UBC researchers help identify 15,000 new strong gravitational-lens candidates in Euclid data release
The Euclid mission’s first major data release (1.7 million GB) enabled an international team to flag 15,000 new strong gravitational-lens candidates, along with 900 million galaxies and 60 million quasars. More than 30 Canadian researchers, including UBC students, contributed to the analysis combining machine learning and citizen science.
After 13 months of Euclid observations, a global consortium of over 2,000 scientists produced a record catalogue of 15,000 strong-lens candidates — tools that reveal how dark matter bends light. The dataset (1.7 million GB) covers several percent of the sky and lists 900 million galaxies and 60 million quasars. UBC-affiliated researchers and doctoral students took active roles in machine-learning classification, citizen-science vetting and follow-up verification with other telescopes, highlighting student involvement in large-scale space science.
Read the original story · Université de la Colombie-Britannique — https://news.ubc.ca/2026/11/dark-matter-hunting-satellite-reveals-record-number-of-cosmic-magnifying-glasses/