Stunning images from the giant ‘Cosmic Atlas’ map shown for the first time

Science: The Euclid space telescope has revealed the “first page” of the cosmic atlas it’s creating. The section of the map of the universe being created by Euclid was released Monday (Oct. 15), and includes hundreds of millions of stars within the Milky Way and about 14 million distant galaxies beyond our galaxy. The vast cosmic mosaic was constructed from 260 Euclid observations collected between March 25 and April 8, 2024, and includes 208 gigapixels of data. The area charted is about 500 times wider than the full moon visible in the sky above Earth.

Perhaps most surprising is that the mosaic is only 1% of the total survey Euclid will conduct over the next six years as it tracks the sizes, distances and motions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away. Not only will this create the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, but the sheer scale of this map will help scientists probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, sometimes collectively known as the “dark universe.” “This stunning image is the first piece of a map that will reveal more than a third of the sky in six years,” Valeria Pettorino, Euclid project scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA), said in a statement. “This is only 1% of the map, and yet it is packed with a variety of sources that will help scientists find new ways to describe the universe.”