Recently, a mosaic was released by the Euclid space telescope.
ESA’s Euclid Mission
- The ESA’s Euclid Mission is a space telescope designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark universe.
- The Euclid mission launched on July 1, 2023 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- The Euclid mission’s goals include:
- Creating a 3D map of the universe’s large-scale structure
- Observing billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away
- Exploring how the universe has expanded
- Revealing more about the role of dark matter, dark energy, and gravity
- Destination: The Euclid mission will travel to the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), 1.5 million km from Earth.
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Key Concepts
- Dark Matter: A mysterious substance that makes up a significant portion of the universe.
- While it has gravitational effects, it does not interact with light or any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, making it invisible.
- Dark Energy: A hypothetical form of energy believed to permeate all of space, causing the accelerated expansion of the universe.
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About Euclid
- He was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician.
- Considered the “father of geometry”, he is chiefly known for the Elements treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely dominated the field until the early 19th century.
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About Lagrange Points
- Lagrange points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of two large orbiting bodies, like the Earth and Sun, create regions of equilibrium, allowing a smaller object to maintain its position with minimal fuel usage.
There are five Lagrange points (L1, L2, L3, L4, L5).-
- L1: Offers an uninterrupted view of the Sun, making it ideal for solar observations. It’s home to the SOHO space telescope (joint NASA and ESA mission to study the Sun) and India’s Aditya L1 mission.
- L2: Ideal for astronomy, as spacecraft located here can communicate with Earth, harness solar power, and have a clear view of deep space. This point is home to both the James Webb Space Telescope and the Euclid Telescope.
- L3: Located behind the Sun and is less useful due to communication challenges.
- L4 and L5: These points are stable. Objects orbiting these points are called Trojans, after three large asteroids (Agamemnon, Achilles, and Hector) found there.
23 Oct 2024
