Capturing our sharpest ever panoramas of the Universe

A team of scientists and engineers from the University of Edinburgh have used breakthrough techniques that enable Euclid’s first large pieces of its map of the Universe to be revealed, unprecedented for their unique combination of incredible detail and remarkable area.

Launched in July 2023, the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope is on a mission to map one third of the sky in exquisite detail. This latest data release, known as DR1-Foundation, covers an area of sky as big as 9500 full Moons from just one year of observing. Some 900 million galaxies are now seen with phenomenal clarity thanks to cutting-edge Edinburgh-led research.

The University of Edinburgh has recently been awarded £12.3 million by the UK Space Agency to support its continuing work on the Euclid mission until 2030. This will fund scientists and software engineers at Universities across the UK led by Edinburgh, as well as the UK Euclid Science Data Centre based at the Institute for Astronomy on Blackford Hill. In collaborating with partners around the world, Scottish technology and expertise is enabling groundbreaking discoveries with Euclid using state-of-the-art algorithms.

Utilising the UK Science Data Centre, Edinburgh leads the team that designs brand new data analysis pipelines. These pipelines enable groundbreaking science with the large datasets generated by Euclid’s onboard instruments. Known as the UK Science Ground Segment, the team work behind the scenes to account for the effects of cosmic radiation on the detectors and understand the telescope’s optics to measure the properties of galaxies with incredible precision.

Remarkably, this latest release is still just a small part of what will become Euclid’s complete cosmic atlas. Even so, it is 1.7 million gigabytes in size, equivalent to a mixtape that would take 2,000 years to listen to.

Professor Andy Taylor of the University of Edinburgh, who leads the UK Science Ground Segment for the mission, says:

These huge, ultra-high-definition images from Euclid are a gamechanger for astronomy. Euclid is proving itself to be a ‘Super-Hubble Space Telescope’, with the same high resolution but over large areas of the sky, taking just days to see more of the cosmos than Hubble has ever seen in its decades of operation. The UK Space Agency's continued support means the project has a secure future, with Edinburgh’s role in the Euclid mission central to its success. It’s an exciting time for astronomy as we turn these amazing images into a 3D map of the Universe, creating a laboratory to probe dark matter and dark energy.

With the first jigsaw pieces of Euclid’s map of the Universe now available, researchers have access to an unprecedented level of detail across a vast area of sky. Breakthroughs in how we see the Universe are being seen by astronomers across the world. In Edinburgh, a team marvelled at the way the Euclid space telescope is changing how we study the evolution of galaxies.

Professor Annette Ferguson from the Institute for Astronomy, awarded a £2.1 million grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to support her research group, says:

The first thing that strikes you is the web of bright filaments across the sky. These are made of cosmic dust within our own Milky Way, and we have to look through them to see everything beyond. Euclid’s long-wavelength filters are very effective at minimising the effects of this dust. The M81 group of galaxies is a highlight of this data and one of our best laboratories for studying how galaxies grow. Previous studies had to trade detail for coverage. Euclid delivers both: individual stars seen at a distance of 12 million light-years, and across an area wide enough to map entire galaxies.

Recently appearing at science centres and events across Scotland including the Edinburgh and Orkney Science Festivals, local astronomers are spotlighting the varied career opportunities and further ways for communities and schools to get involved in an international mission such as Euclid.

James Fawcett-Newell, UK Public Engagement Lead for the Euclid mission said:

Euclid’s dataset isn’t just for scientists, it’s for all of us. Each jigsaw piece that gets added to this remarkable cosmic atlas tells us more about humanity’s place in the Universe, and today’s release gives us our clearest view yet. There’s so much to delve into that we’re reaching the limit of the discoveries scientists can make alone. Only when we all get involved can we truly appreciate the wealth of objects out there. As the team work on the remaining DR1 results, we’re excited to continue involving the public, schools and communities in Euclid’s discoveries and signposting the varied career opportunities in such a mission.

Attention will soon turn to how the countless objects catalogued by Euclid can reveal more about the dark matter and dark energy that make up 95% of the Universe, in a way that ground-based telescopes alone cannot. The first cosmology results are expected in 2027.