2024-03-27 16:17:47
The Euclid space telescope, one of whose instruments was obstructed by a thin layer of ice, has regained its view after a delicate defrosting operation, announced the European Space Agency (ESA).
The ESA feared that this encroaching frost could delay the mission, launched in July 2023, to probe the cosmic mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
The defrosting procedure undertaken by ground teams, who gently warmed Euclid’s mirrors, produced much better results than expected, ESA said in a statement.
After warming the very first mirror by just 34 degrees Celsius, Euclid regained his sight, the Space Agency added.
The mission teams had noticed as early as November that a telescope instrument, which reproduces images in visible light, was receiving less light than expected, with the stars appearing less bright than they should be.
The cause was a layer of ice the thickness of a strand of DNA which had accumulated on the optics of the Euclid imager, operating some 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. One solution would have been to activate the onboard heaters to warm the entire spacecraft, as had already been done shortly after launch.
So the team started with the individual mirrors, hoping to solve the problem without having to heat the entire telescope. Not knowing exactly where the frost had accumulated, we had to try different mirrors. Luckily, the first heated mirror was the right one, underlines the ESA.
Euclid has had its share of setbacks since its launch. The influence of cosmic rays first disrupted the ship’s guidance system, requiring a complicated update of its computer system. Stray sunlight also interfered with his observations, a problem that was fixed with a small rotation of the telescope.
With the Euclid mission, scientists hope to learn more about the nature of dark energy and dark matter, two entities never before observed and thought to make up 95% of the Universe.
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