Euclid is a visible to near-infrared space telescope developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium, the objective of the Euclid mission is to better understand dark energy and dark matter by accurately measuring the acceleration of the universe.

To achieve this, the Korsch-type telescope will measure the shapes of galaxies at varying distances from Earth and investigate the relationship between distance and redshift. Dark energy is generally accepted as contributing to the increased acceleration of the expanding universe, so understanding this relationship will help to refine how physicists and astrophysicists understand it. Euclid’s mission advances and complements ESA’s Planck telescope (2009 to 2013). The mission is named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. Euclid is a medium-class (“M-class”) mission and is part of the Cosmic Vision campaign of ESA’s Science Programme. This class of missions have an ESA budget cap at around €500 million. Euclid was chosen in October 2011 together with Solar Orbiter, out of several competing missions. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the launch was scheduled on a Soyuz ST-B in 2023; following the invasion, Euclid will instead be launched on a Falcon 9 Block 5 on 1 July 2023.

How to follow the Euclid launch live

Ruimtetelescoop Euclid wil uitvinden waar het heelal van gemaakt is

Euclid test images tease of riches to come

Euclid ‘dark universe’ telescope team will unveil new full-color images today (May 23)

Zoom into the first page of ESA Euclid’s great cosmic atlas

Space Warps – ESA Euclid / Euclid Galaxy Zoo – help us classify the shapes of galaxies