The European Space Agency has published the first large amount of data from its “Dark Universe” teleskoper -Euclid. What is in it could change our understanding of the dark matter and the expansion of the universe.
The data only includes a week Deep field pictures from three points in space. They only make up 0.4% of the huge areas that Euclid will grasp, which scientists say that they will be the largest 3D card in the sky that have ever been created.
WWith a scan of every region so far, Euclid has already discovered 26 million galaxies, each potentially contained millions of stars and billions of planets. The most distant of these galaxies are 10.5 billion light years away from the earth, which means that the pictures they see are almost as old as the universe itself.
The Euclidean map of the stars
The cat's eye fog, one of the most complex planetary fog that has ever been seen in space, as recorded by Euclid. Credit: ESA
Among all of these millions of galaxies are rare phenomena that are referred to as gravitational lenses or “Einstein rings” and are called such because they prove that Albert Einstein's prediction is inherited and leaning the light while crosses. The gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object like a galaxy or a black hole bends the light from a galaxy behind it – visible distortions or arches around the core of the galaxy.
In this new data system, Euclid has more than doubled the number of gravitational lenses that were recorded from space. Esa estimates that Euclid Euclid is If 100,000 strong gravitational lenses will be recorded by the end of her six-year mission, about 100 times more than currently known.
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Today's data has also resulted in an even more rare phenomenon: Double Gravitational Lensing, also known as the double source level as lensing. This happens when light flows from two distant galaxies through the same galaxy and causes a double -lensing effect.
Find double gravitational lenses
A collage of gravitational lenses from Euclid's first major data waste, which was published today. Credit: ESA
Take a look at the picture above and go into the fourth column, thirdly from below. The picture is weak, but you can see two outer arches and then two inner arches near the middle of the galaxy core. This is a double gravitational lens.
Double gravitational lenses could help scientists to better understand the dark energy and to understand the expansion of the universe, since an expanding universe will theoretically determine the angle of the arches.
“Lenses with double sources are extremely rare-few have ever been found,” said Euclidian consortium scientist Mike Walmsley at a press conference. “But we believe that we have already found four good candidates who already cover data about a fraction of the night sky from a week.
In order to find such rare phenomena that hide in the pictures of Euclid, the European Space Agency (ESA) has entered the help of thousands of volunteers and AI algorithms.
Euclids AI-Operated Galaxia finder
Euclid started in 2023, has So far observed about 14% of its total survey area. After completing the mission, the telescope will take pictures of more than 1.5 billion galaxies and send around 100 GB of data a day.
These pictures offer scientists unprecedented opportunities – and big problems when it comes to finding, categorizing and analyzing all objects in it.
In order to accelerate the process, the Euclidian consortium has developed an AI-driven Galaxy Spotter called “Zooobot”. The algorithm was trained by volunteers who scan pictures and identify every object, in the decades of work in civic science.
A collage of galaxies that were identified by AI and citizen scientists. Credit: ESA
From today's data waste, Zoobot put together a detailed catalog of 360,000 galaxies. Thousands From volunteers from the Space distorted The Citizen Science project then sorted the most promising candidates. So the gravitational lenses were identified.
“We are in a crucial moment in the fight against big surveys in astronomy. AI is a fundamental and necessary part of our process to fully use Euclid“S a big data record,” said Walmsley, who has worked on astronomical deep learning algorithms since the last decade.
A collage by Euclid Deep Field South, part of the night sky, which has never been recorded in detail before. Credit: ESA
The Dark Universum Explorer
Euclid Started with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket by Cape Canaveral in Florida on July 1, 2023. There was its back First pictures In August of this year and in May last year, his First scientific data.
Euclid's mission is to give two of the most confusing secrets of the universe in light: dark energy and dark matter – and probably make up 95% of the cosmos. Scientists theorize that dark energy is responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe and that dark matter acts as a cosmic glue that holds the galaxies together. However, the type of these components is still unknown.
In order to build up its 3D card of the night sky, the telescope uses two high-tech cameras: VIS that captures the cosmos in visible light and NISP, which measures the distances to galaxies and the expansion speed of the universe.
Euclid will offer us an unprecedented chronology of the history of the cosmos and help us to escape the secrets of the universe – and our own existence.
The three Deep -Field previews can now be examined in the Esasky App. Euclid Deep Field south herE, Euclid Deep Field Fornax HereEuclid Deep Field North Here.
