Euclid (spacecraft)
Euclid is a wide-angle space telescope with a 600-megapixel camera to record visible light, a near-infrared spectrometer, and photometer, to determine the redshift of detected galaxies. It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium and was launched on 1 July 2023.
Artist's impression | |||||||
| Names | Dark Universe Explorer (DUNE) Spectroscopic All Sky Cosmic Explorer (SPACE) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission type | Astronomy | ||||||
| Operator | ESA | ||||||
| COSPAR ID | 2023-092A | ||||||
| SATCAT no. | 57209 | ||||||
| Website | sci.esa.int/euclid euclid-ec.org | ||||||
| Mission duration | 6 years (nominal) 9 months and 15 days (in progress) | ||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||
| Manufacturer | Thales Alenia Space (main) Airbus Defence and Space (payload module) | ||||||
| Launch mass | 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) | ||||||
| Payload mass | 800 kg (1,800 lb) | ||||||
| Dimensions | 4.5 m × 3.1 m (15 ft × 10 ft) | ||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||
| Launch date | 1 July 2023 15:12 UTC | ||||||
| Rocket | Falcon 9 | ||||||
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral SLC-40 | ||||||
| Contractor | SpaceX | ||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||
| Reference system | Sun–Earth L2 | ||||||
| Regime | Lissajous orbit | ||||||
| Periapsis altitude | 1,150,000 km (710,000 mi) | ||||||
| Apoapsis altitude | 1,780,000 km (1,110,000 mi) | ||||||
| Epoch | Planned | ||||||
| Main telescope | |||||||
| Type | Korsch telescope | ||||||
| Diameter | 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) | ||||||
| Focal length | 24.5 m (80 ft) | ||||||
| Collecting area | 1.006 m2 (10.83 sq ft) | ||||||
| Wavelengths | From 550 nm (green) to 2 µm (near-infrared) | ||||||
| Resolution | 0.1 arcsec (visible) 0.3 arcsec (near-infrared) | ||||||
| Transponders | |||||||
| Band | X band (TT&C support) K band (data acquisition) | ||||||
| Frequency | 8.0–8.4 GHz (X band) 25.5–27 GHz (K band) | ||||||
| Bandwidth | Few kbit/s down & up (X band) 74 Mbit/s (K band) | ||||||
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The ESA astrophysics insignia for Euclid mission | |||||||
After approximately one month, it reached its destination, a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth second Lagrange point L2, at an average distance of 1.5 million kilometres beyond Earth's orbit (or about four times the distance from the Earth to the Moon). There the telescope is expected to remain operational for at least six years. It joins the Gaia and James Webb Space Telescope missions at L2.
The objective of the Euclid mission is to better understand dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe. To achieve this, the Korsch-type telescope will measure the shapes of galaxies at varying distances from Earth and investigate the relationship between distance and redshift. Dark energy is generally accepted as contributing to the increased acceleration of the expanding universe, so understanding this relationship will help to refine how physicists and astrophysicists understand it. Euclid's mission advances and complements ESA's Planck telescope (2009 to 2013). The mission is named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid.
Euclid is a medium-class ("M-class") mission and is part of the Cosmic Vision campaign of ESA's Science Programme. This class of missions have an ESA budget cap at around €500 million. Euclid was chosen in October 2011 together with Solar Orbiter, out of several competing missions. Euclid was launched by a Falcon 9.
On 7 November 2023 ESA revealed Euclid 's first full-colour images of the cosmos. The telescope has created razor-sharp astronomical images across a large patch of the sky, looking far into the distant universe. The first five images illustrate Euclid 's full potential to create the most extensive 3D map of the universe yet.