Less than a mote ...

The huge mosaic released by ESA’s Euclid space telescope on October 15, 2024, accounts for 1% of the wide survey that Euclid will capture over six years. The location and actual size of the mosaic on the Southern Sky is shown in yellow. This all-sky view is an overlay of ESA Gaia’s star map from its second data release in 2018 and ESA Planck’s dust map from 2014. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA; ESA/Gaia/DPAC; ESA/Planck Collaboration

As stated before in BRT, we are less than a mote in god's eye.

The first section of Euclid’s map, a massive 208-gigapixel mosaic, was unveiled at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, by ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher and Director of Science Carole Mundell.

This mosaic is composed of 260 observations taken between March 25 and April 8, 2024. In just two weeks, Euclid managed to capture 132 square degrees of the Southern Sky with incredible clarity—an area over 500 times larger than the full Moon.

The tech ... behind the never ending quest for knowledge. :)

This figure shows an overlay of an image of the Moon on top of an image of the sky recorded simultaneously by the 36 detectors of Euclid’s VIS instrument. The VIS image was obtained in one single shot during the initial months of testing of the spacecraft. It illustrates that the area of the sky that Euclid can observe within one pointing of the telescope, is larger than that of the full Moon. The aperture angle of the Moon’s diameter is approximately 0.5 degrees. Euclid’s gaze captures in one single observation a square area of the sky of about 0.7 times 0.7 degrees.
Credit: ESA/ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, S. Brunier, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Euclid, the European Space Agency’s dark Universe detective, was launched on July 1, 2023. It has recently showcased its first full-color, stunning images of the cosmos, boasting powerful imaging capabilities thanks to its unique optics.

Telescope and Imaging Technology

Euclid’s telescope and its optics are specifically designed to capture a large view of the sky in a single shot. This feature is vital for its mission, which aims to map over one-third of the celestial sphere with high sensitivity within a six-year timeframe.

Image Comparison and Coverage

The accompanying figure displays an overlay of an image of the Moon atop a sky image simultaneously captured by the 36 detectors of Euclid’s VIS instrument. This image, acquired in a single shot during the spacecraft’s early testing phase, demonstrates Euclid’s ability to cover an area larger than the full Moon in just one telescope pointing. The Moon’s diameter spans approximately 0.5 degrees, whereas Euclid can observe a square area of the sky measuring about 0.7 by 0.7 degrees in a single observation.

Science done right never disappoints. :)