Professor Bob Nichol
University of Portsmouth cosmologists are celebrating as a major new space mission to investigate dark matter and dark energy has been given the green light.
‘Euclid’ will see the launch of a satellite carrying a massive optical digital camera, one of the largest such cameras put into space and able to take pictures of the sky more than 100 times larger than Hubble. Each frame is the equivalent of nearly 300 HDTV screens and one will arrive every 15 minutes resulting in imaging half the sky in around six years.
By analysing data from the camera, cosmologists hope to answer key questions fundamental to physics and cosmology, including the nature of the mysterious dark energy which scientists believe might explain why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.
The project is one of just two European Space Agency (ESA) missions to make the grade from over 50 original projects and both are part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme to be built and launched between 2017 and 2020. UK astronomers are leading efforts to design and build Euclid and funding has come from the UK Space Agency, space scientists and industry partners in the UK.
Scientists from the University’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) are part of a European-wide team including nine UK institutions involved in Euclid and will be analysing data from the satellite. The ICG’s Professor Bob Nichol said that astronomers and physicists believe Euclid will revolutionise our knowledge of the Universe.
He said: “It’s been suggested that dark energy is behind the observation made by the Hubble Space telescope that – contrary to expectations – the expansion of the Universe seems to be faster now than it was billions of years ago. Euclid will effectively look back in time approximately 10 billion years covering the period over which dark energy seems to have accelerated the expansion of the Universe and capture the light from distant galaxies to map their distribution and reveal the underlying ‘dark’ architecture of the cosmos.”
Images from Euclid’s camera will capture light from distant galaxies using a gravitational lensing effect which relates to a key prediction in Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
The ICG’s Will Percival said: “It’s an amazing experiment for cosmology as it will make multiple measurements: in parallel with the optical observations, observations will be undertaken at longer wavelengths invisible to the human eye. This allows us to simultaneously discover all the mass in the Universe and the locations of galaxies within this structure.
“The Euclid dataset will be a treasure trove for all astronomers for decades to come, allowing everyone to stare anywhere in the Cosmos with Hubble-like clarity. The legacy value of Euclid will out-last its cosmological impact and may mean my grandchildren will do their PhDs using Euclid data.”
Dr David Williams, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “With strong UK involvement in these ambitious projects, we are set to maintain our country’s position as a leader in space science within Europe. These exciting missions are a prime example of collaboration between academia and the UK high-tec industry and will not only further our knowledge of space science but could help us unlock some of the greatest mysteries of our Universe.”
