The Euclid telescope of the European Space Agency (@europeanspaceagency), in collaboration with NASA, has revealed for the first time the hidden star-forming regions of Messier 78 (the bright region in the centre) and mapped the gas and dust in extraordinary detail. Using its infrared camera, the telescope looked beyond the clouds that usually obscure small objects in this star nest. This image and four other recently published images showcase Euclid's capacity to probe two great cosmic mysteries: dark matter and dark energy.

Although scientists have determined that dark matter makes up about 27 per cent of the cosmos, they do not yet know exactly what it is. They think that dark matter covers the universe in a vast, web-like structure, as a gravitational scaffold that attracts most of the universe's normal matter. They have determined that dark matter is not made up of known particles of matter, because if it were, the appearance of the universe would be quite different.

Observations of the universe have shown that the universe is expanding and is currently expanding faster than it has in the past. Although the exact reason for this is not known, the leading theory is that the universe contains matter with a repulsive gravitational effect - a force that pulls the universe apart rather than holding it together. This phenomenon is called dark energy.

Euclid will create a cosmic map covering almost a third of the sky by 2030. Scientists will then be able to detect the presence of dark matter with greater precision than ever before. This map will also be used to study how the strength of dark energy changes over time.

Image description:

Deep orange clouds of gas and dust extend diagonally across the image. In the centre, bright stars add a purple glow to the region. In the background, we see the black backdrop of space filled with bright stars and galaxies.