According to researchers, a thin layer of ice is increasingly obstructing the view of the European space telescope ‘Euclid’. During checks in October, it was first noticed that the observatory’s visibility in space was limited, Ralf Kohly, the expert in charge at the European Space Agency (ESA), said on Tuesday.
After analyzing the data, scientists are convinced that it is a microscopically thin layer of ice. “This is a big problem,” Kohly said. Work was underway to combat the ice cover.
Mirrors are now gently heated
According to the ESA expert, two mirrors of the telescope are currently being gently heated in the hope that this will thaw the ice layer. Scientists will probably not know whether the experiment is successful until mid-April.
If this “minimally invasive” method is not enough, ESA would have to heat the entire space telescope to melt the ice. However, because materials expand when heated, the telescope would have to be laboriously readjusted, which would take a lot of time.
Telescope searches for the ‘dark side’ of the universe
‘Euclid’ was launched into space in July last year aboard a rocket from the American space company SpaceX to explore the two great unknowns of our universe: the invisible dark matter and the even more mysterious dark energy.
The two-ton telescope traveled for several weeks to reach its target 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. From the so-called Lagrange point 2 between the Earth and the Sun, where the ‘James Webb’ telescope is also located, ‘Euclid’ is expected to measure up to two billion galaxies in the coming years.
The mission is expected to last until at least 2029
The goal of the ‘Euclid’ mission is to create the most accurate 3D sky map to date. The telescope will look back ten billion years into the cosmic past to investigate the development of the universe and its dark secrets. The €1.9 billion mission is expected to last at least until 2029, or – if all goes well – even longer.
The vast amounts of data provided by “Euclid” are evaluated by approximately 2,600 researchers from the “Euclid” consortium, which includes 17 countries. They will then be made available to the entire scientific community.
Source: Krone
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