The European Space Agency’s Euclid mission and the Euclid Consortium have released new data obtained from dedicated observations of the central regions of the Milky Way, as part of Euclid’s Quick Release 2. Euclid’s primary goal is to map the large-scale structure of the Universe and reveal the role of dark matter and dark energy; these observations demonstrate the mission’s extraordinary potential.
On March 23, 2025, Euclid observed the inner galactic bulge for approximately 26 hours, producing an exceptionally deep, wide, and high-resolution view of one of the most star-dense regions in the sky. The resulting mosaic, based on nine instrument pointings in visible light, contains more than 60 million stars, along with nebulae and star clusters. This is the largest and most detailed visible-light image ever obtained of the center of our Galaxy.
“These new observations are spectacular,” explains Carlo Baccigalupi, professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology at SISSA and Builder Scientist for the Euclid consortium. “They show that Euclid is performing extremely well: the telescope combines sharp images, stability, and observation speed in a way that opens up scientific possibilities far beyond its main cosmological program.”
The Euclid Galactic Bulge Survey is particularly important for the study of exoplanets through gravitational microlensing.
