Telescope and instruments

Clouds, darkness, dust, … and light

Consortium, Science, Telescope and instruments / By

Just recently, in early November 2025, ESA released Euclid’s image of ‘LDN 1641’, an actively star-forming region in the ‘sword’ region of the constellation Orion. This region was observed by Euclid in near-infrared wavelengths early on in the mission, during a test for the spacecraft’s ability to orient itself in the sky: will the spacecraft get confused if it has very little information for orientation? We now added a ground-based image in visible light and created a comparison – a tale of young stars and clouds of dust, and the struggle for light trying to shine through strong absorption.

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Clouds, darkness, dust, … and lightRead More »

Clouds, darkness, dust, … and light Read More »

Here Comes the Sun…

Consortium, Telescope and instruments / By

Were you lucky enough to see the aurora earlier this week? Stronger than usual solar activity recently gave many people across the world a chance to see this spectacular light show – the result of eruptions of particles from the Sun travelling towards Earth and interacting with our planet’s atmosphere. But how was Euclid affected by this space weather…?

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Here Comes the Sun…Read More »

Here Comes the Sun… Read More »

Second anniversary of Euclid in space

Consortium, ESA, People, Science, Telescope and instruments / By

It was a hot morning at Cape Canaveral in Florida, on July 1st, 2023, two years ago today. It was the first morning of the 3rd quarter of the year, the earliest possible launch day for Euclid. Late at night there had been some last minute work on the launcher and at 3AM the rocket apparently had still been lying horizontally, but a few hours later it could be seen standing upright with Euclid on top, sheltered by an ESA- and Euclid-themed fairing. The launch was on!

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Second anniversary of Euclid in space Read More »

What Euclid really sees in the sky

Consortium, ESA, Science, Telescope and instruments / By

Euclid’s goal is to produce scientific insight in the fields of cosmology and astrophysics. New knowledge comes in the shape of understanding of processes, new ‘laws of nature’, or numbers relating different physical properties to each other. However, the Euclid spacecraft initially observes the sky, and its data after a downlink to Earth is processed in a set of complex data analysis pipelines to extract such numbers and relations. Some of the images that have been calibrated to scientific standards that allow such an extraction have already been publicized – but how does Euclid’s raw, unprocessed view into the sky look?

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What Euclid really sees in the skyRead More »

What Euclid really sees in the sky Read More »

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