Euclid, the space telescope mapping the dark Universe from Lagrange point 2
Background
Euclid is a space telescope of ESA built to study what the agency calls the dark Universe. It observes billions of galaxies to build a three-dimensional map of how matter is spread across space and time, reaching out to 10 billion light-years and covering more than a third of the sky. From that map astronomers hope to learn how the Universe expanded and what dark energy and dark matter actually do. The telescope went up on 1 July 2023 from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9. It works from the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, about 1.5 million km from Earth. Its survey data is released to scientists in stages. In October 2026 ESA reported that Euclid had also picked up a new comet in its images.
In plain words
Dark energy Dark energy — The unknown cause of the speeding up of the Universe's expansion.
Lagrange point Lagrange point — A point where the pull of two bodies lets a spacecraft keep station with little fuel.
ESA European Space Agency — The space agency run jointly by European countries.