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December 24, 2025<\/p>\n
1 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Dark Matter Telescope Captures a Sparkling Galaxy Merger<\/p>\n The Euclid Space Telescope is decking the halls with boughs of starlight<\/p>\n By Meghan Bartels edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n ESA\/Euclid\/Euclid Consortium\/NASA, image processing: Euclid Science Ground Segment and M. Schirmer (MPIA) (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)<\/p>\n A languid spiral galaxy appears draped against deep space in a stunning new image from the European Space Agency\u2019s Euclid telescope.<\/p>\n Euclid launched in 2023 on a six-year mission to map the cosmos at scale, observing billions of galaxies stretching as far away as 10 billion light-years from Earth. The effort could reveal how galaxies form and evolve and how the universe has expanded over its 13.8-billion-or-so-year history.<\/p>\n In turn, astronomers hope Euclid will shed light on dark matter, which we know tugs at normal matter but is utterly invisible to us, and dark energy, the force that is responsible for accelerating the speed at which the universe expands.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n That effort will begin in earnest next year, when Euclid releases its first formal batch of data, which will account for about 14 percent of its final survey area.<\/p>\n Until then, the Euclid team has offered the occasional teaser for the telescope\u2019s power, including a festive new image of the galaxy NGC 646. This elegant spiral galaxy, filled with stars, is about 392 million light-years away from Earth\u2014some 4 percent of the distance of Euclid\u2019s farthest targets\u2014and is retreating at more than 5,000 miles per second.<\/p>\n Appearing at the left tip of NGC 646 is a second galaxy, known as PGC 6014\u2014but their apparent closeness is merely an optical illusion; in truth, PGC 6014 is nearly 45 million light-years closer to Earth.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 24, 2025 1 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Dark Matter Telescope Captures a Sparkling Galaxy Merger The Euclid Space Telescope is decking the halls with boughs of starlight By Meghan Bartels edited by Claire Cameron ESA\/Euclid\/Euclid Consortium\/NASA, image processing: Euclid Science Ground Segment and M. Schirmer (MPIA) (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[21223,1879,8215,1910,11733,1101,17042,1695],"class_list":{"0":"post-38938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-euclid","9":"tag-galaxy","10":"tag-image","11":"tag-merger","12":"tag-shines","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-sparkling","15":"tag-telescope"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n