New Telescope Data Reveals Universe’s Hidden Secrets
New data from a satellite one million miles from Earth has helped UK scientists shed light on how mysterious forces shaped the evolution of the Universe.
The release of the first survey data from the European Space Agency’s Euclid satellite has led to a flurry of scientific advances that further our understanding of the cosmos.
Launched in July 2023, Euclid is mapping the Universe with unprecedented precision and accuracy. By examining more than one billion galaxies over six years, this groundbreaking space telescope aims to explore two of astronomy’s biggest mysteries: dark matter and dark energy.
Despite covering less than 0.5 per cent of the complete study area, the data is already proving to be a rich source of discovery for UK scientists.
A team based at the University of Portsmouth and other institutions around the world trained machine learning algorithms and citizen scientists to search for strong gravitational lenses. These phenomena occur when massive objects, such as galaxies, distort space-time so much that they warp the light from objects behind them into rings or arcs. Such lenses are incredibly rare – researchers liken it to searching for needles in a haystack – but the team has identified 500 strong lens candidates.
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