Yesterday was a special day. Colour-composites images, combining data from both Euclid instruments, VIS and NISP, of 5 magnificent Early-Release-Observation targets were released to the public. I'm not exaggerating, I got a bit emotional. This feels like a culmination, because it is, of the work of hundreds of scientists, engineers and other professionals across Europe (and beyond) over many years, and I was part of that effort and can claim a bunch of pixels as my own contribution ;-). But these images, in all their glory, are just very small patches in the high-resolution, deep map of the extragalactic sky that Euclid will build over the next years. So, this is also just a beginning. There are other observatories (Hubble, JWST, etc.) that can go deeper, but this combination of photometric depth, high spatial resolution, and sky area will be a History-first. And the magnitude and complexity of the data-analysis that will be required to extract information on the dark-energy and dark-matter content of the Universe from those images and spectra is just as formidable, if not more, than the quality and amount of image (and spectroscopy) data that will be collected. Images and spectra that will be used for those main goals, but also will be available to the science comunity at large, for many other purposes, some likely not yet foreseen. So, as I said, a special day. Enjoy the views!
Open to all new opportunities and challenges.
2moDon’t forget The Greater and lesser Magelanic Clouds. Closer with more things happening.