This image is released as part of the Early Release Observations from ESA’s Euclid space mission. All data from these initial observations are made public on 23 May 2024 – including a handful of unprecedented new views of the nearby Universe, this being one. This image is a higher resolution, close-up cutout from a wider frame featuring galaxy cluster Abell 2390, in visible light. Two additional cutouts are available that combine visible and infrared light: cutout 1, cutout 2 (also featuring ‘intracluster light’).
[Image description: Hundreds of stars and galaxies are spread over this image. The stars look like dots with six diffraction spikes coming from them. Most galaxies appear as elliptical haloes around an even brighter centre. The light from galaxies lying behind the bright cluster in the centre of the image is distorted into arcs.]