NASA’s Roman and ESA’s Euclid Will Team Up To Investigate Dark Energy

  • Released Tuesday, June 27, 2023
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Euclid (left) is a medium-class ESA mission. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (right) is an upcoming NASA flagship mission. Both will study the history of the universe and bring new insight to the mystery of dark energy.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; ESA/ATG medialab

Euclid (left) is a medium-class ESA mission. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (right) is an upcoming NASA flagship mission. Both will study the history of the universe and bring new insight to the mystery of dark energy.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; ESA/ATG medialab

A new space telescope named Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with important contributions from NASA, is set to launch in July to explore why the universe’s expansion is speeding up. Scientists call the unknown cause of this cosmic acceleration “dark energy.” By May 2027, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will join Euclid to explore this puzzle in ways that have never been possible before.

Scientists are unsure whether the universe’s accelerated expansion is caused by an additional energy component, or whether it signals that our understanding of gravity needs to be changed in some way. Astronomers will use Roman and Euclid to test both theories at the same time, and scientists expect both missions to uncover important information about the underlying workings of the universe.

Euclid and Roman are both designed to study cosmic acceleration, but using different and complementary strategies. Both missions will make 3D maps of the universe to answer fundamental questions about the history and structure of the universe. Together, they will be much more powerful than either individually.

Euclid will observe a far larger area of the sky – approximately 15,000 square degrees, or about a third of the sky – in both infrared and optical wavelengths of light, but with less detail than Roman. It will peer back 10 billion years to when the universe was about 3 billion years old.

Roman’s largest core survey will be capable of probing the universe to a much greater depth and precision, but over a smaller area – about 2,000 square degrees, or one-twentieth of the sky. Its infrared vision will unveil the cosmos when it was 2 billion years old, revealing a larger number of fainter galaxies. While Euclid will focus on cosmology exclusively, Roman will also survey nearby galaxies, find and investigate planets throughout our galaxy, study objects in the outskirts of our solar system, and much more.

Despite having similar mission goals, Euclid and Roman are different in many ways. Use this chart to compare key attributes of the two spacecraft.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Despite having similar mission goals, Euclid and Roman are different in many ways. Use this chart to compare key attributes of the two spacecraft.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

For More Information

See https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasas-roman-and-esas-euclid-will-team-up-to-investigate-dark-energy

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 11:44 AM EDT.

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