NASA Delivers Detectors for ESA's Euclid Spacecraft

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NASA Delivers Detectors for ESA's Euclid Spacecraft
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 9, 2017

Three detector systems for the Euclid mission, led by ESA (European Space
Agency), have been delivered to Europe for the spacecraft's near-infrared
instrument. The detector systems are key components of NASA's contribution
to this upcoming mission to study some of the biggest questions about
the universe, including those related to the properties and effects of
dark matter and dark energy -- two critical, but invisible phenomena that
scientists think make up the vast majority of our universe.

"The delivery of these detector systems is a milestone for what we hope
will be an extremely exciting mission, the first space mission dedicated
to going after the mysterious dark energy," said Michael Seiffert, the
NASA Euclid project scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, California, which manages the development and implementation
of the detector systems.

Euclid will carry two instruments: a visible-light imager (VIS) and a
near-infrared spectrometer and photometer (NISP). A special light-splitting
plate on the Euclid telescope enables incoming light to be shared by both
instruments, so they can carry out observations simultaneously.

The spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2020, will observe billions of
faint galaxies and investigate why the universe is expanding at an accelerating
pace. Astrophysicists think dark energy is responsible for this effect,
and Euclid will explore this hypothesis and help constrain dark energy
models. This census of distant galaxies will also reveal how galaxies
are distributed in our universe, which will help astrophysicists understand
how the delicate interplay of the gravity of dark matter, luminous matter
and dark energy forms large-scale structures in the universe.

Additionally, the location of galaxies in relation to each other tells
scientists how they are clustered. Dark matter, an invisible substance
accounting for over 80 percent of matter in our universe, can cause subtle
distortions in the apparent shapes of galaxies. That is because its gravity
bends light that travels from a distant galaxy toward an observer, which
changes the appearance of the galaxy when it is viewed from a telescope.
Euclid's combination of visible and infrared instruments will examine
this distortion effect and allow astronomers to probe dark matter and
the effects of dark energy.

Detecting infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, is especially
important for studying the universe's distant galaxies. Much like the
Doppler effect for sound, where a siren's pitch seems higher as it approaches
and lower as it moves away, the frequency of light from an astronomical
object gets shifted with motion. Light from objects that are traveling
away from us appears redder, and light from those approaching us appears
bluer. Because the universe is expanding, distant galaxies are moving
away from us, so their light gets stretched out to longer wavelengths.
Between 6 and 10 billion light-years away, galaxies are brightest in infrared
light.

JPL procured the NISP detector systems, which were manufactured by Teledyne
Imaging Sensors of Camarillo, California. They were tested at JPL and
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, before being
shipped to France and the NISP team.

Each detector system consists of a detector, a cable and a "readout electronics
chip" that converts infrared light to data signals read by an onboard
computer and transmitted to Earth for analysis. Sixteen detectors will
fly on Euclid, each composed of 2040 by 2040 pixels. They will cover a
field of view slightly larger than twice the area covered by a full moon.
The detectors are made of a mercury-cadmium-telluride mixture and are
designed to operate at extremely cold temperatures.

"The U.S. Euclid team has overcome many technical hurdles along the way,
and we are delivering superb detectors that will enable the collection
of unprecedented data during the mission," said Ulf Israelsson, the NASA
Euclid project manager, based at JPL.

Delivery to ESA of the next set of detectors for NISP is planned in early
June. The Centre de Physique de Particules de Marseille, France, will
provide further characterization of the detector systems. The final detector
focal plane will then be assembled at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique
de Marseille, and integrated with the rest of NISP for instrument tests.

For more information about Euclid, visit:

http://sci.esa.int/Euclid

News Media Contact
Elizabeth Landau
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425
elizabet...@jpl.nasa.gov

Giuseppe Racca
Euclid Project Manager
Directorate of Science
European Space Agency
giusepp...@esa.int

René Laureijs
Euclid Project Scientist
Directorate of Science
European Space Agency
Rene.L...@esa.int

2017-135