Near-infrared survey will advance our understanding of the universe

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Ralf Bender is a co-founder of the Euclid mission and has been one of the initiators of the Near-Infrared Instrument of Euclid. He is a member of the Euclid Consortium Board and various managerial subcommittees. Understanding Dark Matter and Dark Energy as well as the evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes has been at the center of his scientific interests since over 25 years. He says: “Euclid will not only investigate the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in unprecedented precision, it will also carry out a revolutionary Near-Infrared Survey which will dramatically advance our understanding of a large variety of objects, from Brown Dwarf Stars in the Milky Way to the earliest galaxies and black holes formed 12 Billion years ago." Dr. Frank Grupp. senior staff member at Ralf Bender’s chair, has been responsible for the design and development of major parts of the Euclid optics, together with colleagues at MPE Garching.

Frank Grupp who is also a co-founder of Euclid and the German Euclid project manager emphasises: “Euclid contains the largest optical lenses ever developed for a scientific space mission. This was a real challenge and we are very grateful for the support the German Space Agency (DLR) has provided for this exceptional mission.”