The Euclid Space Telescope is fully operational after a deicing procedure removed small amounts of water ice from its mirror.
The Euclid Space Telescope is back to full operational capabilities after a deicing procedure removed small amounts of water ice from its mirror. As announced last week, some of the instruments on the European Space Agency telescope were impeded by the buildup of ice due to water that got into the telescope from the atmosphere during its construction. This water was gradually released over time as the telescope was in space and froze in place.
“It was an enormous team effort over the last months to plan, execute, and analyze the heating of selected mirrors on board Euclid, resulting in the fantastic result we see now,” said Ralf Kohley, Euclid instrument scientist, in a statement. “The mirrors, and the amount of light coming in through VIS, will continue being monitored, and the results from this first test will continue to be analyzed as we turn this experiment into a core part of flying and operating Euclid.
Related “Our primary suspect, the coldest mirror behind the main telescope optics, was heated from -147 degrees Celsius to -113 degrees Celsius. It didn’t need to get hot, because in a vacuum, this temperature is enough to quickly evaporate all the ice. And it worked like a charm!” said Mischa Schirmer, a calibration scientist for the Euclid Consortium who was on the deicing team. “Almost immediately, we were receiving 15% more light from the universe.
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