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Official Euclid patch

Space telescopes·ESA / NASA

Euclid

ActiveLaunched in 2023·L2 — 1.5M km

Maps a 3D view of one third of the sky to track dark matter and dark energy back 10 billion years into the past.

Main objectives

Map dark matter and dark energy across 10 billion years.
Measure weak gravitational lensing over one third of the sky.
Build the largest 3D atlas of the cosmos ever made.

Did you know?

Over 6 years it will cover 1/3 of the sky — the largest cosmological survey ever undertaken.

Timeline

Jul 01, 2023

Launch

Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral.

Nov 07, 2023

First images

Perseus cluster, Horsehead Nebula, NGC 6822.

May 23, 2024

First scientific results

5 images & 10 papers, first glimpse of the Sky Atlas.

Instruments

[02]

VIS

Visible wide-field imager.

NISP

Near-infrared spectrometer and photometer.

Specifications

Mass2,100 kg

Mission6 years (nominal)

Primary mirror1.2 m

Discoveries

[05]

DiscoveryBreakthrough
Euclid Q2 — 26 million galaxies
Second data release: an additional 132 deg², shapes and distances of 26 million galaxies for precision cosmology.
Mar 19, 2026 ↗
DiscoveryBreakthrough
Euclid Q1 — cosmological map
First major data release: 14 million galaxies over 132 deg² to constrain dark matter.
Mar 06, 2025 ↗
Iconic imageBreakthrough
First Euclid Sky Atlas
Initial coverage of 132 deg² with unprecedented photometric quality — revealing roughly 11 million galaxies in just a few days.
May 23, 2024 ↗
Iconic imageMajor
First scientific results
5 images & 10 papers, first glimpse of the Sky Atlas.
May 23, 2024
Iconic imageMajor
First images
Perseus cluster, Horsehead Nebula, NGC 6822.
Nov 07, 2023

Mission milestones

[01]

Milestone
Launch
Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral.
Jul 01, 2023

Official sources