宇宙望遠鏡「ユークリッド」　最初の画像公開

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】欧州宇宙機関（ＥＳＡ）が打ち上げた宇宙望遠鏡「ユークリッド」からの初めての画像が７月３１日に届いた。（写真は欧州宇宙機関が打ち上げた宇宙望遠鏡「ユークリッド」からの初めての画像。ＥＳＡ、国際チーム「ユークリッド・コンソーシアム」、ＮＡＳＡ提供）
　地球から約１５０万キロ離れた目的の軌道に達し、搭載する赤外線観測装置を調整する際に撮影された試験的な画像で、無数の星の他、銀河の姿も捉えられていた。
　ユークリッド計画のマネジャーは「１１年にわたった設計と開発を経て、こうした画像を見ることができた。興奮しているし、とても感動している」と語った。
　赤外線観測装置や可視光カメラを搭載するユークリッドは、７月１日に打ち上げられた。そのミッションには、宇宙空間の約７０％を占めると考えられている「暗黒エネルギー（ダークエネルギー）」や同２５％の「暗黒物質（ダークマター）」の謎に迫ることも含まれる。
　ユークリッドの本格稼働は１０月に予定されている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/08/01-17:08）

The Euclid space telescope, launched July 1 on a mission to shed more light on elusive dark matter and dark energy, has reached its destination orbit and on Monday its European operators revealed its first test images.
The star-filled snapshots were taken during the space telescope's commissioning -- a phase during which its powerful instruments are finely calibrated -- and therefore not representative of its full potential.
But the European Space Agency (ESA) says the tests already show it will be capable of fulfilling its massive mission.
After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it's exhilarating and enormously emotional to see these first images, Euclid project manager Giuseppe Racca in a statement.
After blasting off from Florida, the satellite has traveled about one million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth to its observational orbit.
From there, Euclid will chart the largest-ever map of the universe, encompassing up to two billion galaxies across more than a third of the sky.
By capturing light that has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth's vicinity, the map will also offer a new view of the 13.8-billion-year-old universe's history.
Its visible light camera will let it measure the shape of galaxies, while its near-infrared spectrometer and photometer -- developed with the help of NASA -- will allow it to measure how far away they are.
But when the instruments were switched on, researchers were spooked by an unexpected pattern of light contaminating the images, the ESA said.
An investigation led researchers to believe that some sunlight was creeping into the spacecraft, probably through a tiny gap, but that it was only detected when Euclid was oriented in certain ways.
By avoiding certain angles, ESA said, Euclid's imaging device will be able to fulfil its mission.
Scientists hope to use information gathered to address what Racca previously called a cosmic embarrassment: that 95 percent of the universe remains unknown to humanity.
Around 70 percent is thought to be made of dark energy, the name given to the unknown force that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate.
And 25 percent is believed to be dark matter, thought to bind the universe together and make up around 80 percent of its mass.
The telescope's scientific operations are due to begin in October.