Galaxies belonging to the Perseus Cluster and others further away, captured by Euclid telescope, designed and built by European Space Agency to explore dark matter and dark energy which are thought to make up 95% of the universe, are seen in this undated handout image. European Space...PARIS, Nov 7 -
Scientists believe vast, seemingly organised structures such as Perseus could only have formed if dark matter exists. Tell-tale signs of the hidden force exerted by dark matter include galaxies rotating more quickly than scientists would expect from the amount of visible matter that can be detected. "The purpose of the Euclid mission is really to start to probe that dark sector of the universe in ways that we've been unable to presently with current ground and space missions," said Mundell, a leading academic and former UK science envoy.
The Euclid spacecraft was due to be launched on Russia's Soyuz rocket but those plans were scrapped amid a breakdown of relations following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year.SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketAlthough the mission is designed to last six years, ESA hopes Euclid has another six months of propellant to keep it in solar orbit some 1.