Professor-researcher at JUNIA, Vivien Scottez, is part of the Euclid Consortium (EC). This organization brings together teams of researchers in theoretical physics, particle physics, astrophysics and space astronomy, as well as engineers, technicians, management and administrative staff working in public research laboratories and contributing to the Euclid mission.
Less than a month after its lauch aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket, Euclid telescope of the European Space Agency checks its instrument's performance and transmitted its first observations. They attest to the extraordinary potential of our imaging and spectrometry instruments.
Le Euclid Consortium (EC) is an organization that brings together teams of researchers in theoretical physics, particle physics, astrophysics and space astronomy, as well as engineers, technicians, management and administrative staff working in public research laboratories and contributing to the Euclid mission. They are part of this collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the aerospace industry.
Professor-researcher at JUNIA, Vivien Scottez, is part of it too!
After taking off from Florida on July 1st, the european telescope (on which NASA have also been participating) traveled to its destination, located approximatively 1 million miles away from Earth. Euclid has two embedded instruments: a Visible Imaging Spectometer (VIS) and a Near-Infrated Spectometer and Photometer (NISP). The first one, must determine the precise shape of the galaxies, the second one their distance.
The Euclid mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) is to study the history of the formation and expansion of the Universe, trying to unlock the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy which respresent 95% of the Universe. The final goal is to create the biggest and most precise 3D map. This is the reason why the telescope will make observations from 10 billions of years ago.
The idea of The Expanding Universe is one of the most outstanding discovery in the cosmology field. It can seem counter-intuitive at first insofar as we are usually perceiving the world as relatively stratic, however this idea completely changed how we understand the cosmos and questioned our perception towards the Universe, as an immutable entity. Let's examine the fascinating evidences which support this revolutionary idea.
The awareness about The Expanding Universe was born thanks to Edwin Hubble's revolutionary discovery in the 20's. This discovery was based on mesuring a phenomenon, known as Redsfhift. When an object's shadow moves away, its wavelength stretches and moves towards the red edge of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is quite similar to when you here the sirenes of an ambulance going away from you. The extent of this Redshift is directly related to the objet's distance and its recession rate.
Thus, studying the issued light frome faraway galaxies, Hubble noticed that these galaxies seemed to be moving away from us. Moreover, he oberved that the more a galaxy is located away from us, the faster it seems to move away. This observation gave birth to Hubble's law.
To better understand what is Hubble's law, scientists turned to Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. According to this theory, the space fabric itself can dilate or contract on the influence of matter and energy. The objects inside are automatically moving depending on those dilatations and contractions.
Imagine a balloon with drawn dots on it. The more you inflate the balloon, the more the dots are moving away from each other. The galaxies in the Universe are doing the same as the dots on the balloon.
Thus, Hubble's law is explaning the space expansion, making the galaxies move away from each other, which represents a fondamental proof of The Expanding Universe.
The abundance of light elements in the Universe, such as hydrogen and helium, provides further evidence of cosmic expansion. The proportions of these elements can be explained by the processes occurring during the early stages of the expanding Universe.
Other proofs of The Expanding Universe came from the study of Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB). The CMB is the weak radiation that permeates the whole Universe, a vestige of the early stages of the Big Bang. Detailed CMB measurements from satellite observatories as the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the Planck satellite, have provided solid evidence of the expansion of the Universe.
Proofs of The Expanding Universe are diverse and convincing. The galaxies recession speed obervations, as well as models found in the cosmic microwave background radiation, the abundance of light elements and the distribution of galaxies all contribute to our understanding of an expanding Universe. The idea of an expanding Universe has revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos and continues to stimulate scientific exploration of the mysteries of the Universe.