On 19 March 2025, our Euclid mission released its first batch of survey data, including a preview of its deep fields. Here, hundreds of thousands of galaxies in different shapes and sizes take centre stage and show a glimpse of their large-scale organisation in the cosmic web.
đč ESA â European Space Agency đž ESA /Euclid/Euclid Consortium/@NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi Euclid Deep Field South, 70x zoom: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi
On 19 March 2025, our Euclid mission released its first batch of survey data, revealing an astonishing view of the cosmic web.
With just one scan of its deep fields, Euclid has already detected 26 million galaxies, some as far as 10.5 billion light-years away! This is just a preview of whatâs to come, as Euclid will continue mapping the Universe in unprecedented detail.
Whatâs in this first release? â Three vast mosaics covering 63 square degrees of the sky â A catalogue of 380 000 galaxies, classified with AI + citizen scientists â 500 new gravitational lens candidates, almost all never seen before â The first hints of Euclidâs full cosmic atlas, which will eventually cover one-third of the sky
This data is a huge leap forward in understanding how galaxies are distributed across the Universe and how dark matter and dark energy shape the cosmos.
Over the next six years, Euclid will revisit these deep fields 30 to 52 times, uncovering billions of galaxies and pushing the astrophysicsâ boundaries.
đč @europeanspaceagency đž ESA /Euclid/Euclid Consortium/@NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi Euclid Deep Field South, 70x zoom: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi
The European Space Agencyâs Euclid space telescope mission has scouted out the three areas in the sky where it will eventually provide the deepest observations of its mission.
In just one week of observations, with one scan of each region so far, Euclid already spotted 26 million galaxies. The farthest of those are up to 10.5 billion light-years away.
In the coming years, Euclid will pass over these three regions tens of times, capturing many more faraway galaxies, making these fields truly âdeepâ by the end of the nominal mission in 2030.
The first glimpse of 63 square degrees of the sky, the equivalent area of more than 300 times the full Moon, already gives an impressive preview of the scale of Euclidâs grand cosmic atlas when the mission is complete. This atlas will cover one-third of the entire sky â 14 000 square degrees â in this high-quality detail.
âââââââââââââââââ Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi, M. Walmsley, M. Huertas-Company; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration âââââââââââââââââ
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Discover the first page of ESA Euclidâs great cosmic atlas and marvel at millions of stars and galaxies captured in pristine detail, in a huge 208-gigapixel mosaic. The mosaic covers an area of the Southern Sky more than 500 times the area of the full Moon as seen from Earth.
This video takes you through a rare sky dive. Starting from a vast cosmic panorama bedazzled by some 14 million galaxies, a series of ever-deeper zooms brings you to a crisp view of a swirling spiral galaxy, in a final image enlarged 600 times compared to the full mosaic.
Although the scenes are enticing, they are not taken for their beauty, but to help us advance our understanding of the cosmos. Many of the 14 million galaxies in the initial vista will be used to study the hidden influence of dark matter and dark energy on the Universe.
Unveiled as a teaser of the wide survey, the mosaic accounts for 1% of the area that Euclid will cover over six years, and was obtained by combining 260 observations collected in just two weeks.
This first chunk of Euclidâs survey was revealed on 15 October 2024 at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, by ESAâs Director General Josef Aschbacher and Director of Science Carole Mundell.
âââââââââââââââââ Copyright: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CEA Paris-Saclay, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration âââââââââââââââââ
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ESAâs Euclid space mission has released five unprecedented new views of the Universe. These never-before-seen images demonstrate Euclidâs remarkable ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos. Scientists are now equipped to hunt for rogue planets, study mysterious matter through lensed galaxies, and explore the evolution of the Universe. Join us as we explore these groundbreaking discoveries and what they mean for the future of space exploration.
Credits: ESA â European Space Agency
Chapters: 00:00 â 00:36 Intro 00:36 â 01:14 The Galaxy Cluster Abell 2390 01:15 â 02:14 Messier 78: Stellar Nurseries and Galactic Formation 02:15 â 03:02 Galaxies in the Dorado Group 03:03 â 04:27 NGC 6744 04:28 â 05:25 Abell 2764 05:26 â 6:16 Conclusion
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We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESA is releasing a new set of full-colour images captured by the space telescope Euclid. Five new portraits of our cosmos were captured during Euclidâs early observations phase, each revealing amazing new science. Euclidâs ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos is something you will not want to miss.
Credits: ESA â European Space Agency
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Today, ESAâs Euclid space mission releases five unprecedented new views of the Universe. The never-before-seen images demonstrate Euclidâs ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos and enable scientists to hunt for rogue planets, use lensed galaxies to study mysterious matter, and explore the evolution of the Universe.
Read more about Euclidâs first images and download the individual images here:
Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi
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At present itâs as though the distance ladder observed by Hubble and Webb has firmly set an anchor point on one shoreline of a river, and the afterglow of the Big Bang observed by our Planck mission from the beginning of the Universe is set firmly on the other side. How the Universeâs expansion was changing in the billions of years between these two endpoints has yet to be directly observed.
đč ESA â European Space Agency đž NASA, ESA, CSA, Space Telescope Science Inst., A. Riess (JHU/STScI)
ESA is releasing the first full-colour images of the cosmos captured by its recently launched space telescope Euclid. Follow live a broadcast of the reveal on Tuesday 7 November at 13:15 GMT / 14:15 CET.
Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky. Five images show that the telescope is ready for its mission to create the most extensive 3D map of the Universe yet and uncover some of its hidden secrets.
Credits: ESA â European Space Agency
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Today, ESAâs Euclid space mission reveals its first full-colour images of the cosmos. Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant Universe. These five images illustrate Euclidâs full potential; they show that the telescope is ready to create the most extensive 3D map of the Universe yet, to uncover some of its hidden secrets.
Credits: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky.
On Tuesday 7 November, ESA will release the first full-colour images captured by its recently launched Euclid space telescope. These images form part of the missionâs âEarly Release Observationsâ â where Euclid was tasked with scrutinising a set of celestial targets chosen for their public appeal and scientific value.
The five images are full of cosmic secrets waiting to be revealed. And this is just the beginning. During its six-year mission, Euclid will generate the equivalent of a million DVDs of data. These data will be used to create the biggest ever 3D map of the Universe and uncover the secrets of dark matter and dark energy.
In this video, hear from the experts about how Euclid has reached this milestone. Discover how they felt when they saw the first images, and find out what these images will reveal about the cosmos.
Watch the reveal of the images live through ESA Web TV or YouTube on 7 November, 13:15 GMT / 14:15 CET. At the same time, an ESA press release including all images will be published at esa.int/euclid.
Credits: ESA â European Space Agency Music: Carollyn Eden â 2 Million stars
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ESAâs Euclid mission is on a quest to unveil the nature of two elusive âdarkâ entities. As the renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking remarked in 2013, âThe missing link in cosmology is the nature of dark matter and dark energyâ.
During the last 70 years, scientists have made enormous progress in understanding the very initial phases of the Universe and its evolution to the present day. Thanks to advances in observations and theoretical modelling, a clear picture has emerged of how stars form, and how galaxies grow and interact with each other, coming together to form groups and clusters.
Yet, fundamental mysteries remain. 95% of the Universe appears to be made up of unknown âdarkâ matter and energy. Dark matter and energy affect the motion and distribution of visible sources but do not emit, reflect or absorb any light. And scientists do not know what these dark entities actually are.
To address this question, Euclid will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing with unprecedented accuracy billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. This is not easy, and making sure that Euclid is up to the task has required the expertise and dedication of many people over several years of work.
This video captures the journey behind the Euclid mission, from a human and intensely visual perspective. It shows tiny screws, winding cables and shiny surfaces in a whole new light, revealing how each piece comes together to form the space telescope. Be drawn in by awe-inspiring photos of the cosmos, and stay for the seemingly choreographed ballet of teamwork necessary to assemble and test the spacecraft, before being swept away by the emotion of the launch into space.
Euclidâs adventure has begun. With its observations during the coming years, it will help us uncover the missing link in cosmology and open the gate to the âdarkâ side of the Universe.
Credit: ESA/Studio Redgrove CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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ESAâs Euclid mission will create a 3D-map of the Universe that scientists will use to measure the properties of dark energy and dark matter and uncover the nature of these mysterious components. The map will contain a vast amount of data, it will cover more than a third of the sky and its third dimension will represent time spanning 10 billion years of cosmic history.
But dealing with the huge and detailed set of novel data that Euclid observations will produce is not an easy task. To prepare for this, scientists in the Euclid Consortium have developed one of the most accurate and comprehensive computer simulations of the large-scale structure of the Universe ever produced. They named this the Euclid Flagship simulation.
Running on large banks of advanced processors, computer simulations provide a unique laboratory to model the formation and evolution of large-scale structures in the Universe, such as galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the filamentary cosmic web they form. These state-of-the-art computational techniques allow astrophysicists to trace the motion and behavior of an extremely large number of dark-matter particles over cosmological volumes under the influence of their own gravitational pull. They replicate how and where galaxies form and grow, and are used to predict their distribution across the celestial sphere.
Explore the Euclid Flagship simulation in this video and get a sneak preview of the structure of the dark Universe, as we currently model it. New insights will be brought to you by the Euclid mission in the coming years.
Credits: ESA/Euclid Consortium/Cacao Cinema The authors kindly acknowledge the use of the Splotch package: http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~kdolag/Splotch
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If you think its only possible be held in orbit around a central body of mass â say a planet or a star â youâd be wrong. It is in fact possible to orbit around an invisible point, an oasis of forces, infinitesimal in size. ESAâs Euclid mission was launched on 1 July 2023 to uncover the secrets of the dark universe. Its destination? Like many astronomy missions before it, Lagrange point 2.
âL2â is an ideal location for astronomy missions because they can keep the Sun, Earth and Moon behind them at all times, so they donât interfere with observations, while at the same time getting a clear view of deep space and pointing an antenna back to Earth to remain in close communication. The permanent sunlight on Euclid at L2 also keeps the telescope thermally stable, allowing for the extremely high stability required for the instrumentâs long exposure observations. Euclidâs orbit around Lagrange point 2 is big. In terms of distance, the âradiusâ of Euclidâs orbit varies from about 400 000 kilometres at its closest to the centre, and up to 800 000 kilometres at its furthest. By the time Euclid has completed one full revolution around L2, the Moon will have circled the Earth six times.
The reason for this large orbit is that it is almost free, in terms of fuel, to get there. The better the accuracy of the rocket that launches a mission into such a large halo orbit around L2, the less fuel thatâs needed to perform correction manoeuvres â and Euclid only required a tiny correction manoeuvre after its near-perfect launch on a Space X Falcon 9.
This animation, created using âGaia Skyâ, shows Euclidâs path from Earth to this unique and useful position in space. Located about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the opposite direction from the Sun, the second Lagrange point (or Libration point) is about four times further away than our Moon.
Euclid will spend about a month getting to âL2â followed by a planned six years in orbit, from where it will study the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy, that make up 95% of our Universe, but about which very little is known.
Credits: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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ESAâs latest astrophysics mission, Euclid, lifted off on a Space X Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, at 17:12 CEST on 1 July 2023.
Euclid has now started its month-long journey to Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, located 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, in the opposite direction from the Sun.
The telescope will survey one third of the sky with unprecedented accuracy and sensitivity. By observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, it will create the most extensive 3D-map of the Universe, with the third dimension representing time.
ESAâs Euclid mission is designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. Euclid will chart how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure is distributed across space and time, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Four weeks after launch, Euclid will enter its orbit around L2. Once in orbit, mission controllers will start the activities to verify all functions of the spacecraft, check out the telescope and finally turn the instruments on. Following this, scientists and engineers will be engaged in an intense two-month phase of testing and calibrating Euclidâs scientific instruments, and preparing for routine observations. The telescope begins its early phase of the survey of the Universe three months after launch.
We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESAâs latest astrophysics mission, Euclid, lifted off on a Space X Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, at 17:12 CEST on 1 July 2023.
Euclid has now started its month-long journey to Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, located 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, in the opposite direction from the Sun.
The telescope will survey one third of the sky with unprecedented accuracy and sensitivity. By observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, it will create the most extensive 3D-map of the Universe, with the third dimension representing time.
ESAâs Euclid mission is designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. Euclid will chart how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure is distributed across space and time, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Four weeks after launch, Euclid will enter its orbit around L2. Once in orbit, mission controllers will start the activities to verify all functions of the spacecraft, check out the telescope and finally turn the instruments on. Following this, scientists and engineers will be engaged in an intense two-month phase of testing and calibrating Euclidâs scientific instruments, and preparing for routine observations. The telescope begins its early phase of the survey of the Universe three months after launch.
We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
Watch a replay of the launch broadcast for ESAâs Euclid.
ESAâs Euclid mission was launched into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, on 1 July 2023. It is now on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.
By observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, the space telescope will create the most detailed 3D-map of the Universe, with time as the third dimension.
The launch broadcast programme includes live segments from the launch site and ESAâs European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.
Credits: ESA/SpaceX
00:00 â 45:35 Pre-launch programmes 45:35 â 55:00 Lift-off 55:00 â 01:27:00 Booster landing in the ocean 01:27:00 â 01:31:00 Euclid space craft separation 01:31:00 â 01:42:29 Acquisition of Signal (AOS)
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We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESAâs Euclid space telescope is nearly ready for launch. The spacecraft arrived in Florida on 30 April for final tests and checks, and now being integrated with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will carry it into space.
For the team at ESAâs European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, this means that the most intense phase of their work is about to begin. To prepare themselves, the team has simulated the launch operations, tackling issues ranging from team members falling ill to a computer mouse being taped over.
Euclid is ESAâs space telescope designed to explore the dark Universe. The mission will create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever produced across 10 billion years of cosmic time. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure is distributed across space and time, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Euclid is targeted to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, at 11:11 local time / 16:11 BST / 17:11 CEST on Saturday 1 July 2023. A back-up launch date of Sunday 2 July 2023 is foreseen.
Credit: ESA â European Space Agency
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We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESAâs Euclid mission is designed to bring the dark side of the Universe to light. Based on the way galaxies rotate and orbit one another, and the way in which the Universe is expanding, astronomers believe that two unseen entities dominate the composition of our cosmos. They call these mysterious components dark matter and dark energy, yet to date we have not been able to detect either of them directly, only inferring their presence from the effects they have on the Universe at large.
To better understand what dark matter and dark energy may be, we need a mission that can more closely reveal what effects they have had on galaxies, galaxy clusters and the expansion of the Universe itself. Euclid is that mission.
ESAâs Euclid mission will create a 3D-map of the Universe, with the third dimension representing time itself. The further away a galaxy is located, the longer its light has taken to reach us and so the earlier in cosmic history we will see it. By observing billions of galaxies out to a distance of 10 billion light-years, scientists will be able to chart the position and velocity of galaxies over immense distances and through most of cosmic history, and trace the way the Universe has expanded during that time. Euclidâs extraordinary optics will also reveal subtle distortions in the appearance of galaxies.
From this wealth of new data, astronomers will be able to infer the properties of dark energy and dark matter more precisely than ever before. This will help theorists pin down the nature of these mysterious components and develop a refined understanding of how gravity behaves at the largest distances.
Credit: ESA â European Space Agency
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We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
ESAâs Euclid mission is designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark Universe. The space telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Euclid is a fully European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA. The Euclid Consortium â consisting of more than 2000 scientists from 300 institutes in 13 European countries, the US, Canada and Japan â provided the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its Service Module, with Airbus Defence and Space chosen to develop the Payload Module, including the telescope. NASA provided the near-infrared detectors of the NISP instrument.
More about Euclid: esa.int/euclid
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We are Europeâs gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europeâs space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.
At the Thales Alenia Space test facility in Cannes, France, the massive door of the thermal vacuum chamber was opened after a month of rigorous testing of ESAâs Euclid mission to explore the dark Universe. In Cannes the fully integrated spacecraft was subjected to the conditions of space and its subsystems were fully tested for the first time. With the Euclid space telescope, scientists hope to learn more about dark matter and dark energy which could make up more than 95% of our Universe.
The film includes soundbites from ESA Euclid Mission and Payload Manager: Alexander Short and ESA Euclid VIS-Instrument Engineer: Magdalena Szafraniec.
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This evidence seems to suggest that the dark matter is particles that are less than four times the mass of a proton and are moving at non-relativistic speeds. This is consistent with dark matter particles being so-called WIMPs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weakly_interacting_massive_particles.
Ginevra Favole is an ESAC research fellow working on the large-scale structures of the universe. Her main scientific field is emission-line galaxies, galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing. She also works with mock catalogues and N-body cosmological simulations.
Scientific notes:
Stellar mass black holes vs. supermassive black holes
* Stellar mass black holes form from the collapse of massive stars at the ends of their lives, so they have roughly the same mass as a star. Supermassive black holes are physically identical to their smaller counterparts, except they are 10 thousand to a billion times the size of the sun. However, their formation is more of a mystery. They may form from the merging of smaller black holes. http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/S/Supermassive+Black+Hole
Supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies
* Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center, but researchers are not yet sure (https://jila.colorado.edu/research/astrophysics/black-holes-galaxies) why thatâs the case, how they originate, and what their role is in the creation and evolution of galaxies.
Why are stars different colors?
* The color of a star depends on its temperature (http://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/astrophysics/photometry_colour.html). The hotter a star, the higher energy its light will be. Higher energy/temperature corresponds with the blue end of the visible spectrum and lower energy/temperature corresponds with the red end.
How does dark matter make stars spin faster?
* In the 1960s, astronomers Vera Rubin and Kent Ford noticed that stars at the edges of galaxies were moving just as fast as stars at the center, which surprised them: it appeared that the force of gravity causing stars to orbit the center of the galaxy was not weakening over distance. Their observation implied that something else, distributed throughout the galaxy, was exerting a gravitation pull. We now know that that âsomething else,â now named dark matter, accounts for about 85% of the matter in the universe. (It existence was inferred in the 1930s, when the astronomer Fritz Zwicky(http://www2.astro.psu.edu/users/rbc/a1/week_10.html) noticed that galaxies in clusters were moving faster than they should.)
Size of the universe
* The universe is only 13.8 billion years old, but has a radius of about 46 billion light-years. If nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, how can that be? The expansion of the universe, driven by dark energy, is causing distances between objects to grow. Note that it is not moving those objects apart; rather, it is increasing the amount of space between them. https://phys.org/news/2015-10-big-universe.html
Cosmic webs
* Galaxies are not distributed randomly (http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr1/en/astro/structures/structures.asp) in space; instead, clusters of galaxies form web-like patterns. These webs consist of filaments, where dark matter and ordinary (baryonic) matter are concentrated, and voids, where galaxies are scarce. Researchers believe that these large-scale structures grew out of minor fluctuations in density at the beginning of the universe.
Composition of the early universe
* Moments after the Big Bang, the universe formed the nuclei for what would be come the universeâs hydrogen and helium atoms, with one helium nucleus for every 10 or 11 hydrogen (http://umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm). When the first stars formed, there were no heavier elements â those elements formed inside stars.
String Theory Landscape
* The String Theory Landscape is a theory that the universe we live in is one of many universes. It attempts to explain how certain constants of nature seem âfine-tunedâ for life, which contradicts the anthropic principle, or the notion that we humans hold a special place in the universe. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/multiverse-the-case-for-parallel-universe/%0A
Disintegration of the universe
* In the future Degenerate Era of the universe, as space-time expands and stars burn up, all of the matter in stars will be consumed by black holes. But even black holes are not forever. Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes will slowly radiate away their mass in what is now called Hawking radiation until they too dissipate away. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/a/adams-universe.html
______
MEDIA CREDITS:
Music provided by APM
Sound effects: Freesound.org
Additional Animations:
â Galaxy within Universe: Edgeworx;
â Stars at center of Milky Way â NASA/NCSA University of Illinois Visualization by Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute, Simulation by Martin White and Lars Hernquist, Harvard University
What if everything in the universe came to your doorstepâŠin a box?! What The Physics is BACK! Future episodes will explore the universeâbut first, letâs unbox it.
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SCIENTIFIC NOTES:
Explosive young stars
* The average lifetime of a star is about 10 billion years, but the bigger the star, the shorter its life. One rare type of star, called a hypergiant, can be tens, hundreds, or even a thousand times the mass of our sun. These stars burn out and explode into supernovae in just a few million years. http://www.guide-to-the-universe.com/hypergiant-star.html
Black holes
* Black holes form from the collapse of a massive star at the end of its life, but this only happens in stars about three times as massive as the sun. http://burro.case.edu/Academics/Astr201/EndofSun.pdf
How big is the universe?
* Probably infinite. No one knows the size of the universe for sure, and we may never know, but the latest thinking is that it probably goes on forever. https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_shape.html
Standard cosmological model
* According to the standard cosmological model, the universe started with a big bang, underwent rapid inflation within the first fraction of a second, and continues to expand, driven by a vacuum energy called dark energy. All of the structure we see in the universe has come from interactions between dark energy and dark matter (which accounts for about 85% of the universeâs matter). This model describes and predicts many phenomena in the universe but is not perfect. https://physics.aps.org/articles/v8/108
False vacuum model
* The false vacuum model is a real, albeit unlikely theory. All the fundamental forces of nature have corresponding fields (e.g., gravitational fields, magnetic fields, etc.), and we generally believe that the universe is at rest in a global minimum of the potentials of those fields. But if we are instead at rest in a local minimum, or a âfalse vacuum,â the universe could potentially be nudged, catastrophically, into a lower minimum.
Recycling stars into life
* Before the first stars, the universe was all hydrogen and helium. All heavier elements, including the building blocks of life, were forged in stars.
Dark matter and dark energy
* Only 5% of the universe is made up of matter we can see. The âmissing massâ later dubbed dark matter was first noticed in the 1930s; dark energy was discovered in the 1990s. In both cases, their existence was inferred by their effect on objects they interact with. However, they are still not directly observable, so nobody knows yet what they are made of.
Leftover light from the Big Bang
* The theory of the Big Bang predicted the existence of cool radiation pervading the universe, left over from its beginning. In an accidental discovery, two New Jersey scientists discovered the cosmic microwave background, a nearly uniform bath of radiation throughout the universe at a temperature of about 3 Kelvin, or -454 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gravitational waves
* Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity in 1916. According to his theory, the acceleration of massive objects, like black holes, should send ripples through space-time at the speed of light. A century after his prediction, two merging black holes sent a ripple through space-time that was detected on Earth as a signal that stretched the 4-kilometer arms of a detector by less than 1/1,000 the width of a proton.
Cosmic dust
* Cosmic dust is cast off from stars at the end of their lives and hovers in galaxies as clouds. These clouds of dust absorb ultraviolet and visible light, obscuring much of what lies behind them. This makes it notoriously difficult to study things like the dusty center of our galaxy.
The observable universe
* The universe is 13.8 billion years old. Since the distance we can observe is limited by the time it takes light to travel to Earth, we can only ever observe a fraction of the universe: an expanding sphere around us that is now about 46 billion years in radius. However, the universe is much larger than what we can observe.
CREDITS:
Host, Writer, Producer: Greg Kestin
Animation & Compositing: Danielle Gustitus
Contributing Writers: Lissy Herman, HCSUCS
Filming, Writing, & Editing Contributions from:
Samia Bouzid and David Goodliffe
Creation of Sad Star Image: Drew Ganon
Special thanks:
Julia Cort
Lauren Aguirre
Ari Daniel
Anna Rothschild
Allison Eck
Fernando Becerra
And the entire NOVA team
SPACETIME IS BACK! And with this episode we welcome in Matt OâDowd as the new host to rigorously take you through the mysteries of space, time, and the nature of reality. Weâre starting off this new season with perhaps one of the most mysterious things of all â DARK MATTER. What is it? Where does it come from? And is it even real? Watch this episode of Space Time to find out!
All we can see around us, from planet Earth to distant galaxies, represents just five per cent of the Universe â the rest is dark energy or dark matter. So what do we know and what do we not know about these elusive components of the cosmos?
The simple answer is that we donât know much about dark matter and even less about dark energy.
However, that could change quite soon thanks to groundbreaking research being done by scientists at ESA and CERN, home to the worldâs foremost particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. The LHCâs discovery three years ago of the Higgs Boson set researchers on a voyage of discovery to the dark side of the Universe. They are about to fire up the colossal accelerator again this year, and for the first time at full power. That extra energy is whatâs giving optimism for new revelations about dark energy and dark matter. One scientists tells Space: âwe might have a discovery even in the first days, if not in the first weeks.â
At the same time ESA is building a new space telescope called Euclid which will watch how the gravity of dark matter acts on galaxies, and how dark energy is pushing the expansion of our Universe.
Find out how science is unraveling the dark mysteries of the cosmos.
Derzeit wissen wir nur wenig ĂŒber dunkle Materie und fast nichts ĂŒber dunkle Energie, aber all das könnte sich bald Ă€ndern. Physiker und Kosmologen versuchen mit Weltraumteleskop und Teilchenbeschleuniger der dunklen Energie und der dunklen Materie auf die Spur zu kommen.
Das Kernforschungszentrum CERN in der NĂ€he von Genf beheimatet den groĂen Hadronenbeschleuniger. Vor drei Jahren entdeckte er das Higgs-Teilchen. Dieses Jahr hat er sich viel vorgenommen. Die Physiker hoffen mit ihm zum ersten Mal Partikel der dunklen Materie zu produzieren.
Eine solche Entdeckung wĂŒrde wahrhaft kosmische Folgen haben, denn alles â Planeten, Sterne und Galaxien â steht unter dem Einfluss von dunkler Materie und dunkler Energie. Die neuen Erkenntnisse werden wir nicht nur dem Hadronenbeschleuniger zu verdanken haben. Die EuropĂ€ische Weltraumorganisation, ESA, baut Euclid, ein neues Weltraumteleskop. Es soll die Tiefen des Universums neu vermessen und beobachten, wie sich die GravitĂ€t der dunklen Materie auf die Galaxien auswirkt und wie die dunkle Energie unser Universum immer weiter ausdehnt.
Was die Wissenschaftler bisher herausgefunden haben, ist unglaublich: normale Materie macht nur fĂŒnf Prozent des Universums aus. Rund 68 Prozent des Universums besteht aus dunkler Energie und 27 Prozent besteht aus dunkler Materie.
Die Forscher machen stetig Fortschritte. Was die dunkle Materie anbelangt, sind sie sich ziemlich sicher, dass es sich um ein geheimnisvolles Teilchen handelt, das sie frĂŒher oder spĂ€ter identifizieren werden.
Space Shuttle âEndeavourâ was launched to space at 14:56 CEST (12:56 GMT) on 16 May from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The 16-day-long STS-134 mission will deliver AMS-02, a big cosmological instrument to the Space Station and its crew includes ESAâs Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori. This is the last flight of âEndeavourâ.
