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Telescope captures most detailed image yet of Milky Way's heart: "Cosmic magnifying glass"
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 Wednesday.
TL;DR
- Euclid space telescope captured the largest and most detailed photo of the Milky Way's center, containing 60 million stars.
- The image will assist in the search and study of exoplanets through microlensing.
- Microlensing occurs when a closer star's gravity bends and brightens the light of a background star, with a planet's gravity causing a slight additional bend.
- Euclid launched in 2023 with a mission to chart one-third of the sky to study dark matter and dark energy.
- The telescope captured the image over 26 hours in March 2025, and color was added using observations from another telescope.
- Previous Euclid images include a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 2390 and the Perseus galaxy cluster.