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Dark matter breakthrough coming? Euclid space telescope unveils its 1st look into the dark universe (video)

The European Space Agency 's (ESA) Euclid space telescope has been called the "Dark Universe Detective" because of its capability to investigate the dual mysteries of dark matter, the universe's most mysterious stuff, and dark energy, the force accelerating the expansion of the universe.

✦ Extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting•From 1 source•1 min read•Updated November 12, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC
Key points
  • Bertin) Another exciting element of the new Euclid data release is the 15,000 strong gravitational lensing candidates catalogued by the space telescope.
  • It is an effect that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been using to great effect to study galaxies in the early universe.
  • The study of these objects, some of the largest structures in the cosmos, can reveal how matter came together across the larger network of gas, dust and dark matter called the cosmic web.

"We will explore these in the coming months to learn how these giants grew, and decipher what they reveal about the dark universe." The Horologium supercluster of galaxies as seen by Euclid.

Additional details
  • "Euclid doesn't just look far back in time — it does so across huge areas of sky," Euclid Consortium member Barbara Sartoris of JL Lagrange Laboratory, Nice, France, explained.
  • The data release lays the foundation for one of the largest-ever 3D maps of the cosmos and many groundbreaking discoveries about the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
  • Bertin) Euclid can see such a vast number of cosmic objects thanks to the fact that its space-based position helps it avoid interference caused by Earth's atmosphere.
  • "This is a change in scale from Euclid's previous releases, which included a few days of observations over around 60 degrees squared of sky," ESA's Euclid project scientist Valeria Pettorino said.
  • That includes light spectra from 160 million sources, over 900 million galaxies, and 60 million candidates for quasars, regions of space dominated by feeding supermassive black holes.

How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →

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Space.comNovember 12, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC →

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