The Euclid telescope has sent its first test images back to Earth after its launch on July 1, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
The ESA shared an early commissioning test image from the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer instrument on board the Euclid telescope, which images galaxies and measures the amount of infrared light they emit.
The agency also received a test image from the VISible instrument (VIS) tool, which takes sharp images of the shapes of galaxies in deep space.
“The image on the left shows the full NISP field of view, with the zoom-in on the right (4% of NISP’s full field of view) demonstrating the extraordinary level of detail that NISP is already achieving. We see spiral and elliptical galaxies, nearby and distant stars, star clusters, and much more. But the area of sky that it covers is actually only about a quarter of the width and height of the full moon,” the ESA said.
Euclid will continue to travel deeper into space in the coming months, the ESA said. Credit: European Space Agency via Storyful