The ESA's Euclid space telescope has captured an unprecedented view of the Milky Way's center, revealing a mosaic of tens of millions of stars in extraordinary detail. This observation, completed in just 26 hours, not only provides a detailed image of the region but also serves as a map of stellar evolution, from dark clouds where stars are born to ancient populations packed into the galactic bulge.

Beyond the visible stars, this dense field of light conceals thousands of exoplanets that cannot be directly observed. Astronomers identify them through gravitational microlensing, a technique that measures tiny, temporary changes in light as one star passes in front of another. This method allows for the detection of planets and even the estimation of their masses based solely on their gravitational effects.

Although Euclid was primarily designed to investigate dark matter and dark energy, its capabilities are opening a new window into exploring our own galaxy and the unseen worlds within it. This ability to detect exoplanets via gravitational microlensing in such a dense stellar region underscores the telescope's versatility and its potential to significantly contribute to exoplanetology, in addition to its primary cosmological objectives.