Key facts
- The release covers about 14% of the total sky area Euclid will map, the report said.
- It captures more than 60 million potential quasars, bright objects at the centers of distant galaxies.
- Researchers previously knew of about 1,000 strong gravitational lensing cases; the data holds about 15,000 probable ones.
- Andy Taylor of the University of Edinburgh said an estimated 170,000 lensing cases are expected by the mission's end.
The European Space Agency's Euclid mission released its first major set of data on November 12, 2026, the largest high-resolution image of the universe produced so far, according to Andy Taylor of the University of Edinburgh, who leads the UK science ground segment for the mission.
The release covers about 14% of the total sky area Euclid will map and captures more than 900 million galaxies as well as more than 60 million potential quasars, blazing objects at the centers of distant galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. Launched in July 2023, the mission is intended to build the largest 3D map of the universe, spanning a third of the sky and more than 10 billion years of cosmic history, to study dark energy and dark matter, thought to make up about 70% and 25% of the universe respectively.
The data also includes about 15,000 probable cases of strong gravitational lensing, a magnification effect that occurs when one galaxy, often within a galaxy cluster, sits in front of another, more distant galaxy. Taylor said experts previously knew of about 1,000 such cases and that an estimated 170,000 are expected to be found by the end of the mission. He said studying the effect may allow scientists to rule out theories about dark matter, because the lensing depends on how dark matter is distributed within a galaxy.
Stephen Serjeant, a professor of astronomy at the Open University, said strong gravitational lensing reveals how dark matter clumps, which he described as diagnostic of the type of matter. He said there is a good chance, though not a certainty, that the next breakthrough on dark matter's properties could come from strong gravitational lensing. Taylor said a further data release was expected next summer, covering the distribution of galaxies and weak gravitational lensing, subtle distortions of distant objects by foreground dark matter.