Wed 24 Jun 2026
The dazzling sight of more than 60m stars at the heart of Earth’s galaxy has been captured by a space telescope designed to reveal the mysterious dark forces that shape the universe.
Astronomers used the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope to capture the largest, most detailed image ever taken of the visible light pouring from the centre of the Milky Way. The telescope’s camera is rare in being sensitive enough to separate individual stars in the crowded region known as the galactic bulge.
The enormous image marked the start of a new age of discovery of planets outside Earth’s solar system, researchers said. The number of known worlds is expected to rocket beyond the thousands already spotted around faraway stars.
Dr Eamonn Kerins, an astrophysicist at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, said of the Euclid telescope: “It was never built with this science in mind, but it has proved to be a superb facility for the work.
“This data fires the starting pistol in a new age of exoplanet discovery, where we go from knowing about 6,000 exoplanets to finding more than 100,000 across the galaxy.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... -telescope
Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, CFHT. Image processing by J-C Cuillandre and E Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay)