Another feature that you can see in #ESAEuclid's first images: What are these? Satellite streaks 🛰️? Asteroids ☄️? Superwoman (or Superman) 🦸🏽 ?

No, much smaller: these are traces by #CosmicRays ⚡, hitting #Euclid's #VIS and #NISP detectors directly, depositing energy and electric charges in their pixels.

Read more about all the features and objects you can see in #Euclid's #FirstLight images:

👉 https://www.euclid-ec.org/whats-in-euclids-first-light-images

#ESA #DarkMatter #DarkEnergy #astrodon #astronomy #space

ESA geeft eerste testbeelden van Euclid vrij

De twee instrumenten van Euclid hebben hun eerste testbeelden gemaakt. De betoverende resultaten geven aan dat de ruimtetelescoop de wetenschappelijke doelen zal bereiken waarvoor hij is ontworpen

https://www.kuuke.nl/esa-geeft-eerste-testbeelden-van-euclid-vrij/

#DonkereEnergie #DonkereMaterie #esa #euclid #NISP #VIS

Coming Monday (31. July) we will declare "First Light" for #ESAEuclid 🛰️ and show the first engineering images that the #VIS and #NISP instruments 📷 have taken of the sky, using a fully focussed telescope! 🔭

Yay! 🥳

That said, #Euclid has now also arrived at its ultimate distance from Earth, circling around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 😎🌏🛰️ - joining #ESAGaia and #JWST:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZXvHKuv0WEQ

#ESA #astrodon #astronomy #DarkEnergy #DarkMatter #gravity #space

The #NISP team has completed #commissioning of the second of #ESAEuclid's instruments. ✅ NISP is the "Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer"🌈, working in parallel to #VIS. NISP is working fine! Another big step for the mission! 🎉

An intro to NISP:

👉  https://www.euclid-ec.org/public/mission/nisp

Next up in commissioning: more than a week of focussing 🔭 and secondary mirror 🪞alignment - essential to get science-quality images.

#ESA #astrodon #astronomy

#ESAEuclid has not yet been focussed, meaning that the secondary mirror ("M2") is in its safe position for launch and images would still be blurry 🔍. Focussing will take more than a week starting coming Monday.

Meanwhile the #VIS team has completed instrument #commissioning. ✅
All working well, both in space as well as on ground, some minor things are being investigated. A big step! 🎉

An intro to VIS:

👉 https://www.euclid-ec.org/public/mission/vis/

Next up: the #NISP instrument

#ESA #astrodon #astronomy

Update on #ESAEuclid #commissioning: while the whole spacecraft 🛰️ continues to cool down, the #VIS instrument checked out its electronics, shutter, and calibration lamp 💡 and they all react as expected. The #NISP instrument has rotated its filter and grism wheels 🎡 successfully.

Next up is full VIS & NISP commissioning, before the telescope optics will undergo a week of alignment & focussing.

#ESA #astrodon #astronomy #DarkEnergy #DarkMatter

Our contractual launch window with #SpaceX opens in 15 day, July 1st!

While we are waiting for a confirmation of the actual launch date in the next days, here's a description of what we are actually launching: the #Euclid #spacecraft, its #payload, the #telescope, and out two #instruments #VIS and #NISP.

https://www.euclid-ec.org/public/mission/

#ESA #ESAEuclid #EuclidMission #CosmicMystery #EuclidConsortium

➡📽Jetzt in der Mediathek!
Frank Grupp erklärt in der ARD #SpaceNight, wie das am #MPE entwickelte #NISP-Optik-Instrument dem #Weltraumteleskop 🛰#EUCLID der @esa ermöglichen soll, nach #DunkleMaterie und #DunkleEnergie zu forschen.
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/space-night-science/euclid-und-das-dunkle-universum/ard-alpha/Y3JpZDovL2JyLmRlL3ZpZGVvLzgyOWMwNDJlLTlmNzktNDhjNy04OTU4LTMwNTRkOGJkOWM1Nw

🛰#Euclid was built to answer fundamental questions about #DarkMatter& #DarkEnergy. Before being shipped to rocket launch, the satellite got a final check-up 🛠 at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, by @esa #ESA Euclid project team, including Frank Grupp from #MPE, who contributed the NearInfraredSpectrometerAndPhotometer #NISP.

https://www.mpe.mpg.de/7937335/news20230308