The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the first full-color images from Euclid, the agency’s latest space telescope designed to study the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. During a video broadcast on Nov. 7, scientists, engineers, and agency officials unveiled the telescope’s first five images.
The images reveal five targets at different distances, with the furthest, the Perseus Cluster of galaxies, being released first, followed by spiral galaxy IC 342, irregular galaxy NGC 6822, globular cluster NGC 6397, and finally the Horsehead Nebula. These targets were chosen to demonstrate the full potential of Euclid’s two instruments, a visible-wavelength camera called the VISible instrument (VIS) and a near-infrared camera/spectrometer called Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP).