RELEASE: 13-029
NASA JOINS ESA'S 'DARK UNIVERSE' MISSION
WASHINGTON -- NASA has joined the European Space Agency's (ESA's)
Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to investigate the
cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
Euclid will launch in 2020 and spend six years mapping the locations
and measuring the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies spread over
more than one-third of the sky. It will study the evolution of our
universe, and the dark matter and dark energy that influence its
evolution in ways that still are poorly understood.
The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange
point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational
pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely
equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid
spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth
as seen from the sun.
"NASA is very proud to contribute to ESA's mission to understand one
of the greatest science mysteries of our time," said John Grunsfeld,
associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the
agency's Headquarters in Washington.
NASA and ESA recently signed an agreement outlining NASA's role in the
project. NASA will contribute 16 state-of-the-art infrared detectors
and four spare detectors for one of two science instruments planned
for Euclid.
"ESA's Euclid mission is designed to probe one of the most fundamental
questions in modern cosmology, and we welcome NASA's contribution to
this important endeavor, the most recent in a long history of
cooperation in space science between our two agencies," said Alvaro
Giménez, ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration.
In addition, NASA has nominated three U.S. science teams totaling 40
new members for the Euclid Consortium. This is in addition to 14 U.S.
scientists already supporting the mission. The Euclid Consortium is
an international body of 1,000 members who will oversee development
of the instruments, manage science operations, and analyze data.
Euclid will map the dark matter in the universe. Matter as we know it
-- the atoms that make up the human body, for example -- is a
fraction of the total matter in the universe. The rest, about 85
percent, is dark matter consisting of particles of an unknown type.
Dark matter first was postulated in 1932, but still has not been
detected directly. It is called dark matter because it does not
interact with light. Dark matter interacts with ordinary matter
through gravity and binds galaxies together like an invisible glue.
While dark matter pulls matter together, dark energy pushes the
universe apart at ever-increasing speeds. In terms of the total
mass-energy content of the universe, dark energy dominates. Even less
is known about dark energy than dark matter.
Euclid will use two techniques to study the dark universe, both
involving precise measurements of galaxies billions of light-years
away. The observations will yield the best measurements yet of how
the acceleration of the universe has changed over time, providing new
clues about the evolution and fate of the cosmos.
Euclid is an ESA mission with science instruments provided by a
consortia of European institutes and with important participation
from NASA. NASA's Euclid Project Office is based at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. JPL will contribute
the infrared flight detectors for the Euclid science instrument.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will test the
infrared flight detectors prior to delivery. Three U.S. science teams
will contribute to science planning and data analysis.
For more information about NASA, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
