Space, the final frontier

For the first time ever in space, scientists discovered a novel carbon molecule known as methyl cation (CH3+). This molecule is significant because it promotes the synthesis of more complex carbon-based compounds.

ESA’s Euclid mission is designed to bring the dark side of the Universe to light. Based on the way galaxies rotate and orbit one another, and the way in which the Universe is expanding, astronomers believe that two unseen entities dominate the composition of our cosmos. They call these mysterious components dark matter and dark energy, yet to date we have not been able to detect either of them directly, only inferring their presence from the effects they have on the Universe at large.

To better understand what dark matter and dark energy may be, we need a mission that can more closely reveal what effects they have had on galaxies, galaxy clusters and the expansion of the Universe itself. Euclid is that mission.

ESA’s Euclid mission will create a 3D-map of the Universe, with the third dimension representing time itself. The further away a galaxy is located, the longer its light has taken to reach us and so the earlier in cosmic history we will see it. By observing billions of galaxies out to a distance of 10 billion light-years, scientists will be able to chart the position and velocity of galaxies over immense distances and through most of cosmic history, and trace the way the Universe has expanded during that time. Euclid’s extraordinary optics will also reveal subtle distortions in the appearance of galaxies.

From this wealth of new data, astronomers will be able to infer the properties of dark energy and dark matter more precisely than ever before. This will help theorists pin down the nature of these mysterious components and develop a refined understanding of how gravity behaves at the largest distances.

Unfortunately Arianespace doesn't provide any technical detail or a new date.

For the first time ever, we've detected phosphorus - an element essential to life - in an ocean beyond Earth.

The Euclid telescope, expected to launch next month, will be able to able to observe galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. Can anyone find a map of the local universe to that scale? I'd like to see where structures like the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall and the Laniakea Supercluster are relative to each other.

Early galaxies' stars allowed light to travel freely by heating and ionizing intergalactic gas, clearing vast regions around them.

Cave divers equipped with brilliant headlamps often explore cavities in rock less than a mile beneath our feet. It’s easy to be wholly unaware of these cave systems – even if you sit in a meadow above them – because the rock between you and the spelunkers prevents light from their headlamps from disturbing the idyllic afternoon.

Apply this vision to the conditions in the early universe, but switch from a focus on rock to gas. Only a few hundred million years after the big bang, the cosmos was brimming with opaque hydrogen gas that trapped light at some wavelengths from stars and galaxies. Over the first billion years, the gas became fully transparent – allowing the light to travel freely. Researchers have long sought definitive evidence to explain this flip.

New data from the James Webb Space Telescope recently pinpointed the answer using a set of galaxies that existed when the universe was only 900 million years old. Stars in these galaxies emitted enough light to ionize and heat the gas around them, forming huge, transparent “bubbles.” Eventually, those bubbles met and merged, leading to today’s clear and expansive views.

More: https://eiger-jwst.github.io/index.html

Italy is suggesting a location for the EU Einstein Telescope which will observe gravitational waves. The competing location right now is in Belgium. The arms are planned to be 10km, longer than LIGO's 4km arms.

The nature of an ultra-faint galaxy in the cosmic Dark Ages seen with JWST https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.15639