Liftoff!
Today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched ESA's Euclid telescope to orbit. This was SpaceX's 45th mission this year alone. The booster, B1080, was tasked with launching Euclid and the Falcon 9's second stage to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). It was the boosters second flight. Previously, B1080 flew the Axiom-2 mission back in late May. Euclid's is heading out to Lagrange 2 (L2) around a million kilometers away from Earth.
A "Lagrange" is a point in space in which two different masses, exerting two different gravitational forces, have a point of equilibrium. Due to the lack of gravitational pull, far less propellent is needed to keep a craft in its respective orbit. In fact, Lagrange Point 2 hosts another famous telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This is where Euclid will stay for its planned 6 year mission. While it is limited by its cold gas propellent, the mission can be extended by a few years, mapping even more of the Universe.
Euclid Overview
Euclid was created after the merging of two different proposals. DUNE, the Dark Universe Explorer, and SPACE, the Spectroscopic All Sky Cosmic Explorer. These two proposals came in after ESA announced its "Cosmic Vision" program in 2005. The telescope has a height of 4.7 meters (~15ft) and a diameter of 3.7 meters (~12ft). It consists of two main parts, the service module (SM) and the payload module (PM). The payload module is comprised of the telescope and other scientific instruments. While the service module is comprised of the cold gas thrusters, power systems, fuel and a plethora of data processing electronics.
In the six year time period the mission is planned for, Euclid is set to map 36% of the night sky. A 3D map of the Universe (with time being the third dimension) will be constructed by observing billions of galaxies, out to 10 billion light years away. This map will be constructed using two powerful instruments. These instruments are, the Near-infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), and the visible instrument (VIS). NISP and VIS will work in harmony to create a massive map of the universe.
This map will help scientists understand the Universe's structure. It will also allow more in-depth research of both dark matter and dark energy. Even though the two compounds make up 95% of the universe, very little is known about them. Euclid is poised to change that perception.