European Space Agency (THIS) presented the first array of images and scientific data, obtained using the Euclid telescope, launched in July 2023 year. The main focus is on three so-called deep fields — regions of the sky, which the telescope will observe dozens of times during the mission, to peer deep into the universe's past.
The goal of the Euclid mission is to create a detailed map of almost a third of the celestial sphere, studying the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Although the current release covers only the first observations, already now astronomers have received a colossal amount of information about galaxies, lenses, nebulae and space structures.
What is included in the first release of data (Quick Data Release 1, Q1):
Coverage area — 63 square degrees (in over 300 times more, than the full moon in the sky), collected in just one week.
The number of recorded galaxies — 26 millions, of which 380 thousands were included in the first catalog.
Inspection depth — up to 10,5 billions of light years.
The number of discovered gravitational lenses is almost 500, most of which have not been recorded before.
The processing of images was joined by almost 10 000 volunteers from the Galaxy Zoo project, who helped train the Zoobot algorithm to classify galaxies and detect gravitational lenses.
Scientific discoveries and technologies.
Gravitational lensing became one of the key areas of analysis. The light of distant galaxies is bent by the gravity of nearby objects - these "distortions" help to study the mass, in particular dark matter. Euclid has already multiplied the number of potential gravitational lenses, compared to all previous missions. The current Q1 release is just that 0,4% from the total amount of data, which are planned to be collected in six years. The data will also make it possible to study weak gravitational lensing, a phenomenon, which will help reveal the nature of dark energy.
Scientific impact and future plans.
Already written 34 scientific articles, based on the first data, and will be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Expected, that the full release in 2026 year will allow to answer the key questions of cosmology.
Source: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/04/esa-releases-first-set-of-euclid-images-and-data/