ESA releases first section of grand mosaic of the sky to be produced by Euclid
For original images, go here, here, and here.
The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday released the first mosaic section of a grand atlas of the sky that its recently launched Euclid space telescope was designed to produce.
The image to the right, assembled from several images but of very low resolution to post here, will give my readers an idea of Euclid’s capabilities. The top image shows this first mosaic in green, made up of 260 photos, laid on top of the sky atlases produced by the Gaia and Plank orbiting telescopes. As you can see, it covers only about 12% of the sky, but was also produced in only the last six months, since science observations began in February. When complete, the Euclid atlas will cover one third of the sky, and provide very high resolution data for that entire area.
The middle image provides a close-up of that mosaic, albeit in very low resolution.
This first piece of the map already contains around 100 million sources: stars in our Milky Way and galaxies beyond. Some 14 million of these galaxies could be used to study the hidden influence of dark matter and dark energy on the Universe. “This stunning image is the first piece of a map that in six years will reveal more than one third of the sky. This is just 1% of the map, and yet it is full of a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the Universe,” says Valeria Pettorino, Euclid Project Scientist at ESA.
The bottom image, once again at low resolution to post here, zooms into only one small section of that mosaic, and illustrates the high level of detail each Euclid image will contain. Though the details in this photo seem a bit fuzzy, at full resolution they remain remarkably sharp. To get an idea of how good that resolution is, see an earlier Euclid close-up photo released in May.
Euclid doesn’t take pictures with the quite the resolution of Hubble (its primary mirror at 1.2 meters diameter is half the width). While Hubble was designed to zoom in at specific objects and do so over and over if desired, Euclid will instead provide a high resolution snapshot of the entire sky, at a resolution almost as good, in both optical and infrared wavelengths.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
For original images, go here, here, and here.
The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday released the first mosaic section of a grand atlas of the sky that its recently launched Euclid space telescope was designed to produce.
The image to the right, assembled from several images but of very low resolution to post here, will give my readers an idea of Euclid’s capabilities. The top image shows this first mosaic in green, made up of 260 photos, laid on top of the sky atlases produced by the Gaia and Plank orbiting telescopes. As you can see, it covers only about 12% of the sky, but was also produced in only the last six months, since science observations began in February. When complete, the Euclid atlas will cover one third of the sky, and provide very high resolution data for that entire area.
The middle image provides a close-up of that mosaic, albeit in very low resolution.
This first piece of the map already contains around 100 million sources: stars in our Milky Way and galaxies beyond. Some 14 million of these galaxies could be used to study the hidden influence of dark matter and dark energy on the Universe. “This stunning image is the first piece of a map that in six years will reveal more than one third of the sky. This is just 1% of the map, and yet it is full of a variety of sources that will help scientists discover new ways to describe the Universe,” says Valeria Pettorino, Euclid Project Scientist at ESA.
The bottom image, once again at low resolution to post here, zooms into only one small section of that mosaic, and illustrates the high level of detail each Euclid image will contain. Though the details in this photo seem a bit fuzzy, at full resolution they remain remarkably sharp. To get an idea of how good that resolution is, see an earlier Euclid close-up photo released in May.
Euclid doesn’t take pictures with the quite the resolution of Hubble (its primary mirror at 1.2 meters diameter is half the width). While Hubble was designed to zoom in at specific objects and do so over and over if desired, Euclid will instead provide a high resolution snapshot of the entire sky, at a resolution almost as good, in both optical and infrared wavelengths.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The link for the second image is invalid.
David Eastman: Link fixed. Thank you.