Space: Successful launch of the Euclid telescope, which will attempt to better understand dark matter and dark energy

After its “perfect” launch, on Saturday, July 1, the European Euclid Space Telescope is on its way to its observation center, where it will attempt to shed light on one of science’s greatest mysteries, dark matter and darkness. Energy, which makes up 95% of the universe but which we know almost nothing about.

The satellite took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:12 am local time, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the American company SpaceX. After separating from the missile, it, as expected, fired its first signal.

The two-ton telescope will be located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The scientific work should begin in about three months, once the instrument calibration is complete.

Go back in time

“It’s a happy moment to see this mission on its way to its destination,” Josef Ashbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) said during the live video. The takeoff was “perfect,” Carole Mundell, director of science at the European Space Agency, lamented. “Over the next six years, we will unravel the mysteries of the dark side of the universe.”

The probe will map the universe in three dimensions, including billions of galaxies, on a one-third part of the sky. The detected distant galaxies will make it possible to go back in time to 10 billion years ago – the time required for their light to reach us.