ESA's Euclid captures largest and most detailed image of Milky Way's center, revealing 60 million stars; opens window for exoplanet hunting.

The European Space Agency's Euclid telescope has unveiled a stunning six-gigapixel image of the Milky Way's center, capturing 60 million stars in a mosaic of nine patches. This image, taken over 26 hours in March 2025, is a significant leap in astronomical imaging.¹²³⁴⁵⁸

"Now we've decided to point Euclid at the brightest area of the sky -- and it works superbly, it's extraordinary," said French astronomer Jean-Charles Cuillandre. The image encompasses the entire region that the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman space telescope will monitor for exoplanet hunting, including 51 known planetary systems.

The data from Euclid is expected to enhance the search for exoplanets, potentially increasing the known count from 6,000 to over 100,000. The telescope, launched in 2023, aims to construct the most accurate 3D map of the cosmos and shed light on the dark forces shaping it. Cuillandre emphasized, "we didn't do this just to produce a beautiful image."⁶

The image also serves as a time reference for future microlensing events detected by the Roman telescope, allowing astronomers to study how stars appeared before their light overlapped. This groundbreaking work marks the beginning of a new era in planetary discovery, with astronomers anticipating the identification of 1,500 microlensing exoplanets.