![]() ![]() Scientists have detected a pattern in the way galaxies congregate from measurements of the nearby universe. The two missions will also study the way galaxies clustered together in different cosmic eras. Tallying up the universe’s dark matter across cosmic time will help scientists better understand the push-and-pull feeding into cosmic acceleration. That will offer clues about cosmic acceleration because the gravitational attraction of dark matter, acting like a cosmic glue that holds together galaxies and galaxy clusters, counters the universe’s expansion. By studying these smaller distortions, Roman and Euclid will each create a 3D dark matter map. Less concentrated mass, like clumps of dark matter, can create more subtle effects. When those nearer “lensing” objects are massive galaxies or galaxy clusters, background sources can appear smeared or form multiple images. ![]() Images of a distant source produced by light moving through these warps look distorted, too. This light-bending phenomenon occurs because anything with mass warps the fabric of space-time the bigger the mass, the greater the warp. They’ll attempt to pin down cosmic acceleration’s cause in a few different ways.įirst, both Roman and Euclid will study the accumulation of matter using a technique called weak gravitational lensing. Roman and Euclid will provide separate streams of compelling new data to fill in gaps in our understanding. The fact that it’s speeding up means that our picture of the cosmos is missing something fundamental. In the 1990s, by looking at a particular kind of supernova, scientists discovered that about 6 billion years ago, dark energy began ramping up its influence on the universe, and no one knows how or why. But scientists expected the gravity of the universe’s matter to gradually slow that expansion. The universe has been expanding ever since its birth – a fact discovered by Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître in 1927 and Edwin Hubble in 1929. While Euclid will focus on cosmology exclusively, Roman will also survey nearby galaxies, find and investigate planets throughout our galaxy, study objects in the outskirts of our solar system, and much more. Its infrared vision will unveil the cosmos when it was 2 billion years old, revealing a larger number of fainter galaxies. Roman’s largest core survey will be capable of probing the universe to a much greater depth and precision, but over a smaller area – about 2,000 square degrees, or one-twentieth of the sky. It will peer back 10 billion years to when the universe was about 3 billion years old. Together, they will be much more powerful than either individually.Įuclid will observe a far larger area of the sky – approximately 15,000 square degrees, or about a third of the sky – in both infrared and optical wavelengths of light, but with less detail than Roman. Both missions will make 3D maps of the universe to answer fundamental questions about the history and structure of the universe. Astronomers will use Roman and Euclid to test both theories at the same time, and scientists expect both missions to uncover important information about the underlying workings of the universe.Įuclid and Roman are both designed to study cosmic acceleration, but using different and complementary strategies. Scientists are unsure whether the universe’s accelerated expansion is caused by an additional energy component or whether it signals that our understanding of gravity needs to be changed in some way. “With these upcoming telescopes, we will measure dark energy in different ways and with far more precision than previously achievable, opening up a new era of exploration into this mystery.” Rhodes is a deputy project scientist for Roman and the U.S. “Twenty-five years after its discovery, the universe’s accelerated expansion remains one of the most pressing mysteries in astrophysics,” said Jason Rhodes, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. ![]()
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