Euclid Telescope Reveals How Galaxies Change Their Shape Over Time

By Space.Fan Editorial DeskSeptember 24, 2026 at 4:00 AM UTC

New data from the Euclid mission shows that galaxies transform their outer edges as they grow older.

Image · Space.Fan

The Drop

Scientists used the Euclid space telescope to look at nearly 9,000 spiral galaxies. They were interested in the edges of these galaxies, specifically looking for what they call disc breaks. These are changes in how bright a galaxy looks as you move from the center toward the outer rim. By studying these patterns, researchers can learn how galaxies are built and how they grow. Before this mission, it was very hard to get clear enough pictures of distant galaxies to see these fine details. Euclid's special camera provides the depth and resolution needed to study these structures in galaxies that are billions of s away. The team created a computer program that automatically sorted these galaxies into different shapes based on their brightness. This allowed them to analyze a large sample of galaxies across a long period of cosmic time, reaching back about 5 billion years into the past.

Why It Matters

This study is important because it shows us that galaxies are not finished products. They change their structure as they get older. The research suggests that when a galaxy is young, it might be affected by its environment, like nearby neighbors pulling on it. As a galaxy gets older and more mature, it tends to follow its own internal path of growth. This helps scientists map out the life story of galaxies and understand the hidden forces that shape them over billions of years.

The Catch

While the computer program is very fast, it is not perfect. The researchers estimate that their method correctly classifies the galaxy shapes about 70% of the time. This means some galaxies might be labeled incorrectly. The study also focuses on a specific type of galaxy, so these findings might not apply to every single galaxy in the universe.

Put That in Perspective

In the past, scientists were mostly limited to looking at galaxies in our own neighborhood. Euclid has opened a new door by letting us see these changes in galaxies much further away. Future studies will likely look at even more galaxies to see if these patterns hold up across the entire sky.

Source September 24, 2026

P. M. Sanchez-Alarcon, J. Román, S. Comeron, J. H. Knapen, M. Huertas-Company, F. Buitrago, M. Montes, A. S. Borlaff, P. M. Marcum, J. Junais, E. Duran-Camacho, M. N. Le, M. Dunn, H. Dannerbauer

·10.48550/arXiv.2609.26877