The Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX successfully launched the Euclid space telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA) at 10:11 PM on July 1 (Hanoi time).
The Euclid space telescope launched aboard the Falcon 9 rocket.
The launch took place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA. Spectators applauded as the Falcon 9 rocket carrying Euclid soared into the sky, with the first stage of the rocket separating and landing precisely on an unmanned vessel in the Atlantic Ocean just about 8 minutes later.
Euclid, designed to search for dark energy and invisible dark matter, separated from the rocket approximately 41 minutes after launch and is now on its way to Lagrange Point 2, which is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth and located directly opposite the Sun. Lagrange Points are relatively stable orbits where satellites use the least amount of fuel. Euclid’s destination is quite popular; for example, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope also operates at Lagrange Point 2.
The scientific community believes that dark matter and dark energy make up most of the universe, yet humans cannot observe these phenomena at visible light wavelengths. Instead, experts can track them through their effects on other objects.
Scientists study the workings of the dark universe to map the impact of time on the cosmos. The merger of galaxies, the expansion of the universe, and the motion of individual stars are all influenced by dark energy and dark matter.
Illustration of the Euclid telescope operating in space. (Image: ATG/ESA)
Euclid will set its sights on regions outside the Milky Way to map about one-third of the sky beyond our galaxy. Over its six-year mission, this telescope will map billions of targets such as galaxies and stars. Two scientific instruments on Euclid, focusing on visible and infrared wavelengths, will gather information for the scientific community.
The mission will explore the motion and chemical composition of distant objects. “The eyes” of Euclid provide images that are at least four times sharper than those from ground-based telescopes, as it is far removed from the light and atmospheric disturbances of Earth.
The Euclid project is valued at approximately $1.5 billion and has been in development for nearly two decades. The telescope is expected to take about 30 days to reach Lagrange Point 2. Experts have not announced the exact date for capturing the first scientific image, but it is estimated to be a few months from now.
