The Euclid telescope has successfully launched into space on a mission to understand some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

The €1.4bn (£1.2bn) space telescope was primed to go up on a Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday.

The launch is part of a mission that will make an immense 3D map of the cosmos in a bid to better understand so-called dark matter and dark energy.

Researchers know virtually nothing about these phenomena, which appear to make up the vast majority of the universe.

Although primarily a European Space Agency project, the mission has significant scientific and engineering inputs from the US space agency Nasa.

Euclid will carry out its work from an observing position on the opposite side of our planet to the Sun.