B.C. scientists hopeful as international project launches Euclid spacecraft to map dark matter
CBC
Several scientists in British Columbia are about to peer into the darkest parts of our universe.
The astronomers are part of a global consortium watching eagerly as a vessel they helped design hurtles through space.
The Euclid spacecraft hitchhiked off the planet on a SpaceX rocket on Saturday, on a mission the consortium planned to create the best-ever three-dimension map of the known universe.
Their hope is to understand dark matter and dark energy, phenomena that make up 95 per cent of the cosmos, but which remain a mystery.
"Most of the universe is not made of atoms," University of B.C. astronomy professor Douglas Scott told CBC News. "It's made of a kind of stuff called dark matter and another kind of stuff called dark energy.
"And although we have names for these things, we really don't know what they are."
Scott is one of roughly 2,000 scientists from 17 countries involved in designing and planning the instruments aboard the Euclid.
He said the team includes about 30 Canadian scientists, in addition to a number of their students.
Overseen by the European Space Agency (ESA), the mission's $1.4-billion price tag is being covered by a number of countries, including Canada.
The ship will take roughly a month to reach its destination and begin observing one-third of the sky. Using various instruments including a type of telescope, scientists hope to be able to examine 10 billion years of the evolution of our universe.
The mission took 12 years of scientific preparation and technical planning, according to the ESA.
The Euclid satellite will spend six years in space and its first images are expected in two months.
The ship includes a telescope 1.2 metres in diameter, as well as a camera that can capture wavelengths visible to the eye, and a device to capture near-infrared waves.
The Euclid took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Canada Day. The project hired private firm SpaceX to carry the ship aboard its reusable Falcon 9 rocket, which delivered it to space and returned safely to earth.
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This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
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