The Images Scientists Have Been Waiting 12 Years For!

hat we see in the sky is just the tip of the iceberg. The Sun, the Moon, stars, planets, and galaxies - all of this visible universe makes up only 5% of its total composition. But what lies hidden in the remaining 95%?
Today, the vast majority of scientists agree that most of our universe consists of dark matter and dark energy. Two forces that cannot be seen or touched, yet without them, the cosmos itself could not exist.
One of them acts like a cosmic “glue,” holding galaxies together and preventing them from falling apart. The other, on the contrary, stretches space itself, causing galaxies to rush away from each other at ever-increasing speeds, sometimes even faster than the speed of light.
But if these forces are invisible, how can we study them?
In 2011, the European Space Agency decided to approach the problem differently: instead of looking for the forces themselves, they would study what these forces leave behind.
If galaxies cluster in one place, dark matter is likely at work. If they rapidly scatter, this could be a sign of dark energy. To test this, the Euclid project was launched: a space telescope designed to create the most detailed three-dimensional map of the universe ever made. This map will help scientists understand how the invisible forces - dark matter and dark energy - shape its structure.
In July 2023, Euclid was launched into space. And just recently, it transmitted its first unique images of distant galaxies, nebulae, and superclusters: structures that seem to bear the imprints of these mysterious forces.
Right now, these observations are especially important: recent data from scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory point to something strange in the behavior of dark energy.
What if our universe is changing faster than we thought?