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The Trumpire Strikes Back

The European Space Agency has designed their space observatory Euclid to hunt for the invisible but crucial components of the universe: dark matter and dark energy. Its first science release is now out and it shows that the observatory is more than up to the task. And it can do so much more than that.Five images and 10 accompanying papers are the tip of the iceberg of what the observatory can do. The early catalog was produced in a single day and it contains more than 11 million objects in visible light and 5 million more in infrared light. It can see free-floating rogue planets only four times bigger than Jupiter, observe star clusters with unprecedented detail, as well as discovering new dwarf galaxies. But the goal remains to study galaxies with high precision to indirectly constrain the properties of the dark universe.“Euclid is quite amazing. Everything on earth, all the galaxies, all the stars, everything that we see makes up only 5 percent of the universe. So there's 95 percent we cannot see. One wants to understand what is out there and how this functions. That's why we launched this mission,” ESA Director General Dr Josef Aschbacher teased us about this science release during a previous interview about the upcoming launch of Ariane 6.“Euclid will help us measure the indirect effect of dark energy and dark matter so that we can better understand how they function and how they work. We will still not see them, but we can measure their impact indirectly. And this is actually quite exciting!”The stunning Abell 2390 cluster is in the middle, amid thousands of galaxies further away in the universe. There are a few stars too with equally stunning artifacts, like the diffraction spikes and blue rings.Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOEuclid had some teething problems last year (which somehow produced some incredible art) but the first images published in November showed the capabilities and potential of the telescope. And this new batch builds up the well-deserved hype. In particular, astronomers are looking at gravitational lensing.The cluster images centered around the clusters Abel 2390 and Abel 2764 show some arcs of light and distorted galaxies. That is called strong gravitational lensing, when a massive object such as a galaxy cluster warps space-time so much to act like a massive magnifying glass.[In these images] you see the impact of gravitational lensing and how sharply, how efficiently, and at what high-performance Euclid can detect the arcs, which are evidence that the background galaxies are magnified.Roland Vavrek, Euclid Deputy Project ScientistBut there is also more subtle lensing happening in the universe. This weak gravitational lensing is a more toned-down distortion, created by any mass between the object and the observers. All this lensing can be used to trace dark matter, since this hypothetical substance is supposed to interact only through gravity and not with light.On the top right, there is the Abell 2764 cluster, and this image show just how many galaxies Euclid can snap in a single exposure.Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO“Gravitational lensing is core to the core science,” Roland Vavrek, Euclid Deputy Project Scientist, told IFLScience. “In this fantastic environment [the cluster images], which of course has very massive systems, you see the impact of gravitational lensing and how sharply, how efficiently, and at what high-performance Euclid can detect the arcs, which are evidence that the background galaxies are magnified.”What makes Euclid a great dark matter telescope is its ability to measure the shape of galaxies with high precision. In distortions to those shapes, astronomers can reconstruct the distribution of dark matter in the universe in three dimensions. But you also need a wide field of view to capture a huge amount of galaxies. And a telescope that keeps steady during these precise observations.“The guiding system of Euclid is a masterpiece of engineering. It ensures that we can we can keep the telescope on target over the almost 600 seconds of exposure,” Vavrek explained. “It’s a very small detail, but it ensures that we don't get the galaxies blurred by technical effects. So we can really measure the blur due to the weak lensing effect.”Merging galaxies forming part of the Dorado Group. Euclid has shown the shells and tails of these interacting objects.Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOThese extraordinary capabilities are present in every single image we see from Euclid. Beyond the two galaxy clusters, we see details in the Dorado Group of galaxies. This is one of the richer galaxy groups visible in the Southern Hemisphere. We can see here the double ability of Euclid to study the cosmic distribution of dark matter but also the local distribution. Here two galaxies are in the process of merging, with shells and tidal tails of gas visible, influenced by the gravity of the whole system both visible and invisible.Star-forming region Messier 78 in the constellation of Orion.Image credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOAnd on the subject of galaxies, let’s take a look at NGC 6744. It is one of the largest spiral galaxies seen in the sky. Euclid can track the formation of stars in this object, adding more information to the evolution of galaxies and the history of star formation across the ages of the universe. Euclid is capable of looking at those star formation regions in detail if they are much closer to us. Take Messier 78. Euclid delivers an unprecedented image of this stellar nursery. Thanks to its infrared camera, it shows where stars are being born for the first time as well as clearly revealing the distribution of gas and dust.  The images are extraordinary and the science is building the foundations for a clearer understanding of the whole universe. Euclid is living up to its promise, and we can’t wait to see more.Explore the papers from the release, which have been made available on preprint server arXiv, here.

Tidal pressures have been observed pushing (relatively) warm water under the Thwaites Glacier, exposing a much larger area of ice to warming pressure. The observations indicate a catastrophic sea level rise could be coming much sooner than almost anyone is preparing for.Rising temperatures are contributing to higher sea levels by making the existing water in the ocean expand, as well as by melting alpine glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet. All of these are virtually certain to increase, and spell trouble for coastal cities worldwide. There is much more uncertainty, however, about the rate at which Antarctic ice will melt, potentially multiplying existing estimates for flooding threats. Despite the vastness of Antarctica, one glacier, the Thwaites, is considered key, earning the name “The Doomsday Glacier”.The Thwaites Glacier is 120 kilometers (75 miles) wide where it reaches the ocean and extends from West Antarctica into an offshore basin. The warming of air above and the water in front of the Thwaites are causing it to melt, but there are fears of something much worse. Water underneath the Thwaites where it currently sits upon the bottom of the ocean would expose the ice to much more heating, greatly speeding up the melt rate.This is where observations by Professor Christine Dow of the University of Waterloo and colleagues come in. They have seen evidence in satellite imagery that the water is getting beneath the glacier daily and lifting it off the seabed, before the weight of the 1.2-kilometer (4,000-foot) thick glacier causes it to settle back down. The cycle repeats with the tides over the front 2-6 kilometers (1.2-3.7 miles) of the glacier, but when Sun and Moon align to create extreme tidal conditions they can reach up to six kilometers further.This causes brief accelerated warming, but the shape of the basin means that if, or more realistically when, the glacier’s front retreats deeper into the basin the underside melting will become continuous. Two ridges on the seabed are the planet’s last lines of defense against accelerated melting. The question for humanity is how long we have before both are breached.False coloring of a satellite images shows the flexing experienced by the Thwaites Glacier as tidal pressures rise and fall, as water penetrates for kilometers beneath the ice, accelerating warming.Image credit: ICEYE; ERIC RIGNOT / UC IRVINEDow and co-authors estimate this will occur in 10-20 years’ time, and with it will come a greatly accelerated rise in sea level. “Thwaites is the most unstable place in the Antarctic and contains the equivalent of 60 centimetres [24 inches] of sea level rise,” Dow said in a statement. “The worry is that we are underestimating the speed that the glacier is changing, which would be devastating for coastal communities around the world.” The wealthiest locations might install dykes like the Netherlands or tidal barrier like London, but for much of the world this will mean the drowning of homes and prime agricultural land.Dow is hoping to achieve more precision on how soon we can expect to see these events occur by refining models of the way water flows in and out of the basin, and how saltwater and glacial melt mix there. “At the moment we don't have enough information to say one way or the other how much time there is before the ocean water intrusion is irreversible,” she said.   However, modeling can only take one so far without direct observations to calibrate it. Scientific data from Antarctica once advanced at a pace comparable to the one at which glaciers moved. Eyes in space have turned some aspects into a flood, but the same isn’t true for operations that require boots on the ground.“We operate at the same budget in 2024 in real dollars that we were in the 1990s,” said lead author Professor Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine. “We need to grow the community of glaciologists and physical oceanographers to address these observation issues sooner rather than later, but right now we’re trying to climb Everest in tennis shoes.” The study is published open access in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.