Euclid telescope to probe dark universe
The cost to Esa of building, launching and operating Euclid is expected to be just over 600m euros (£480m; $760m). Member states will provide Euclid's visible wavelength camera and a near-infrared camera/spectrometer, and its ground and data-handling elements, taking the likely cost of the whole endeavour beyond 800m euros.
The US has been offered, and will accept, a junior role in the mission valued at around 5%. The American space agency (Nasa) will pay for this by picking up the tab for the infrared detectors needed on Euclid. A memorandum of understanding to this effect will be signed between the agencies in due course.
Here's the PR:
" ... Euclid is optimised to answer one of the most important questions in modern cosmology: why is the Universe expanding at an accelerating rate, rather than slowing down due to the gravitational attraction of all the matter in it?
Although the discovery of this cosmic acceleration in 1998 was rewarded with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011, scientists are yet to discover what causes it.
The term ‘dark energy’ is often used to signify this mysterious force, but by using Euclid to study its effects on the galaxies and clusters of galaxies across the Universe, astronomers hope to come much closer to understanding its true nature and influence.
“Euclid addresses the cosmology-themed questions of ESA’s Cosmic Vision and it’s fantastic that we are moving forward into the next stage of development – we’re one step closer to learning more about the Universe’s darkest secrets,” said René Laureijs, ESA’s Euclid project scientist. (20 June 2012. By Sofia Mitra-Thakur) ... "
Galaxies, for example, could not hold their shape were it not for the presence of some additional "scaffolding". This is presumed to be dark matter - whatever that is.
Although this material cannot be seen directly, the telescope can plot its distribution by looking for the subtle way its mass distorts the light coming from distant galaxies. Hubble famously did this for a tiny patch on the sky - just two square degrees.
_____________________Reference
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18503703
http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2012/jun/euclid-telescope.cfm
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