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Euclid Maps Milky Way Center: 60 Million Stars Captured

6/25/2026

Summary

Euclid Captures Galactic Mosaic

ESA’s Euclid telescope captured a mosaic of the Milky Way’s centre on 23 March 2025, showing 60 million stars.
The 324-megapixel mosaic uses nine pointings each larger than the full Moon, was recorded over 26 hours and covers a field of view 270 times Hubble’s, requiring about 2,000 hours for Keck.
The mosaic contains 51 planetary systems and will aid exoplanet mass microlensing, providing a reference for Roman Telescope observations, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu and Natalia Rektsini said.

Summary

Euclid Enables Microlensing

Euclid’s image of the Milky Way’s central bulge provides the first space-based data set for microlensing exoplanet searches.
Microlensing detects exoplanets by measuring a brief brightening when a planet’s gravity distorts a background star’s light.
Jean-Philippe Beaulieu of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris and the University of Tasmania originated Euclid’s galactic-bulge survey and co-led its exoplanet group.

History

Historical Context

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope’s 2.4-meter mirror and ESA partnership set a space-imaging benchmark. As a flagship of NASA’s Great Observatories, Hubble also pioneered public outreach that sustains interest. Decades later ESA’s later space telescopes and NASA’s upcoming Roman Telescope inherit that legacy, using high-resolution surveys to enable microlensing searches that could double known exoplanet detections by 2035.

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Euclid Captures Galactic Mosaic

ESA’s Euclid telescope captured a mosaic of the Milky Way’s centre on 23 March 2025, showing 60 million stars.
The 324-megapixel mosaic uses nine pointings each larger than the full Moon, was recorded over 26 hours and covers a field of view 270 times Hubble’s, requiring about 2,000 hours for Keck.
The mosaic contains 51 planetary systems and will aid exoplanet mass microlensing, providing a reference for Roman Telescope observations, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu and Natalia Rektsini said.

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