Euclid is an ESA medium class space mission , selected in October 2011 and with its launch planned for 2020. The Euclid mission aims at understanding why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating and the cause for this acceleration which physicists refer to as dark energy. Euclid will explore how the Universe evolved over the past 10 billion years to address questions related to fundamental physics and cosmology on the nature and properties of dark energy, dark matter and gravity. Euclid will also provide insightful information on the physics of the early universe and on the initial conditions which seed the formation of cosmic structure.

The imprints of dark energy and gravity will be tracked by using two complementary cosmological probes to capture signatures of the expansion rate of the Universe and the growth of cosmic structures: Weak gravitational Lensing and Galaxy Clustering (Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations and Redshift Space Distortion). Euclid will be equipped with a 1.2 m diameter mirror telescope feeding 2 instruments: a high quality panoramic visible imager (VIS); and a near infrared 3- filter photometer and a slitless spectrograph (NISP).

Euclid will carry out a wide survey covering 15,000 deg2 and a Deep survey of 40 deg2 in a 6 years mission operating at the L2 Lagrangian point. The scientific analysis and interpretation of the mission data is led by the scientists of the Euclid Consortium.

Aim of our participation

The Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC) is deeply involved in the Euclid mission. We form part of the Euclid Science Team of the mission. We are members of the Euclid Consortium Board. We are responsible, together with IFAE, of delivering the Filter Wheel Assembly (FWA) of the Near Infrared Spectrograph and Photometer (NISP). We lead the Simulation Organization Unit and are deputy coordinators of the Photometric Redshift Organization Unit of the Science Ground Segment. We lead the Cosmological Simulations Science Working Group and actively participate as well in other Science Working Groups.

Recent developments

During 2017, we have delivered the Flagship Galaxy Catalogue to the Euclid Consortium. This catalogue is the basis for the Science Performance Verification 2 which will check the performance of the mission and will serve as input for the mission CDR next year. We have produced and delivered the simulated images in OU-SIM for the Scientific Challenges 2 and 3. We have started assembling the Qualifying Model of the FWA and started the production of the Flight Model. We have attended many meetings and workshops of the mission and organized the joint Cosmological Simulations and Weak Lensing Working Groups Meeting at ICE in October 2017. We have been carrying out the SO Large Programme, where we are PI, to obtain spectroscopy to calibrate the photometric redshift technique in Euclid. We have organized the Euclid Science Team meeting at ICE on November 16-17.

Recent references