Europe’s Euclid telescope is ready to begin its quest to understand the greatest mysteries in the Universe.
Exquisite imagery from the space observatory shows its capabilities to be exceptional.
Over the next six years, Euclid will survey a third of the heavens to get some clues about the nature of so-called dark matter and dark energy.
These unknown “influencers” appear to control the shape and expansion of everything that’s out there.
Researchers concede, however, they know virtually nothing about them, even though they probably account for 95% of the contents of the cosmos.
This will be Euclid’s job: to observe the contours, distances and motions of billions of galaxies, some of whose light has taken almost the entire age of the Universe to reach us.
Somewhere in the statistics of this 3D cosmic map – the largest ever made – scientists expect to find answers.