During the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, the European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled images captured by its Euclid telescope, which has recorded views of 14 million galaxies and tens of millions of stars in just two weeks of operation.
This achievement represents only 1% of the telescope's mission, which aims to create the largest 3D map of the sky to explore dark matter and dark energy, together accounting for 95% of the universe.
The initial 208-gigapixel mosaic serves as the 'first page' of a comprehensive cosmic atlas that Euclid will develop over the next six years. Currently, it covers an area of the southern sky more than 500 times larger than a full moon as seen from Earth.
Ultimately, the complete map will encompass one-third of the sky beyond the Milky Way, enabling the observation and study of billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away. Launched in 2023 with NASA's collaboration, the telescope sent its first images back to Earth in November 2023, with further data expected in May 2024.