• The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid mission, released its first five science images.
• They include views of large clusters with thousands of distant galaxies, close-ups of two nearby galaxies, a nebula, and a gravitationally bound group of stars called a globular cluster.

ABOUT EUCLID

• Euclid was designed to investigate how dark matter and dark energy made the cosmos what it is.
  • It was launched in July 2023.
• About 95% of the universe seems to be made of these units that we have no idea about as these dark entities cannot be directly detected.
• Over the next 6 years, Euclid will observe the shapes, distance and motions of billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years.
• Euclid’s view of the cosmos special is because of its ability to create a remarkably sharp visible and infrared image across a huge part of the sky in just one sitting.
• It will orbit Lagrange point 2 (L2).
• In the process, it will create the largest cosmic 3D map ever made.