EUCLID'S VISIBLE AND INFRARED INSTRUMENTS

Euclid will examine visible and infrared light from distant galaxies using two scientific instruments on board. These instruments will measure the accurate position and shapes of galaxy in visible light, and their redshift (from which their distance can be derived) in infrared light. With these data, scientists can construct a 3D map of the distributions of both the galaxies and the dark matter in the Universe. The map will show how large-scale structure evolved over time, tracing the role of dark energy.

VIS The visible instrument

Special feature: very sharp images of galaxies

• Measures the shapes of billions of galaxies
• 550–900 nm wavelength
• Mosaic of 36 CCDs, 4k x 4k pixels each

NISP Near-infrared spectrometer and photometer.

Special feature: largest infrared field-of-view from space

• Measures brightness and colour of light from galaxies
• Used to calculate redshift/distance
• 900–2000 nm wavelength
• Mosaic of 16 detectors, 2k x 2k pixels each