The European Space Agency’s (ESA) recent mission, named Euclid after the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, is a significant scientific endeavor in which Italy is playing a leading role. Equipped with a 1.2 m reflecting telescope and two scientific instruments, Euclid aims to provide detailed images of the extragalactic sky and perform spectroscopy of galaxies and stars. The mission’s main goal is to understand dark matter and dark energy, which make up 95% of the Universe. By studying weak gravitational lensing and acoustic oscillations, Euclid will contribute to our understanding of these mysterious components and potentially challenge Einstein’s general relativity theory. With a mass of 2 tonnes, Euclid was launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral and will travel towards Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2. Over 200 Italian scientists and researchers are involved in the project. The Italian Space Agency, in collaboration with the National Institute of Astrophysics and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, led the design and construction of Italy’s contributions to the mission. The INFN will also analyze the data collected by Euclid to study dark matter and measure neutrino mass. Additionally, the Italian Agency supports the INAF in its role in the Science Ground Segment and the development of software for the instruments. The launch was tracked by the Italian Space Agency’s Luigi Broglio Space Centre in Malindi, Kenya. Euclid’s observations will cover a third of the sky over a period of six years, providing valuable data for various astrophysical sectors.
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