A telescope with instruments developed at UPCT is already providing scientific data – Cartagena

In addition to teaching and academic functions, Polytechnic University of Cartagenacontinues to take important steps in its scientific and advocacy work.

The Euclid consortium announced the publication of the first scientific articles based on observations of the telescope of the same name, which has control devices developed at UPKT.

The stunning images, at least four times clearer than those captured by ground-based telescopes, are allowing scientists to search for interstellar planets. also known as wanderers or rebels because they do not gravitate towards any star, and using galaxies as gravitational lenses to study dark matter and discover the evolution of the Universe.

“We are using the gravitational lensing effect created by galaxy clusters observed by the Euclid satellite to search for clusters very distant galaxies located at a distance of 11.5 billion light years from us.

when the age of the universe was only 7% of its current age.” explains UPCT professor Anastasio Diazone of the principal investigators of the project “The Scientific Use of Euclid Data: Unraveling the Origin of Complexity in the Universe.”

Another goal is to search for planetary-mass objects, “stars that float in space without orbiting any other object.” It is believed that their number could be greater than the number of stars, but due to their weakness only a few are known.” points out UPCT professor Antonio Perez.

ESA’s Euclid space mission also today released five unprecedented new images that provide insight into the unprecedented power of this telescope as it aims to create the most accurate map of our Universe over time. The full set of early observations focused on 17 astronomical objects, from nearby clouds of gas and dust to distant galaxy clusters. They show how the space telescope can detect individual star clusters in groups and clusters of distant galaxies; identify a rich crop of new dwarf galaxies; see the light of stars torn from their parent galaxies… and much more.

In addition to these first and promising scientific results, the consortium is also publishing proof-of-concept tests of the telescope’s instruments. Rafael Toledo, UPCT researcher and head of the Infrared Instrument Control Unit (NISP), emphasizes that “the capabilities and reliability of the infrared device operated by the unit responsible for the OPCT are simply impressive.” The satellite has been in orbit since July last year.

Euclid is space mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) with the participation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Spain plays an important role in the mission, occupying a prominent role in the consortium that led the mission. On the one hand, the CSIC Institute of Space Sciences, the Institute of High Energy Physics and the Institute of Space Research of Catalonia were responsible for the design, construction, assembly and verification testing of the Spacecraft Assembly. The filter wheel of an infrared instrument whose control unit was developed by UPCT in collaboration with a Canary Islands astrophysicist.

. In addition, about 80 European companies participate in Euclid, nine of which are Spanish. In more than 20 Spanish institutions About a hundred scientists are preparing the scientific exploitation of a mission to unravel the secrets of the dark universe..