The European Space Agency has released the first batch of large-scale images from the Euclid space telescope, which astronomers have already used to find hundreds of strong gravitational lenses

A European dark matter telescope called Euclid has released its first treasure trove of data, showing galaxies by the thousand.

Although the telescope is just getting started on its mission, it has already delivered some impressive snapshots of the dark cosmos. In February, Euclid captured an Einstein Ring in the galaxy NGC 6505, which is about 590 million light-years from Earth. The mission’s first release of cosmology data will take place in October 2026.