TYB
>>22786370 lb
Needs a homecoming issue now.
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
March 19, 2025
Blue Ghost's Diamond Ring
On March 14 the Full Moon slid through Earth's dark umbral shadow and denizens of planet Earth were treated to a total lunar eclipse. Of course, from the Moon's near side that same astronomical syzygy was seen as a solar eclipse. Operating in the Mare Crisium on the lunar surface, the Blue Ghost lander captured this video frame of Earth in silhouette around 3:30am CDT, just as the Sun was emerging from behind the terrestrial disk. From Blue Ghost's lunar perspective the beautiful diamond ring effect, familiar to earthbound solar eclipse watchers, is striking. Since Earth appears about four times the apparent size of the Sun from the lunar surface the inner solar corona, the atmosphere of the Sun most easily seen from Earth during a total solar eclipse, is hidden from view. Still, scattering in Earth's dense atmosphere creates the glowing band of sunlight embracing our fair planet.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/welcome-home-nasas-spacex-crew-9-back-on-earth-after-science-mission/
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/commercial-crew-program/
Welcome Home! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Back on Earth After Science Mission
Mar 18, 2025
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 completed the agency’s ninth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, splashing down safely in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of America.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the crew will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and reunite with their families.
“We are thrilled to have Suni, Butch, Nick, and Aleksandr home after their months-long mission conducting vital science, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the International Space Station,” said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro.
“Per President Trump’s direction, NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier.
This international crew and our teams on the ground embraced the Trump Administration’s challenge of an updated, and somewhat unique, mission plan, to bring our crew home.
Through preparation, ingenuity, and dedication, we achieve great things together for the benefit of humanity, pushing the boundaries of what is possible from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.”
Hague and Gorbunov lifted off at 1:17 p.m. Sept. 28, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The next day, they docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, 2024, from Space Launch Complex 41 as part of the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The duo arrived at the space station on June 6.
In August, NASA announced the uncrewed return of Starliner to Earth and integrated Wilmore and Williams as part of the space station’s Expedition 71/72 for a return on Crew-9. The crew of four undocked at 1:05 a.m. Tuesday to begin the trip home.
Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles during their mission, spent 286 days in space, and completed 4,576 orbits around Earth.
Hague and Gorbunov traveled 72,553,920 miles during their mission, spent 171 days in space, and completed 2,736 orbits around Earth.
The Crew-9 mission was the first spaceflight for Gorbunov. Hague has logged 374 days in space over his two missions, Williams has logged 608 days in space over her three flights, and Wilmore has logged 464 days in space over his three flights.
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Throughout its mission, Crew-9 contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations.
Williams conducted two spacewalks, joined by Wilmore for one and Hague for another, removing a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station’s truss, collecting samples from the station’s external surface for analysis, installing patches to cover damaged areas of light filters on an X-ray telescope, and more.
Williams now holds the record for total spacewalking time by a female astronaut, with 62 hours and 6 minutes outside of station, and is fourth on the all-time spacewalk duration list.
The American crew members conducted more than 150 unique scientific experiments and technology demonstrations between them, with over 900 hours of research.
This research included investigations on plant growth and quality, as well as the potential of stem cell technology to address blood diseases, autoimmune disorders, and cancers.
They also tested lighting systems to help astronauts maintain circadian rhythms, loaded the first wooden satellite for deployment, and took samples from the space station’s exterior to study whether microorganisms can survive in space.
The Crew-9 mission was the fourth flight of the Dragon spacecraft named Freedom. It also previously supported NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4, Axiom Mission 2, and Axiom Mission 3.
The spacecraft will return to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s refurbishing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where teams will inspect the Dragon, analyze data on its performance, and begin processing for its next flight.
The Crew-9 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and its return to Earth follows on the heels of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch, which docked to the station on March 16, beginning another long-duration science expedition.
The goal of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and low Earth orbit.
The program provides additional research time and has increased opportunities for discovery aboard humanity’s microgravity testbed for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
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NASA releases incredible new photos of astronauts emerging from secret medical tests - and they've already made major breakthrough
Updated: 09:50 EDT, 19 March 2025
The first images of the stranded NASA astronauts after their triumphant return to Earth have been released.
NASA's Johnson Space Center tweeted out pictures of Sunita 'Suni' Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore emerging from an airplane in Houston just after 12am ET Wednesday.
In the photos, the duo were seen already making a surprising recovery from their nine-month ordeal - walking under their own power in normal gravity.
Experts had previously said that Williams and Wilmore would likely need to be stretchered or have medics assist them while they adjusted to being outside of a zero-gravity environment for the first time since June 2024.
The new images show Butch Wilmore, now clean-shaven after sporting a beard in space, hugging his fellow NASA comrades in Houston.
Meanwhile, Suni Williams was pictured shaking hands with NASA officials - but was noticeably frail and still had an IV drip in her arm to receive fluids.
It's the first time the duo was photographed after their historic return Tuesday evening off the coast of Florida.
After recovery teams retrieved their SpaceX Dragon capsule from the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico), Williams, Wilmore, NASA's Nick Hague, and Russia's Aleksandr Gorbunov were taken for medical testing.
The new NASA images also captured Hague and Gorbunov's return to the Johnson Space Center late last night.
The two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in the Crew-9 Dragon capsule in September.
Williams and Wilmore's vessel, Boeing's Starliner, barely reached the ISS after mechanical issues developed during the flight.
Starliner was sent back to Earth without a crew after NASA deemed it too risky to have Williams and Wilmore use the craft again. This made room for Hague and Gorbunov to arrive at ISS in the SpaceX capsule.
SpaceX has been involved with every crewed mission to the station since the Commercial Crew Program began in 2015. The Starliner flight was Boeing's first crewed mission to the ISS.
All four astronauts have been waiting for a replacement crew (Crew-10) since then, but mechanical issues and claims of political interference delayed a new mission from being launched.
After Crew-10 arrived on board another SpaceX rocket on March 16, NASA and SpaceX worked on preparing the stranded astronauts for an expedited return to Earth.
Usually, the handoff between ISS crews lasts five days but Crew-9 was able to depart in two days - safely landing off the coast of Florida roughly 17 hours later.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14515007/NASA-releases-incredible-new-photos-astronauts-emerging-secret-medical-tests-theyve-major-breakthrough.html
NASA Invites Media to View Wildland Fire Technology Flight Test
Mar 18, 2025
NASA will conduct a live flight test of aircraft performing simulated wildland fire response operations using a newly developed airspace management system at 9 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, March 25, in Salinas, California.
NASA’s new portable airspace management system, part of the agency’s Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project, aims to significantly expand the window of time crews have to respond to wildland fires.
The system provides the air traffic awareness needed to safely send aircraft – including drones and remotely piloted helicopters – into wildland fire operations, even during low-visibility conditions.
Current aerial firefighting operations are limited to times when pilots have clear visibility, which lowers the risk of flying into the surrounding terrain or colliding with other aircraft. This restriction grounds most aircraft at night and during periods of heavy smoke.
During this inaugural flight test, researchers will use the airspace management system to coordinate the flight operations of two small drones, an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and a remotely piloted aircraft that will have a backup pilot aboard.
The drones and aircraft will execute examples of critical tasks for wildland fire management, including weather data sharing, simulated aerial ignition flights, and communications relay.
Media interested in viewing the ACERO flight testing must RSVP by 4 p.m. Friday, March 21, to the NASA Ames Office of Communications by email at: arc-dl-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov or by phone at 650-604-4789.
NASA will release additional details, including address and arrival logistics, to media credentialed for the event. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
NASA’s ACERO researchers will use data from the flight test to refine the airspace management system. The project aims to eventually provide this technology to wildland fire crews for use in the field, helping to save lives and property.
This project is managed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-view-wildland-fire-technology-flight-test/
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/armd/aosp/acero-wildfire/
Observing Storms from Skylab
Mar 18, 2025
Skylab 3 astronauts witnessed many spectacular sights during their 858 orbital trips around the Earth in the summer of 1973. One involved watching powerful Hurricane Ellen take shape off the West African coast.
“There’s a nice storm down there. She looks pretty big. She’s got a lot of clouds,” said astronaut Alan L. Bean upon viewing the storm from Skylab’s low-Earth orbit.
Knowing they were witnessing something of interest to meteorologists on Earth, Bean and his fellow Skylab crew members captured stereo photographs of the storm using cameras aboard the space station.
Meteorologists later used these images, which provided three-dimensional data, to help them understand how the clouds in tropical systems formed and functioned.
Like the Skylab 3 crew’s photographs of Hurricane Ellen, the lightning observations of Skylab 4 astronaut Edward G. Gibson were also used by meteorologists to understand regional weather phenomena.
While gazing down at a storm over South America’s Andes Mountains, Gibson noted that the thunderstorm he observed generated recognizable lightning patterns over a 500-square-mile region.
“A few things impressed me here: one is the fact that they could go off simultaneously or near simultaneously over a large distance—sympathetic lightning bolts, if you will, analogous to sympathetic flares on the sun.
And that we do get periods of calm between periods of very high activity. Some sort of collective phenomenon appears to be at work,” Gibson recalled.
The photographs of Hurricane Ellen and Gibson’s notes about lightning patterns are just two of many valuable meteorological observations and recordings astronauts made during Skylab’s three crewed missions.
All told, astronaut-conducted Earth studies provided important regional, also known as mesoscale, weather data that improved storm forecasting.
Along with providing valuable data to meteorologists, the notable findings of the Skylab astronauts supported the argument of the era’s scientists and mission planners who insisted that there was no adequate replacement for intelligent human observers in space.
Perhaps the authors of Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab put it best when they wrote: “Man’s ability to discriminate, to select the important features of a wide vista, and to respond effectively to unexpected events constituted his greatest contribution to orbital investigations.”
https://www.nasa.gov/history/observing-storms-from-skylab/
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/newsnotes-42-1.pdf
paging Mr Underhill
Sols 4481-4483: Humber Pie
Mar 18, 2025
The rover successfully arrived at the “Humber Park” outcrop which, on this fine “Pi Day” on Earth, we could convince ourselves looked like a pie with a sandy interior and a rough and rocky crust.
We can only hope our instruments are as excited to tuck into this outcrop as the Curiosity team is to eat our pizzas and favorite pies (for me, pumpkin) this afternoon and evening.
MAHLI gets a big serving of rock structures from the Humber Park “crust” with three separate imaging targets.
One observation, at the target “Yerba Buena Ridge,” covers structures expressed across the front of the outcrop in the above image.
A second target, “Sepulveda Pass,” has intriguing texture that warranted multiple flavors of stereo imaging. The final target, which MAHLI shared with APXS, was “South Fork.”
It was the clearest place to put APXS down on the rough bedrock blocks.
ChemCam also feasted on rock chemistry from an array of targets with different textures. “Ridge Route” covered a low-lying bedrock slab with the fine layering we have seen consistently through the sulfate unit, while “Toyon Canyon” covered a lumpier portion of the Humber Park outcrop above Yerba Buena Ridge.
The “Mount Lawlor” target was a mix of Ridge Route and Toyon Canyon — layered, but on a high-standing portion of the outcrop that also had some unusual chains of pits.
ChemCam added two long distance mosaics on “Gould Mesa” to the menu, which captured a variety of structures on this impressive butte about 100 meters ahead of the rover.
Mastcam focused on covering the whole of Humber Park with a stereo mosaic but also added small mosaics across a trough in the sand and a bedrock block with potential cross bedding at “Rancho Los Feliz.”
Because just imaging this side of Humber Park was not enough, Mastcam and Navcam worked closely with the rover drivers to plan a mid-drive mosaic of the other side of the outcrop so we fully capture Humber Park's “crust.”
Our environmental observations were not just pie in the sky but will help us monitor the chemistry of and the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and record clouds and dust devils crossing above and around us.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4481-4483-humber-pie/
few more pictures of them coming back home
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/19/nasa-astronauts-spacex-return-photos
China’s satellites practiced ‘dogfighting’ maneuvers, Space Force raises alarm
Updated: Mar 19, 2025 08:18 AM EST
China is reportedly practicing “dogfighting” maneuvers in space, according to a US Space Force general.
While the idea of dogfighting in space evokes sci-fi movies like Star Wars, Gen. Michael Guetlein, Vice Chief of Space Operations said Space Force has observed five Chinese satellites performing military practice operations.
Low Earth orbit is becoming an increasingly militarized zone as decades-long efforts to maintain it as a peaceful domain are lost in space.
China’s advanced space capabilities
Speaking at this week’s McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington, Guetlein claimed China is rehearsing military satellite maneuvers in low Earth orbit.
“With our commercial assets, we have observed five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control,” he explained.
“That’s what we call dogfighting in space. They are practicing tactics, techniques and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another.”
According to a report by Defense News, a service spokesperson later provided more details at the conference. The spokesperson said the operation Guetlein referred to occurred in 2024.
The US Space Force observed three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites, as well as the experimental spacecraft Shijian-605 A and B.
The maneuver highlighted the fact that China has advanced in-orbit maneuver capabilities. Space agencies and organizations are increasingly developing advanced rendezvous capabilities for autonomous spacecraft.
Japan’s Astroscale, for example, is developing a satellite that can match the speed of a chunk of space debris before capturing the object.
The impressive nature of this technical capability can’t be overstated.
According to Dr. Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada, capturing space debris flying at immense speeds is comparable to “collecting bullets”.
As a point of reference, space debris flies around Earth at speeds of roughly 18,000 mph.
Establishing space ‘superiority’
Guetlein also mentioned other recent activities performed by “near-peer” US adversaries.
In 2019, for example, Russia performed a “nesting doll” demonstration, where one satellite released a smaller one that performed staling maneuvers near a US satellite.
These examples show that the technological gap between the US and its rivals is shrinking. US Space Force officials have been raising this concern for some time. They emphasize the need to establish “superiority” in space.
“That capability gap used to be massive,” Guetlein said. “We’ve got to change the way we look at space or that capability gap may reverse and not be in our favor anymore.”
“The purpose of the Space Force is to guarantee space superiority for the joint force – not space for space’s sake. Space [operations] guarantee that, just like all the other domains, we can fight as a joint force and we can depend on those capabilities,” Guetlein continued.
By space for space’s sake, we can only assume Guetlein is referring to the US’s science capabilities in space. That type of rhetoric is a far cry from the principles set out in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
In practice, every military space mission breaks that treaty, which aimed to maintain space as a peaceful domain for exploration and science.
Unfortunately, the militarization of space is accelerating at a dramatic pace. Predictably, the US blames China and Russia for this escalation. China and Russia, equally predictably, blame the US.
https://interestingengineering.com/military/china-tests-satellite-dogfighting-maneuvers
it is
Scientists have identified two enormous mountains hidden deep beneath the Earth’s surface, each standing an extraordinary 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) tall—more than 100 times taller than Mount Everest.
These massive formations, found at a depth of 1,200 miles beneath the Earth’s surface, challenge our understanding of the planet’s geological processes and its ancient past.
The literal groundbreaking research was published recently in the journal Nature.
A Seismic Revelation
The colossal mountains, known as Large Low Seismic Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs), were revealed through the analysis of seismic waves generated by powerful earthquakes.
These waves, as they travel through the Earth’s interior, slow down when they pass through regions with different material densities.
By carefully studying these seismic signals, scientists detected the presence of these gigantic structures beneath the Earth’s surface.
Located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean, the LLSVPs dwarf Mount Everest, whose peak rises just 5.5 miles above sea level.
These hidden mountains are not just tall—they’re made of dense, ancient material, offering researchers a glimpse into Earth’s early geological history.
Unearthing Earth’s Ancient Secrets
Scientists believe the LLSVPs could be remnants of ancient tectonic plates that sank deep into the mantle billions of years ago.
This process, known as subduction, involves tectonic plates diving beneath each other, carrying material from the Earth’s surface deep into its interior.
The discovery suggests that the Earth’s mantle contains stable structures that may have been in place for over 4 billion years—far longer than most geological formations believed to exist.
The presence of these ancient mountains offers new insights into the evolution of our planet, challenging previous assumptions about the Earth’s constantly changing mantle.
Rather than a fluid, ever-moving layer, parts of the mantle may be much more stable than we ever imagined.
Rethinking the Mantle
The discovery of these massive formations is shaking up existing theories about the Earth’s inner structure. For years, scientists assumed that the mantle was a dynamic, constantly evolving layer of the planet, with heat and material circulating through it.
However, the discovery of the LLSVPs, which are older and more stable than the surrounding mantle material, raises the possibility that parts of the mantle could remain unchanged for billions of years.
Furthermore, these structures are not only larger than expected but also hotter than their surroundings, complicating our understanding of mantle dynamics.
Researchers are now exploring the idea that these stable regions may offer important clues about the Earth’s geological past, including the forces that shaped its surface and the deep processes that continue to influence the planet today.
What’s Next: Unveiling Earth’s Hidden Depths
The discovery of these underground giants opens up new frontiers in the exploration of Earth’s deep interior.
As technology improves, scientists are optimistic that more hidden features of the planet will be revealed, offering new insights into the forces that shaped our world.
With further advancements in seismic imaging, there is hope that more secrets lie waiting beneath our feet, offering clues about the early Earth and how it evolved into the planet we live on today.
While these massive structures remain far beyond human reach, their discovery serves as a reminder of the mysteries that still lie beneath us, offering a new perspective on how we understand the Earth’s deep interior.
Mount Everest may continue to stand as the tallest mountain above the surface, but in the depths of our planet, Earth’s true giants exist—hidden and far beyond our ability to climb.
https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/03/everest-isnt-the-tallest-mountain-anymore-scientists-discover-massive-mountains-100x-taller/
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Euclid_opens_data_treasure_trove_offers_glimpse_of_deep_fields
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/euclid/q1-papers
Euclid opens data treasure trove, offers glimpse of deep fields
19/03/2025
On 19 March 2025, the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission released its first batch of survey data, including a preview of its deep fields.
Here, hundreds of thousands of galaxies in different shapes and sizes take centre stage and show a glimpse of their large-scale organisation in the cosmic web.
Covering a huge area of the sky in three mosaics, the data release also includes numerous galaxy clusters, active galactic nuclei and transient phenomena, as well as the first classification survey of more than 380 000 galaxies and 500 gravitational lens candidates compiled through combined artificial intelligence and citizen science efforts.
All of this sets the scene for the broad range of topics that the dark Universe detective Euclid is set to address with its rich dataset.
“Euclid shows itself once again to be the ultimate discovery machine. It is surveying galaxies on the grandest scale, enabling us to explore our cosmic history and the invisible forces shaping our Universe,” says ESA’s Director of Science, Prof. Carole Mundell.
“With the release of the first data from Euclid’s survey, we are unlocking a treasure trove of information for scientists to dive into and tackle some of the most intriguing questions in modern science.
With this, ESA is delivering on its commitment to enable scientific progress for generations to come.”
Euclid has scouted out the three areas in the sky where it will eventually provide the deepest observations of its mission. In just one week of observations, with one scan of each region so far, Euclid already spotted 26 million galaxies. The farthest of those are up to 10.5 billion light-years away.
The fields also contain a small population of bright quasars that can be seen much farther away. In the coming years, Euclid will pass over these three regions tens of times, capturing many more faraway galaxies, making these fields truly ‘deep’ by the end of the nominal mission in 2030.
But the first glimpse of 63 square degrees of the sky, the equivalent area of more than 300 times the full Moon, already gives an impressive preview of the scale of Euclid’s grand cosmic atlas when the mission is complete.
This atlas will cover one-third of the entire sky – 14 000 square degrees – in this high-quality detail.
Tracing out the cosmic web in Euclid’s deep fields
“It’s impressive how one observation of the deep field areas has already given us a wealth of data that can be used for a variety of purposes in astronomy: from galaxy shapes, to strong lenses, clusters, and star formation, among others,” says Valeria Pettorino, ESA’s Euclid project scientist.
“We will observe each deep field between 30 and 52 times over Euclid’s six year mission, each time improving the resolution of how we see those areas, and the number of objects we manage to observe. Just think of the discoveries that await us.”
To answer the mysteries it is designed for, Euclid measures the huge variety of shapes and the distribution of billions of galaxies very precisely with its high-resolution imaging visible instrument (VIS), while its near-infrared instrument (NISP) is essential for unravelling galaxy distances and masses.
The new images already showcase this capability for hundreds of thousands of galaxies, and start to hint at the large-scale organisation of these galaxies in the cosmic web.
These filaments of ordinary matter and dark matter weave through the cosmos, and from these, galaxies formed and evolved.
This is an essential piece in the puzzle towards understanding the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy, which together appear to make up 95% of the Universe.
“The full potential of Euclid to learn more about dark matter and dark energy from the large-scale structure of the cosmic web will be reached only when it has completed its entire survey.
Yet the volume of this first data release already offers us a unique first glance at the large-scale organisation of galaxies, which we can use to learn more about galaxy formation over time," says Clotilde Laigle, Euclid Consortium scientist and data processing expert based at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France.
Humans and AI classify more than 380 000 galaxies
Euclid is expected to capture images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies over six years, sending back around 100 GB of data every day.
Such an impressively large dataset creates incredible discovery opportunities, but huge challenges when it comes to searching for, analysing and cataloguing galaxies.
The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, in combination with thousands of human citizen science volunteers and experts, is playing a critical role.
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“We’re at a pivotal moment in terms of how we tackle large-scale surveys in astronomy.
AI is a fundamental and necessary part of our process in order to fully exploit Euclid’s vast dataset,” says Mike Walmsley, Euclid Consortium scientist based at the University of Toronto, Canada, who has been heavily involved in astronomical deep learning algorithms for the last decade.
“We’re building the tools as well as providing the measurements. In this way we can deliver cutting-edge science in a matter of weeks, compared with the years-long process of analysing big surveys like these in the past,” he adds.
A major milestone in this effort is the first detailed catalogue of more than 380 000 galaxies, which have been classified according to features such as spiral arms, central bars, and tidal tails that infer merging galaxies.
The catalogue is created by the ‘Zoobot’ AI algorithm. During an intensive one-month campaign on Galaxy Zoo last year, 9976 human volunteers worked together to teach Zoobot to recognise galaxy features by classifying Euclid images.
This first catalogue released today represents just 0.4% of the total number of galaxies of similar resolution expected to be imaged over Euclid’s lifetime.
The final catalogue will present the detailed morphology of at least an order of magnitude more galaxies than ever measured before, helping scientists answer questions like how spiral arms form and how supermassive black holes grow.
“We’re looking at galaxies from inside to out, from how their internal structures govern their evolution to how the external environment shapes their transformation over time,” adds Clotilde.
“Euclid is a goldmine of data and its impact will be far-reaching, from galaxy evolution to the bigger-picture cosmology goals of the mission.”
Gravitational lensing discovery engine
Light travelling towards us from distant galaxies is bent and distorted by normal and dark matter in the foreground. This effect is called gravitational lensing and it is one of the tools that Euclid uses to reveal how dark matter is distributed through the Universe.
When the distortions are very apparent, it is known as ‘strong lensing’, which can result in features such as Einstein rings, arcs, and multiple imaged lenses.
Using an initial sweep by AI models, followed by citizen science inspection, expert vetting and modelling, a first catalogue of 500 galaxy-galaxy strong lens candidates is released today, almost all of which were previously unknown.
This type of lensing happens when a foreground galaxy and its halo of dark matter act as a lens, distorting the image of a background galaxy along the line of sight towards Euclid.
With the help of these models, Euclid will capture some 7000 candidates in the major cosmology data release planned for the end of 2026, and in the order of 100 000 galaxy-galaxy strong lenses by the end of the mission, around 100 times more than currently known.
Euclid will also be able to measure ‘weak’ lensing, when the distortions of background sources are much smaller. Such subtle distortions can only be detected by analysing large numbers of galaxies in a statistical way. In the coming years, Euclid will measure the distorted shapes of billions of galaxies over 10 billion years of cosmic history, thus providing a 3D view of the distribution of dark matter in our Universe.
“Euclid is very quickly covering larger and larger areas of the sky thanks to its unprecedented surveying capabilities,” says Pierre Ferruit, ESA’s Euclid mission manager, who is based at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain, home of the Astronomy Science Archive where Euclid’s data will be made available.
“This data release highlights the incredible potential we have by combining the strengths of Euclid, AI, citizen science and experts into a single discovery engine that will be essential in tackling the vast volume of data returned by Euclid.”
As of 19 March 2025, Euclid has observed about 2000 square degrees, approximately 14% of the total survey area (14 000 square degrees). The three deep fields together comprise 63.1 square degrees.
Euclid ‘quick’ releases, such as the one of 19 March, are of selected areas, intended to demonstrate the data products to be expected in the major data releases that follow, and to allow scientists to sharpen their data analysis tools in preparation.
The mission’s first cosmology data will be released to the community in October 2026. Data accumulated over additional, multiple passes of the deep field locations will be included in the 2026 release.
The three deep field previews can now be explored in ESASky from 19 March 12:00 CET onwards:
Euclid Deep Field South
Euclid Deep Field Fornax
Euclid Deep Field North
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