The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have announced the first results of the Euclid Telescope, launched in 2023, which aims to create the largest 3D map of the universe.
The data, representing just 1% of the map, includes 14 million galaxies and millions of stars in the Milky Way, captured with stunning detail.
The mission of Euclid is to understand the evolution of the universe in space and time, shedding light on mysterious phenomena like dark matter and dark energy, which make up 95% of the universe.
This mosaic consists of 208 gigapixels and marks the beginning of the project, covering a large portion of the universe.
The complete map will be created through six years of observations, scanning a third of the sky and recording billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away.
Prof. Mat Page from University College London (UCL) noted that no area of this magnitude has ever been imaged in such detail.
"Without Euclid, we wouldn't be able to see the faint clouds in the Milky Way and the stars illuminating them in super high resolution," he said.
Images shared by ESA indicate that the blue regions represent galactic clouds in the Milky Way.
These clouds, made up of gas and dust, reflect the optical light captured by the telescope's sensitive cameras. Upon closer examination, other details such as the spiral galaxy NGC 2188 and the Abell 3381 galaxy cluster can also be observed.
