The largest image with 60 million stars has been published

European astronomers have presented the largest and most detailed image of the central region of our galaxy ever observed. In just 26 hours of observations, the Euclid space telescope managed to capture more than 60 million stars, dozens of nebulae, star clusters and 51 already known systems with exoplanets. Scientists are confident that this image will become a true «treasure map» for the search for new worlds.

Although Euclid's main task is to study dark matter and dark energy, its capabilities have proven so impressive that the spacecraft was able to distinguish individual stars in the most densely populated area of the Milky Way — the galactic bulge. This region, located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, is so densely packed with stars that most telescopes see only a continuous bright glow.

The image is of particular interest to exoplanet hunters. The central part of the galaxy is considered an ideal place to observe the phenomenon of gravitational microlensing. It occurs when one star passes in front of another and briefly magnifies its light through gravity. If a planet is located around the star, it creates a barely noticeable additional distortion in brightness, which can reveal even very distant and cold worlds. It is precisely thanks to this method that nearly 300 exoplanets have been discovered over the past two decades.

During these 26 hours of observations, Euclid did not have time to record new microlensing events — this usually requires continuous monitoring for several weeks. However, the data obtained will become a kind of «time machine». When future telescopes discover new exoplanets in this region, scientists will be able to compare them with Euclid's archival images, track the movement of stars, confirm the existence of planets and even determine their mass more accurately.

The upcoming NASA space telescope Nancy Grace Roman will play a special role here. It will conduct long-term observations of the same patch of sky, and Euclid's images will serve as a reference point for it. Such a combination of two space observatories could lead to a real breakthrough in the search for new worlds. According to some experts, the number of known exoplanets could in the future increase from the current few thousand to tens, and possibly more than 100,000.

Euclid's technical capabilities are no less impressive. In terms of resolution, its camera is comparable to the Hubble space telescope, but in a single image it covers an area of the sky about 270 times larger than Hubble can see in one exposure. Thanks to this, astronomers have obtained a unique panorama of the heart of our galaxy, which will be used for many years to come for a wide range of studies — from the study of brown dwarfs and binary stars to the distribution of cosmic dust and the history of the Milky Way's formation.