Euclid is a space mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) with the aim of better understanding the acceleration of the Universe. The spacecraft was launched on October 22, 2018 and will spend six years observing approximately 15,000 galaxies.
Euclid’s scientific goals are to:
* map the distribution of dark matter in the Universe;
* measure how dark energy has influenced the growth of cosmic structures;
* study galaxy evolution and large-scale structure formation.
The Euclid Consortium comprises over 1000 scientists from more than 100 institutes in 30 countries. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space Italia as prime contractor for Euclid, with responsibility for design, development, assembly, integration and testing at its facility in Rome. Airbus Defence and Space Deutschland leads construction of Euclid’s payload module while Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands is responsible for building its service module. Euclid carries two science instruments: a visible imager (VIS) and a near-infrared spectrometer/imager (NISP). The 1.2 m diameter primary mirror will focus light onto both instruments simultaneously. VIS will image about 35% of Euclid’s field of view in three broad wavelength bands simultaneously with high angular resolution (0″.3-0″.4). NISP will observe about half of Euclid’s field of view to very faint limits in six near-infrared bands simultaneously with low to moderate angular resolution (2″-3″). Each instrument has an associated focal plane assembly consisting primarily of detectors cooled to -269°C by meansof a dedicated cryogenic cooling loop. Data products from both instruments will be made availableto the public through ESA’s Science Archive Centre following a proprietary period for each observation set by the relevant Principal Investigator team(s).