Euclid space telescope’s camera a step closer to imaging galaxies

ESA's Euclid mission to study more than a billion galaxies is a step closer to launch as its two instruments are now built and fully tested, including a massive optical digital camera delivered by an international consortium led by UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Once Euclid is launched from French Guiana in 2022, the VIS instrument will be one of the largest such cameras put into space and will capture light from distant galaxies, providing a more detailed look at the visible universe over a larger part of the sky than ever before. Euclid has a 1.2-metre mirror telescope that is designed to work at both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. It will collect light from distant cosmic objects and feed it into VIS and another instrument, the Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP). Euclid will survey the shapes of galaxies and map the geometry of the Universe with the aim of making accurate measurements of mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy, which make up most of the cosmos. No-one yet knows what Dark Energy is, but Euclid will be a powerful tool for astronomers looking to find out.