‘Euclid satellite launch could solve mysteries of the universe’ - Southampton University
A satellite launched by SpaceX could aid Southampton scientists in uncovering mysteries of the universe that have bewildered astronomers for centuries.
The £1billion Euclid rocket was launched in July and is fitted with telescopic space cameras. The mission will last for six years and aims to uncover truths about dark energy and dark matter.
Professor of Astrophysics Francesco Shankar, from the University of Southampton, is part of the international consortium working on Euclid with NASA and the European Space Agency.
He said: “The Euclid space telescope will chart the distribution of galaxies across cosmic space and time to reveal the rate of expansion and formation of the universe. These are invaluable observational constraints which can shed light on the nature of dark energy.”
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The Euclid satellite was launched from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at its Cape Canaveral station in Florida and is currently flying towards the L2 Lagrange point — located 1.5million kilometres from Earth.
It intends to photograph more than one-third of the extragalactic sky outside the Milky Way using its high-precision camera – and will perform near-infrared spectroscopy of hundreds of millions of galaxies and stars over the same area.
Scientists will use the data collected by the satellite not only to test dark energy, dark matter, and alternative gravity theories, but also to unravel the evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes, which is the subject of Professor Shankar and his team’s work at Southampton.
Professor Shankar added: “Dark energy and dark matter are elusive components – and we don’t know much about either. By imaging billion of galaxies, Euclid will give us data on the structure of the universe up to very large scales and at different cosmic epochs, providing invaluable observational constraints on the nature of dark matter and dark energy.”
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