Euclid Mission

GS Paper III Science and Technology Space

Context:

Euclid, the cosmological mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), is all set for launch on July 1.

About Euclid Mission:

Euclid is a European mission, built and operated by ESA, with support from NASA’s Roman Space Telescope.
NASA is assisting the Euclid mission by providing essential hardware for one of the spacecraft’s sensors, supporting the science team, and creating a Euclid data processing centre in the United States.

Aim of the Euclid mission

To explore the composition and evolution of the ‘dark’ Universe.
To uncover the great cosmic mystery of dark matter and dark energy from the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.

Additional Information

About Dark Matter and Dark Energy:

Visible universe—including Earth, sun, other stars, and galaxies—is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons bundled together into atoms.
- It makes up less than 5 percent of the mass of the universe.
Rest of the universe appears to be made of a mysterious invisible substance called dark matter (~25 percent) and a force that repels gravity known as dark energy (~70 percent).
Unlike normal matter, dark matter does not interact with electromagnetic force.
- This means it does not absorb, reflect, or emit light, making it extremely hard to spot.
- Scientists study dark matter by looking at the effects it has on visible objects.
It is believed that dark matter is what gives galaxies extra mass, generating extra gravity they need to stay intact.
Dark energy is the name given to the mysterious force that’s causing the rate of expansion of our universe to accelerate over time, rather than to slow down.