The European Space Agency has previewed exquisite images from the Euclid satellite, which is mapping the Universe across billions of light years of space.
Available to comment:
Michael Brown, Associate Professor, Monash School of Physics and Astronomy
Contact details: +61 420 989 973 or michael.brown@monash.edu
The following can be attributed to Associate Professor Brown:
“The European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope is a powerful science machine for surveying vast swathes of the Universe. While it cannot see the Universe with the same detail as the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, it outperforms ground-based survey telescopes and has huge cameras that allow it to image huge swathes of sky.
“While Euclid’s primary mission is to understand the expansion and geometry of the Universe, its data is going to be incredibly powerful for a huge range of science. For example, the new Euclid images reveal faint wisps of light produced by gas and dust within our own galaxy – Galactic cirrus.
“As an astronomer specialising in galaxy evolution, I am particularly enthusiastic about the improvement in image quality for galaxies. There are details revealed in the Euclid images that just weren’t visible with ground-based survey telescopes. Combined with data from other telescopes, including the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, Euclid will accelerate our understanding of the Universe and galaxies, including our own Milky Way.”