Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2023 November 8
A deep space image showing many galaxies, some of which
are seen in a central bar running nearly horizontally across 
the image.  
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Perseus Galaxy Cluster from Euclid
Image Credit & License: ESA, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, NASA; Processing: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay) & Giovanni Anselmi; Text: Jean-Charles Cuillandre

Explanation: There's a new space telescope in the sky: Euclid. Equipped with two large panoramic cameras, Euclid captures light from the visible to the near-infrared. It took five hours of observing for Euclid's 1.2-metre diameter primary mirror to capture, through its sharp optics, the 1000+ galaxies in the Perseus cluster, which lies 250 million light years away. More than 100,000 galaxies are visible in the background, some as far away as 10 billion light years. The revolutionary nature of Euclid lies in the combination of its wide field of view (twice the area of the full moon), its high angular resolution (thanks to its 620 Megapixel camera), and its infrared vision, which captures both images and spectra. Euclid's initial surveys, covering a third of the sky and recording over 2 billion galaxies, will enable a study of how dark matter and dark energy have shaped our universe.

Tomorrow's picture: M1


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