The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 22 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This animation illustrates how measurements made by Euclid can be used to infer the way that dark matter is distributed throughout the Universe.
Matter, including the dark matter that we can’t see, is not evenly distributed throughout the huge expanses of intergalactic space, but arranged in filamentary structures often referred to as the cosmic web. The presence of dark matter enhances the gravitational pulls and the formation of this network.
The shape and distribution of galaxies that Euclid observes are affected by the ‘geography’ of the dark matter. Euclid’s extremely accurate and precise measurements of large areas of the night sky can be used to infer this distribution, and how it has changed over time.
This change over time in dark matter, and the clustering in its overall spatial distribution, also reveals the role and properties of dark energy.