De-iced Euclid space telescope regains sight

The Euclid space telescope can see clearly again after a de-icing operation went better than expected, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Tuesday. Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here. A week ago, ESA announced that a wafer-thin layer of ice on the telescope's optics was causing problems. This affected the "Visible Instrument" measuring device, parts of which were developed in Switzerland. + Humans on Mars: possible or pipe dream? According to ESA, the researchers spent months working on a procedure to get rid of the ice without damaging the telescope. De-icing a telescope around 1.5 million kilometres from Earth was no easy task. In the end, individual parts of the spacecraft were heated using the on-board heaters. It would have been easier to heat the entire spacecraft to free it from frozen water. However, according to ESA, this would have entailed the risk of important components expanding and not returning exactly to their original shape. + "We ...