The Euclid Space Telescope was launched in Florida today. Several Norwegian researchers have contributed to the construction of the telescope and will also analyze the data collected by the telescope.
The research group at the University of Oslo has built itself into one of the world’s strongest groups in cosmology and studies of the universe. Then you were also invited to participate in the design and planning of this Euclide satellite, Pål Brekke tells TV 2.
He explains how the telescope will survey dark matter in space – more than 10 billion light-years away. The goal is to understand why space is expanding, and how.
– We actually know very little. In the 1990s we thought we knew almost everything about the universe, but then we discovered that the universe is expanding faster and faster, and then there must be a force pushing on this universe that we can’t see.
– This is what we call dark matter and dark energy, Breck explains.
Today we can only see four percent of the universe. Now everyone is excited about whether the satellite will be able to reveal some dark secrets. It will also observe more than a billion galaxies to study the geometry of the universe.
SpaceX: Euclid launched on a SpaceX rocket. Photo: charity
The Norwegian part of Euclid has undergone stress testing at Clara Ventures Laboratories in Bergen. It was an emotional experience for director Michelle Williams when she watched the launch from the TV 2 studio.
– There are many colleagues who are really proud now. Williams says this is a significant milestone.
Saved by SpaceX
The Euclid spacecraft was scheduled to be launched by a Russian rocket in 2022, but due to the war in Ukraine, the Russians pulled out at the last minute.
This could easily have been a long delay. However, the European Space Agency (ESA) is now ready to launch the spacecraft, just over a year after the shock announcement.
TIL VÆRS: The space telescope was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. PHOTO: Greg Newton/AFP/NTB
SpaceX has proper rocket launches. They were able to launch Euclid a little more than a year behind schedule, which is very fast in the context of space travel, Winther says. Titan.uio.no.
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