The European Space Agency’s EUclid mission has released its first major batch of observations, revealing unprecedented insights into dark matter and dark energy. The telescope captured images of 26 million galaxies over 10 billion years of cosmic history, providing researchers with a detailed catalogue of 380,000 galaxies.
The data reveals the rich variation in galactic structures, including some galaxies caught in the act of merging with their neighbors. Images also show how massive galaxies surrounded by dark matter warp space and magnify more distant galaxies behind them. These rare images are among the best leads scientists have for understanding the nature of dark matter.
Gravitational lensing, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago, is visible in the observations. This effect warps space-time around massive objects, such as galaxies, creating strong gravitational lenses that magnify distant galaxies. Researchers can use these events to study dark matter and its temperature.
“The data we have from Euclid is starting to roll out exactly and even better than we would have hoped,” said Prof Adam Amara, the UK Space Agency’s chief scientist. “I’m convinced there’s groundbreaking science in there, and a lot of it.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/19/scientists-hail-avalanche-discoveries-euclid-space-telescope