A European space telescope launched to explore the dark universe has released a trove of new data on distant galaxies.

The images and other information released on Wednesday by the European Space Agency’s Euclid observatory includes a preview of three cosmic areas that the mission will spy in finer detail, mapping the shapes and locations of 26 million galaxies billions of light years away. A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles.

“With the release of the first data from Euclid’s survey, we are unlocking a treasure trove of information for scientists to dive into and tackle some of the most intriguing questions in modern science,” ESA’s director of science, Carole Mundell, said in a statement.

“With this, ESA is delivering on its commitment to enable scientific progress for generations to come”.

The observatory, which blasted off in 2023 from Florida, is creating a cosmic atlas to gain clues about how our ever-expanding universe works and how mysterious forces called dark energy and dark matter may play a role.

The elusive duo make up most of our universe, but researchers don’t know exactly what they are.

Euclid is expected to capture images of more than 1.5 billion galaxies over six years, sending back around 100 GB of data every day, ESA said.

The space agency added that artificial intelligence (AI) will be key to analysing and cataloguing the massive amounts of data that come back to Earth.

“We’re building the tools as well as providing the measurements. In this way, we can deliver cutting-edge science in a matter of weeks, compared with the years-long process of analysing big surveys like these in the past,” Mike Walmsley, Euclid Consortium scientist, said in a statement.