About Euclid Space Telescope:
- It is named after the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria.
- This mission is part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme, which plans to explore the origin and components of the Universe and the fundamental laws that govern it.
- The spacecraft will have a 1.2-metre-wide telescope and two instruments;
- A visible-wavelength camera (the VISible instrument): It will look for tiny distortions in the shapes of distant galaxies from different points in time to highlight the tussle between the pull of gravity and the push of dark energy.
- A near-infrared camera/spectrometer(the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer): It will look at how quickly the galaxies are moving away from each other, which will offer scientists insight into both dark energy and the working of gravity.
- The detectors of the near-infrared instruments have been supplied by NASA, making the American agency an important part of the Euclid Consortium.
- It will be floating 1.5 million kilometres above the Earth, and the telescope hopes to deliver images that are at least four times sharper than ground-based ones.
- The spacecraft measures approximately 4.7 metres tall and 3.7 metres in diameter.
- It will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and will remain operational for a minimum of six years.
