Time for a quick update on the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission. For full details about what follows you can see here. Everything I mention here is already in the public domain, so I am not disclosing any secrets!
The last update I posted mentioned that Euclid had moved into what is called the Performance Verification phase of its mission. That has now been put on hold in order to troubleshoot an intermittent problem with the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) which helps to maintain correct pointing of the telescope. This issue can probably be fixed by software updates, but these will have to be tested, hence the pause. This is rather irksome, but the instrument teams are confident they can find a solution soon.
Anyway, while we’re waiting, here is a video from Launch Pad Astronomy explaining about the mission. It was actually released about six days ago but I didn’t have time to post it until now. About 15 minutes long, it’s a big longer than previous official Euclid videos I’ve posted, but I think it’s very informative:
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I’ll be talking a little bit about Euclid among other things at this event on 6th September.
In the Dark 