The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid mission will map the geometry of matter in the universe – specifically in the form T of the distribution of galaxies – to learn more about the parts of the universe we can’t see: dark energy and dark matter. Euclid launched on 1 July at 15:12 (UTC) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission aims to chart 1.5 billion galaxies over the past 10 billion years of cosmic history over its expected six-year lifetime.
WHERE DID EUCLID GO?
It took roughly 30 days for Euclid to make its way to its destination at the L2 Lagrange point – the same location shared by several other spacecraft, including the James Webb Space Telescope. L2 lies about 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth, but in the opposite direction to the Sun. It’s a special location because it’s at L2 that the gravity of Earth
