SpaceX rocket launches telescope conducting unprecedented study of dark matter
Misty Severi
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a new European Space Agency telescope, launched out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday, beginning an unprecedented study on dark matter.
The Euclid spacecraft will travel more than 1 million miles to a final destination in order to study dark matter and dark energy, which make up 95% of the universe. The telescope’s mission is to document and chart the universe’s history as far back as 10 billion years ago.
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The Euclid telescope will use infrared and visible wavelengths to chart one third of the sky over the next six years. Unlike other space telescopes, such as the James Webb and the Hubble telescopes, the Euclid telescope will look at multiple parts of space simultaneously.
Some parts of the galaxies that the telescope will observe date back 4 billion years ago, while three other regions will examine galaxies that go back to 1 billion years after the Big Bang.
The telescope is expected to shed new information on dark matter, which has never actually been detected. But scientists know it exists because of its gravitational influence on galaxies, according to the New York Times. It is also expected to study dark energy, which acts as the opposite of gravity by pulling things apart, instead of drawing them closer together.
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Euclid’s destination is nearly 1 million miles away, at the same spot as the Webb telescope. A point known as the second Lagrange point, or L2. The destination will give the telescope a spot to conduct its study without the Earth or the moon blocking its view.
The telescope is expected to arrive at L2 in one month, but it will take another three months for scientists to test the instruments on the telescope before they can begin deciphering data transmitted from the telescope.