First test images from Euclid space telescope unveiled

&lt;p&gt;The Euclid space telescope, launched July 1 on a mission to shed more light on elusive dark matter and dark energy, has reached its destination orbit and on Monday its European operators revealed its first test images.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The star-filled snapshots were taken during the space telescope&amp;#39;s commissioning -- a phase during which its powerful instruments are finely calibrated -- and therefore not representative of its full potential.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But the European Space Agency (ESA) says the tests already show it will be capable of fulfilling its massive mission.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it&amp;#39;s exhilarating and enormously emotional to see these first images,&amp;quot; Euclid project manager Giuseppe Racca in a statement.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After blasting off from Florida, the satellite has traveled about one million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth to its observational orbit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;From there, Euclid will chart the largest-ever map of the universe, encompassing up to two billion galaxies across more than a third of the sky.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;By capturing light that has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth&amp;#39;s vicinity, the map will also offer a new view of the 13.8-billion-year-old universe&amp;#39;s history.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Its visible light camera will let it measure the shape of galaxies, while its near-infrared spectrometer and photometer -- developed with the help of NASA -- will allow it to measure how far away they are.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But when the instruments were switched on, researchers were spooked by &amp;quot;an unexpected pattern of light contaminating the images,&amp;quot; the ESA said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;An investigation led researchers to believe that &amp;quot;some sunlight was creeping into the spacecraft, probably through a tiny gap,&amp;quot; but that it was only detected when Euclid was oriented in certain ways.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;By avoiding certain angles,&amp;quot; ESA said, Euclid&amp;#39;s imaging device &amp;quot;will be able to fulfil its mission.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Scientists hope to use information gathered to address what Racca previously called a &amp;quot;cosmic embarrassment&amp;quot;: that 95 percent of the universe remains unknown to humanity.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Around 70 percent is thought to be made of dark energy, the name given to the unknown force that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And 25 percent is believed to be dark matter, thought to bind the universe together and make up around 80 percent of its mass.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The telescope&amp;#39;s scientific operations are due to begin in October.&lt;/p&gt;

First test images from Euclid space telescope unveiled

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