The European space probe Euclid was successfully launched on Saturday. The telescope will search for dark matter and dark energy to continue exploring the universe.
The European Space Telescope successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The telescope must search for the mysterious dark matter and dark energy at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It is estimated that the universe is made up of 68% dark energy and 27% dark matter. So far we have only been able to observe 5% of the universe, or “normal” matter.
The telescope trip will take a month. After that, it will take another 2 months to prepare all the tools. The telescope is expected to remain operational for six to eleven years after that.
The Falcon 9 rocket has now returned to Earth and landed on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
Originally, a Russian Soyuz rocket was supposed to take the European telescope to its destination, but that plan was canceled due to the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. SpaceX, the space company of billionaire and Tesla boss Elon Musk, was chosen as the replacement.
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