
In the Space Centre at the University of Surrey, Prof Amara’s students hope to become the next generation of cosmologists and astrophysicists.<\/p>\n
Harry, who is studying for a masters, is interested in dark matter “because we just know so little about it”.<\/p>\n
“I just want to keep answering questions about astronomy and astrophysics,” he said.<\/p>\n
Astha is studying for her PHD and believes the UK offers “abundant opportunities” for students studying astrophysics.<\/p>\n
She said: “I definitely see myself working with satellites analysing data in the future.”<\/p>\n
Sriraksha, a masters student, got into astrophysics because of her “love of star gazing”.<\/p>\n
“I just want to understand how everything is connected,” she added.<\/p>\n
Prof Amara said: “My greatest ambition is to make sure UK scientists, especially the young ones, have more opportunities going forward.<\/p>\n
“Euclid is one of these multigenerational projects to answer really big questions and I just can’t wait to see what the answer comes out as.”<\/p>\n
What is Euclid’s job?<\/p>\n
Euclid is surveying a third of the heavens to get some clues about the nature of so-called dark matter and dark energy.<\/p>\n
These unknown “influencers” appear to control the shape and expansion of everything that’s out there.<\/p>\n
Researchers concede, however, they know virtually nothing about them, even though they probably account for 95% of the contents of the cosmos.<\/p>\n
Neither dark matter nor dark energy are directly detectable. Our only hope of gaining some understanding is to trace their subtle signals in the things we can see.<\/p>\n
This is Euclid’s job – to observe the contours, distances and motions of billions of galaxies, some of whose light has taken almost the entire age of the universe to reach us.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in the statistics of this 3D cosmic map – the largest ever made – scientists expect to find answers.<\/p>\n
Composition of the universe<\/p>\n
Experiments indicate the cosmic contents include:<\/p>\n
Roughly 5% normal matter – atoms, the stuff from which we are all made<\/p>\n
About 27% dark matter – so far unseen directly and defying description<\/p>\n
About 68% dark energy – the mysterious component accelerating cosmic expansion<\/p>\n
The universe is calculated to be 13.8 billion years old.<\/p>\n
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