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PARIS: The Euclid space telescope has captured the largest and most detailed photo ever taken of our galaxy’s crowded heart, a dazzling image packed with 60 million stars, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday.
The new photo of the Milky Way’s bright centre will help in the search for planets beyond our Solar System, the agency added.
At the centre of our spiral galaxy “lies the bulge — a large bubble containing billions of stars”, French astronomer Jean-Charles Cuillandre, who works on the Euclid mission, said. Euclid launched in 2023 on a mission to chart one-third of the sky in the hopes of shedding light on the enduring mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
“Now we’ve decided to point Euclid at the brightest area of the sky — and it works superbly, it’s extraordinary,” Cuillandre said.
