The Euclid

The European Space Agency (ESA) is building a new telescope with an ability to map the shape, brightness and 3D distribution of two billion galaxies that cover more than a third of the entire cosmos. It would also help to look back over 10 billion years or three-quarters of the history of our universe.

The telescope which is scheduled to be launched in 2020 has been named Euclid after the famous Greek mathematician. The 1.2 metre diameter telescope is the most ambitious attempt till date to map the geometry of the universe. The telescope would be instrumental in solving key problems in understanding how dark matter and dark energy functions as well as the evolution and fate of our expanding cosmos.

Euclid will make high precision measurements of billions of distant galaxies by using a technique called ‘gravitational lensing’ to map the distribution and evolution of the universe.