Kathmandu: A European space telescope has launched from Florida on a quest to resolve one of the biggest questions in science: What is the Universe made of?
The Euclid mission will make an immense 3D map of the cosmos in an effort to tie down some of the properties of so-called dark matter and dark energy.
Together, these phenomena appear to control the shape and expansion of everything we see out there.
Researchers concede, however, they know virtually nothing about them.
Neither dark matter nor dark energy are directly detectable.
This big gap in knowledge meant we couldn’t really explain our origins, as reported by the BBC.
Euclid’s insights will be our best bet to get on to a path of understanding, the astronomer at the UK’s Lancaster University believes.
The €1.4bn (£1.2bn) Euclid telescope went up on a Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 11:12 local time (15:12 GMT/16:12 BST).
Euclid has been despatched to an observing position about 1.5 million km from Earth, on the opposite side of the planet to the Sun.
Although primarily a European Space Agency (Esa) project, the mission has significant scientific and engineering inputs from the US space agency (Nasa) as well.
(News Source: BBC)